Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
Detroit has (or at least recently had) a huge problem with people getting robbed at gunpoint in gas stations. I would choose walking alone through the Tenderloin at 3am over getting gas at 3am from most gas stations in the city of Detroit.
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Detroit has certainly become too desensitized to crime. Detroit my initial reaction to this statement is to think of how bad things were 10 years ago before the green light program was implemented. In 2014 I would not only avoid getting gas in the city at night if possible but chose avoid late night activities on the border.
Stopping at a gas station 10 years ago meant especially if your white being asked if your looking for a tester or knowing when to just pull off because things didn’t look right. Getting rid of the rampant corruption in the police department got us to 2017 & 2018 when the city first started to hit generation low crime numbers.
Corruption in DPD was blatant and known patrol cars routinely show up at trap houses without making a scene and nothing changes kids getting shot at bus stops. When those two cops robbed people at 94 and French gas station in 2013 there was enough of people being completely fed up and a new administration with a new police chief.
It’s so easy to get jaded with Detroit for anyone who cares with so many chances to stop at what should be the bottom line lost and change looking to be a generational movement if it ever comes. For me things felt real and different when I started seeing yard signs in Redford in 2015-2016 saying something along the lines of Duggan what you can achieve without a corrupt government.
There’s still a long ways to go and the status quo shouldn’t be seen as acceptable but there isn’t the same apathy where your fighting against a rising tide of blight, crime & poor leadership. 10 years ago when all the city’s problems were laid bare in the bankruptcy even the most basic of services broke down like mowing medians keeping up parks and public spaces it shocked and forced stakeholder in and out of the city to action.
We know this story on here pretty well by now what is hard to express are the small changes at community level. Not every part of the city is at the same place the northeast side south of Warren neighborhoods like Nortown are years behind the northwest side. Seeing basic community center improvements such as renovations of historic districts along Outer Drive and 60’s era apartments being renovated.
There is a new coat of give-a-fuck painted over the city. Business especially gas stations and party stores have flashing green lights at night signaling they have modern security cameras and are part of the community - police green light program. There’s still a long ways to go to really truly establishing trust between the community and the police but there’s also an extreme culture of exasperation towards the generations of violence and death.
There’s a sensitivity towards crime that has been absent my whole life certain areas which were magnets for drug dealing have seen drastic changes. Areas like 8 mile and 75 or 8 mile and Southfield have seen blighted homes taken down police going after quality of life complaints for residents who have stuck it out and made neighborhood improvements. Blocks like these where you wouldn’t want to turn down because your likely to run into a block party mid street have the streets cleaned up, speed bumps installed and clumps of homes with new wooden fences and landscaping.
I know that there have been some very controversial measures implemented like shot spotter over by evergreen and 96 I think, Amazon private security working with police at 8 ‘n 75. Most famously Bedrock has been operating a private security center that’s used facial recognition cameras downtown. There hasn’t been a massive pushback or public anger because it seems for the most part because violent crime is targeted while small time stuff like drug use is handled with soft gloves as far as I have heard.
The city is has gained ground in terms of going from being an extreme outlier always near the top for crime standing in most metics to falling into the range of having a bad problem. We can do better and while it’s important to note successes and not let the past get in the way of the future we can and need to do better.
The next couple years will be a real measuring stick for success can the city capitalize on the post Covid assistance to reduce backlogs and continue to reduce crime or will things stagnate. We have systemic problems all across the country at all levels of society and unfortunately getting ahead takes an all hands on deck approach to make big changes. Which means politics will loom large as a pivotal election approaches.
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