Business As Usual [[Shooting and Mayhem) in Greektown.

[K-slice]

As a 20 something, living downtown, I like to drink and have fun on the weekends. However, even I try to avoid going into Greektown unless I know right where I'm going or am part of a larger group.

The people who have pointed out the crowd in this area is very thugish are correct. Many seem to be at the intersection of something to prove and nothing to lose just looking to start a fight. I have no doubt that the casino is why many of them choose to congregate in this area. Motor City and MGM don't have any place like Monroe street to congregate right outside their doors and casino security certainly wouldn't put up with some of the behavior I see out on the street.

Right now the area is dominated by the casino but perhaps when the jail site and old DPD headquarters projects take shape we will see more residential come into the area which would certainly help.

[masterblaster]

[QUOTE=K-slice;554053]The people who have pointed out the crowd in this area is very thugish are correct. Many seem to be at the intersection of something to prove and nothing to lose just looking to start a fight. I have no doubt that the casino is why many of them choose to congregate in this area. Motor City and MGM don't have any place like Monroe street to congregate right outside their doors and casino security certainly wouldn't put up with some of the behavior I see out on the street.
[\QUOTE]

Why would thugs want to congregate near a casino? Why would a casino attract thugs? If you go into the Greektown casino, you don't see a whole bunch of thugs.

[Honky Tonk]

Why would thugs want to congregate near a casino? Why would a casino attract thugs? If you go into the Greektown casino, you don't see a whole bunch of thugs.

I don't know...... They always seem to take my money.

[softailrider]

I’m surprised with Gilbert’s presence and his security company, GT is not under more control.

What is his security company going to do? Make the crowd down there hitch up their trousers so their underpants don’t show?

[ABetterDetroit]

There are many bars and dance clubs in the greektown area.

Since liquor was invented and put in a bottle all you need to do is add lots of young men + young women + long hours of drinking = fights and problems will occur.

What I have noticed that nobody else has brought up is the significant increase in police presence in the area on Friday and Saturday nights.
I was just cutting through a couple weeks back a little after midnight on a weekend and there was at least a half a dozen DPD at every intersection for 10 blocks.

I thought it was cool that they could deploy that many officers without any help from the Troopers, Wayne or the Border Patrol unlike just a few short years ago. In my eyes that in-itself is a noticeable improvement for the city.

Let the MSP pour their resources at the football/baseball games and DPD work their own turf. It is a logical strategy.

[bust]

What I have noticed that nobody else has brought up is the significant increase in police presence in the area on Friday and Saturday nights.

I was just cutting through a couple weeks back a little after midnight on a weekend and there was at least a half a dozen DPD at every intersection for 10 blocks.

I thought it was cool that they could deploy that many officers without any help from the Troopers, Wayne or the Border Patrol unlike just a few short years ago. In my eyes that in-itself is a noticeable improvement for the city.

Let the MSP pour their resources at the football/baseball games and DPD work their own turf. It is a logical strategy.

The border patrol has no business in Greektown. Or Lansing. Or Gladwin. Yet our current laws say they do.

https://www.aclu.org/other/constitut...le-border-zone

The local police force are the ones who should be there. And they should be there.

Regarding drugs, be glad it's pot and not something else. Alcohol is probably a bigger problem. I credit the popularization of pot over crack as a huge part of the decrease in crime since its peak [[during the crack epidemic) in the late 80's and early 90's. Take it from someone who witnessed the crack epidemic too close.

Just legalize pot. And heavily control it. And let people eat brownies and gum drops instead of destroying their lungs.

Compare pot vs crack, vs heroin, vs opiods, vs meth, vs PCP, vs all its alternatives and pot is clearly the far lesser evil.

Chinese "synthetic marijuana" / "K2" is no better than bath salts and way worse than pot. It is as dangerous as crack to the user. But crack was worse: it also made its users so much more dangerous to everyone else.

33 Suspected of Overdosing on Synthetic Marijuana in Brooklyn
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/n...-brooklyn.html

Overdoses From ‘Dangerous Batch’ of K2 Grows to 56 in Brooklyn
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/n...-overdose.html

Don't Buy K2 At These Brooklyn Addresses, Police Say
https://patch.com/new-york/bushwick/...ses-police-say

[Zacha341]

^^^ Good GOD! If I smoked weed, I'd grow my own batch. Scary are those synthetics.

[Zacha341]

They have very little purpose otherwise [[casinos). Once in a while they toss you are free meal or room! Been there, done that. Done.

I don't know...... They always seem to take my money.

[SammyS]

The border patrol has no business in Greektown. Or Lansing. Or Gladwin. Yet our current laws say they do.

https://www.aclu.org/other/constitut...le-border-zone

The local police force are the ones who should be there. And they should be there.

Regarding drugs, be glad it's pot and not something else. Alcohol is probably a bigger problem. I credit the popularization of pot over crack as a huge part of the decrease in crime since its peak [[during the crack epidemic) in the late 80's and early 90's. Take it from someone who witnessed the crack epidemic too close.

Just legalize pot. And heavily control it. And let people eat brownies and gum drops instead of destroying their lungs.

Compare pot vs crack, vs heroin, vs opiods, vs meth, vs PCP, vs all its alternatives and pot is clearly the far lesser evil.

Chinese "synthetic marijuana" / "K2" is no better than bath salts and way worse than pot. It is as dangerous as crack to the user. But crack was worse: it also made its users so much more dangerous to everyone else.

33 Suspected of Overdosing on Synthetic Marijuana in Brooklyn
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/n...-brooklyn.html

Overdoses From ‘Dangerous Batch’ of K2 Grows to 56 in Brooklyn
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/n...-overdose.html

Don't Buy K2 At These Brooklyn Addresses, Police Say
https://patch.com/new-york/bushwick/...ses-police-say

Gotta agree with ya here. Was in Boulder Colorado a few months ago. Very chill but also very white. I asked some local friends where all the black people were? They looked at me like I was some prick. So I asked them to take it easy and point one out. Nothing. Hardly any Asians or anyone other than your regular white folks.

[lpg]

^^^ Now that comment's very intolerant - for sure not very progressive......

Yup...…...

[cmubryan]

In my recent experience, I believe that the later it is, the hotter it is outside and weekend night verse not weekend night play into how thuggish and out of control GT gets. Something tells me that a Wednesday night in October would be very different. It was a hot Friday night in August.

BTW..mayhem and shootings were off the hook apparently this past weekend, must have been something in the air, especially in Chicago which had 60+ shootings and 12 people killed!

[Zacha341]

^^^ And yet Chicago has very strict gun laws. Which is having little impact on jerks shooting people!

[Cincinnati_Kid]

^^^ And yet Chicago has very strict gun laws. Which is having little impact on jerks shooting people!

Chicago is out of control. Yet they never are near the top on Forbes most violent cities list. It always seems to be Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis and St Louis.

[Bham1982]

^^^ And yet Chicago has very strict gun laws. Which is having little impact on jerks shooting people!

Chicago is surrounded by jurisdictions which have very lax gun laws. Most guns used in Chicago crimes are from Indiana, which is basically the Wild West in terms of weapons laws.

A jurisdiction, by itself, will not be meaningfully safer through gun regulation, if neighboring jurisdictions are basically free-for-alls. But at least Chicago deserves credit for trying.

Also, Chicago does not have particularly tough gun laws. That's a conservative trope. The same folks always "forget" to mention NYC, which has much tougher gun laws than Chicago, yet the lowest murder rate of any major U.S. city [[and may even have a lower 2018 murder rate than some Canadian and Western European cities).

And even in NYC, almost all guns used in crimes are from nearby free-for-all states like PA.

[401don]

Chicago is out of control. Yet they never are near the top on Forbes most violent cities list. It always seems to be Detroit, New 3, Memphis and St Louis.

That's because Chicago isn't out of control. 3 small horribly crime ridden neighborhoods are out of control.

[ABetterDetroit]

^^^ And yet Chicago has very strict gun laws. Which is having little impact on jerks shooting people!

Yeh and with state lines such a Fortress to stopping illegal contraband it remains a amazing mystery. Wonder if anyone will ever figure out that ‘unsolvable’???

[CassTechGrad]

According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, over 50% of murders occur in 2 percent of the nation’s 3,142 counties. Moreover, gun-related homicides are heavily concentrated in certain neighborhoods within those counties: 54 percent of U.S. counties had zero murders in 2014.
Almost all people involved in gun related crimes fall into these three categories: have extensive histories of mental health issues, involve domestic violence in the family, or are repeat offenders who were raised without the proper parenting to know right from wrong. [[Moral values!)

[Cincinnati_Kid]

That's because Chicago isn't out of control. 3 small horribly crime ridden neighborhoods are out of control.

Ok, if you want to be specific. Fair enough. Outside perception still thinks Chicago as a whole.

[royce]

Greektown really isn't that different from when I was in my 20s in the 1980s. Throngs of young people would gravitate to Monroe Street after the summer ethnic festivals. Even back then there were some physical altercations occurring and young folks being arrested. I can't recall any shootings but the same thug types that hang around GT today are the same that existed back then. Perhaps the difference is that back then they used fists instead of guns.

Young people will find places to hang out after other places they hang out close. Why do you think White Castle's drive-thrus are so crowded after 2 a.m? GT is the last stop for them for the night. They can't hang out on Belle Isle anymore after 11 p.m. They can't hang out on the RiverWalk after 10 p.m. So, what other options do they have? Go to GT early and leave by 11 p.m. and you should have no problems.

Finally, for those who complain about there not being enough Greek restaurants in GT, "How many ways can you cook and season lamb meat?" There's Pegasus and New Parthenon and maybe a few I'm missing, but how many restaurants in a one block area do you really need that serve the same things? I welcome variety. Pizza Papalis and Fishbone's were the first-non Greek restaurants in Greektown that became popular and they're still around. Pappy's, Level One, and Walburgers are some nice places to hang out and eat. Again, I welcome the variety.

[MrMichigan]

Looks like there is construction happening on the former Santorini's roof. Anyone have an idea of what is going on [[rooftop patio maybe)?

[DetroitSoldier]

I dont have any insight, but there is certainly a rooftop patio going in there. I observed workers installing materials yesterday. There is a great view from the International Center across the street.

[401don]

More fun & games:

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...it/1115883001/

[stinkytofu]

Area is such a mess. Whether I'm with local friends or entertaining out-of-towners, I rarely bother to go to Greektown anymore...especially later in the evening. It's not even all that neat of place as is.

[Maof]

Area is such a mess. Whether I'm with local friends or entertaining out-of-towners, I rarely bother to go to Greektown anymore...especially later in the evening. It's not even all that neat of place as is.

Yep, not worth it.

[Zacha341]

Zero interest. Tragic for the victims! Just not a place/ venue I want to deal with anymore.

Sad as I used to go often back even to the days of Stella!