[City Council President Pro Tem Gary] Brown, a former deputy chief in the department, said downtown Detroit is the "safest area of any part of the region per capita, according to FBI crime data.
Beyond this point, the crime rate in downtown Detroit is 37 percent less than the national average."
To this, I say:
1. Ha, ha, ha, ha!;
2. When City Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown says, “according to FBI crime data,” he is talking about the Bureau’s Uniform Crime Reports, which are simply what each jurisdiction sends them. Thus, what he is really saying is, “according to fictional Detroit PD crime data, the crime rate in downtown Detroit is 37 percent less than the national average”; and
3. The sarcastic title is because, in spite of the explosion in killings, even for Detroit, the DPD keeps claiming every quarter that “overall,” crime is down.
George Hunter’s article refers to the “citizen watchdog group Detroit 300.” Detroit 300 is a front for the genocidal Nation of Islam, which is seeking to seize power. The official story of Detroit 300 is that it will stop crime. The real story is that the NOI seeks to conscript the city’s street criminals into its own army of crime and genocide.
Due to George Hunter’s refusal to connect the dots, as I easily did, over 1,000 miles away, between Detroit 300 and the Nation of Islam, I suspect him of being an NOI ally.
I did not link to the original article, because I kept getting warnings from Symantec/Norton that the page was unsafe.
Detroit racks up eight killings, 33 shootings in last five days
By George Hunter
May 22, 2012 at 10:57 pm
The Detroit News
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Detroit — Even in one of the most violent cities in the United States, the past five days have been abnormally bloody.
There have been 8 homicides and 33 nonfatal shootings in Detroit over the past five days, and Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee acknowledged today that those numbers are higher than normal.
"We're swimming upstream from a violent crime standpoint," Godbee said. "As quickly as we arrest (criminals), someone commits another crime."
With crime dominating the local headlines and budget cuts looming, the Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown, a former police officer, is suggesting restructuring the city's police department
"As a citizen, I am concerned like you," Brown wrote in an email to the media this morning. "My family lives here, too. My son is raising his family here. Both my daughters also work in the city. But my primary concern stems as to why the police department has not yet restructured."
Brown, a former deputy chief in the department, said downtown Detroit is the "safest area of any part of the region per capita, according to FBI crime data.
Beyond this point, the crime rate in downtown Detroit is 37 percent less than the national average."
"The crime affecting our neighborhoods is fixable," Brown said.
Mayor Dave Bing has proposed slashing the police department's budget 18 percent, or $75 million. The mayor's proposal also calls for 10 percent pay cuts and trimming staff through attrition from about 3,300 to 2,950.
Despite the proposed cuts, Brown insisted the crime problem in the city's neighborhoods isn't impacted by financial and personnel cuts.
"It's about managing the resources," he said. "The department has more than sufficient financial resources and personnel to proactively address crime. We spend more on our police budget than all 10 of the safest American cities of similar size, and we have more officers than nine of the 10 safest cities. DPD is spending resources on the wrong areas, and it's using trained officers behind the desks instead of civilians."
Brown pointed to a recent audit of the police department, commissioned by the Bing administration, which showed only a third of Detroit's trained police officers are patrolling the city.
"Often these patrol officers spend four hours processing paperwork," Brown said. "It is clear, when reviewing this report, that changing work rules, creating efficiencies through technology and placing more officers on the streets will reduce response times.
"Deployment of more police officers in our neighborhoods will reduce response times and greatly improve public safety presence," Brown said. "More officers on the streets visibly deter crime."
Godbee said there are 300 fewer officers now than when he took over as chief two years ago.
"We're doing what we can to put officers on the street," Godbee said during a recent interview with The Detroit News.
Godbee has launched several initiatives to put more officers on patrol, including Inside Out, which redeploys desk officers, and Virtual Precincts, in which the city's precincts are closed after 4 p.m. to free up more officers to patrol.
But Godbee said more police isn't always the answer: "When crimes are happening inside people's homes, how do you police that?"
Godbee has also emphasized community policing. The police department and mayor's office recently implemented a Youth Violence initiative to strengthen the relationship between young people and police.
"It's difficult to investigate crimes when people won't come forward to talk to police," Godbee said.
Northwest Detroit resident Sherry Brown, a social worker, said mentoring programs aren't the answer.
"As a social worker, I hate to say that, but unfortunately, these kids have gotten to the point where mentoring isn't the answer," she said. "We need to be more punitive."
Godbee plans to announce Tuesday afternoon a new community policing pilot program aimed at reducing neighborhood crime. Although details of the initiative were not released, Godbee has scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference with George Kelling, a criminologist and author of the book "Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities."
On Wednesday, another crime-fighting effort is scheduled to be announced.
Godbee is to appear at a press conference with U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, Bishop Edgar Vann and the Rev. Jerome Warfield, who is also a police commissioner, to announce the launch of Detroit Night Walks, an initiative by the faith-based community to recruit citizens to patrol the city's neighborhoods.
Angelo Henderson, co-founder of the citizen watchdog group Detroit 300, which was formed two years ago after senior citizens were assaulted and raped inside their homes, said his group's ranks have swelled because residents are fed up with crime.
"It's unreal what's happening out there in the streets; absolutely unreal," said Henderson, whose group regularly patrols the city. "Crimes are increasing our numbers, but we'd rather live in a safe place and not have to deal with this. But people are looking for options, and they're turning to the Detroit 300."
Sherry Brown, who is not related to Gary Brown, agreed with the former deputy chief that more officers should be in the city's neighborhoods.
"They need to zone off the police districts; Detroit could take one district, Wayne State Police could take one; Wayne County sheriffs could take another, and Michigan State Police could get one," she said. "That way, we'd have police presence throughout the city. Something needs to be done. We need more police, and they need to answer the citizens' calls."
ghunter@detnews.com
(313) 222-2134
[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this article.]
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