Suburban shoppers
Last week, The Detroit News tagged along for two recent undercover police operations: A drug sting and a prostitution operation. During the two-hour prostitution sting on Detroit's east side, six men were arrested. Five were from the suburbs. In the drug sting the findings were no better. There were six buyers in a little over an hour — all but one was from the suburbs. Allie Gross pointed to the findings in an Oct. 6 Metro Times blog post ("Who's buying sex and drugs in Detroit? Suburbanites").
Reader "javierjuanmanuel" wrote:
Just answer me this, would you ever make a headline that was so narrow, on something so broad about another subject? Like headline: "Who commits all the violence in the tri county area? Black males."
That would not pass. Why is this OK? All the drugs are not bought by suburbanites, and not all the sex. Maybe not even a majority.
No doubt they should not be buying any drugs or sex, but there are 700,000 people in Detroit, You think one-third of the burbs every day heads to Detroit to buy more than the local pokels?
Or do you think it might be they stick out if they are pale and in a nice car, and cops can run a plate, and see you are from some area 14 miles away.
I hope that limited sample is not your idea of some sort of science. It's no more indicative of anything than cops in Troy busting a black hit and run, a black drug deal at the mall, and then a black drunk at the bus stop. You could then say all crime in Troy is black people. You would never be OK with that.
User "WWtech" wrote:
I understand the rationale of your comment, but the story isn't "black and white. It's "Detroit and suburbanites." Your making it about race is, well, inaccurate. It may well be white suburbanites — kind of like the constant stream of white guys and gals turning the corner on my mother's street, and stopping at the same house mid-block, while I sat on the porch one summer. Could be that, Detroit, with its 139 square miles of often sparsely-populated and rarely-policed neighborhoods, is an easier place to go for drugs and such.
This article doesn't say that it's all white people, or all suburbanites. It tells a story that those of us who live here have known for many, many years.
Honestly? I think it's designed to silence the constant cackling of Detroit-bashing suburbanites — of which there are far too many.
Mad about Matty
In last week's Politics & Prejudices column, Jack Lessenberry wrote about the details of a deal between then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and billionaire Matty Moroun called the "Master Concession Agreement" whereby the Moroun family was essentially given total control over the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority.
Reader "Edjusyou" wrote:
Only Jack would accuse a businessman who has no doubt created a lot of jobs [of being] a criminal. This has been an ongoing thing for Jack — acting like Moroun is stifling progress and the state's economy by owning an international bridge and paying for everything including the security with his own money.
Reader "Ed" replied:
Yep, sure, Matty has also created jobs in the ugly-as-fuck window industry as he was finally convinced to do something about the train station. Does that make him some kind of hero?
Wait a minute ... Your note is so biased, so void of context, history, and discernment... Is that you, Matty?
Errata: In last week's issue, we incorrectly identified events at 8 Degrees Plato's new Detroit location. There are no in-store tastings at the location; they take place at the Ferndale store. Also, due to a writer error, we got one of the ingredients wrong in the cocktail called the Hemingway at Bumbo's Bar in Hamtramck. It is made with grapefruit, not pineapple.
