42 COMMENTS

  1. A lovely example of solid democratic liberal rule for 40 years. Build a wall around Detroit and check for wanted felons at the door.

  2. Jesus Christ, was that actually gun fire? I dismissed it as fireworks at the beginning but towards the end of the video I imagine it’s what Fallujah sounded like. No private citizen would ever need an assault rifle, my ass. No, you need an APC filled with assault rifles and a remote controlled M2 mounted on top.

    • I am from Detroit originally. Those were actual gunshots. It is a tradition to shoot guns on New Year’s and start fires the day before Halloween (Devil’s Night – where they average about 500 fires alone).

  3. Maybe those sounds were firecrackers celebrating NYE, hard to tell. I can see some pretty good political adds for 2012 in the Detroit situation. “DETROIT, it’s not just a city, it’s what we’ve been waiting for!”.

  4. I’ve deleted all comments regarding race from this thread. And will continue to do so. While the subject is perfectly valid for discussion, it’s a major digression. Yes, TTAG allows digressions, but this one will devolve into a flame war and the main points were covered in a previous post on the topic.

  5. “Detroit Really Is a S***hole”
    —–
    I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

  6. Those noises were clearly semi automatic gunfire. And they think rednecks in Alabam’ are the only one’s doing this. When the flags come down Detroit will be like the city-prison in Escape from New York.

  7. At one time Detroit was the center of industry, a city of 2 million people that powered the war effort, made products for the world, and counted among it’s residents the richest men in America.
    Now it’s a monument to failure.

    • That actually raises a question I had earlier. I’m fuzzy on the details but when RoboCop was made in the 80’s was Detroit a Sh!thole or was the movie prophetic about the fall?

      • It wasn’t nearly as bad. There were still a lot of manufacturing sites open within the city limits that are now gone. It wasn’t blighted, it was a hardened manufacturing based city with ‘white flight’ to the suburbs. There are still a lot of good communities (fighting to hold on) within the city limits, but there are far too many vacant/blighted homes (that just wreck neighborhoods) to reasonably deal with.

  8. The same thing happens in New Orleans on NYE. Where that ambulance was located may as well be a rural setting due to the low population density and urban ‘prairie.’ How many of the commentariat go outside and practice their marksmanship in their back yard? Sure, it’s not a very good comparison (due to lack of gun safety/respect). The difference between the two locations is that one is blighted and the other is your property.The city is a result of the social migration of the poor post-civil war south, race riots in the 60’s, hallowing out of manufacturing jobs and the resulting failing infrastructure. Mayor Bing has showed some great leadership in some of his aggressive approaches to the blight. In order to curb what you see in the video, you first need to attack the problem.

    • Same could be said for rural upstate South Carolina as I heard gunshots there on NYE 2009. And I cannot comment on NOLA and should not have drawn that parallel (knowing it would lead to this) as I’m not where close to knowing anything about that city sans I was there and heard gun shots from a very diverse (but probably mostly white) crowd on Bourbon street in NYE 2008.

  9. Most racialists identify a corollary – in this case race – and assume it is causation. Communities of any racial makeup can be successful and thrive if they follow relatively simple steps – value and get education, work hard, respect the law, value independence, thrift, value family .etc.

    The Democratic party -in my opinion – has as its base philosophy a philosophy of governance that runs counter to all of these values. Detroit is a Democrat town, and has been since the New Deal. I think Democrat policies have become more leftist over time, exacerbating the problem.

    Bad people of any race will flourish if politicians are willing to pander and plunder rather than support lawful conduct. Given that the 40% of the population will vote reliably for Leftist policies by voting for Leftist politicians, bad governance is a problem that transcends race.

  10. Who in the H – E – double hockey sticks was shooting?
    Is that really normal there?
    No police? Really?

    • Gunfire is so bad there on July 4 and New Years the cops stay in the shadows until it stops. It sounds like a war zone or maybe Arab wedding… Around the block from me I heard full-auto fire. About 6 years ago the gunfire was so intense around my neighborhood it genuinely sounded like a full on firefight.

      • In the center urban area of Fort Wayne, the same thing more or less happens. A roofing crew resealed a factory in the center of town and there was a lot of bullet holes in it.

  11. I lived in Detroit for nearly fifty years. Shthole sums it up. Moved to the ‘burbs three years ago. You wouldn’t believe what goes on there unless you lived there. I think I was the last cracker in about a five mile radius of my ‘hood. Go to myfoxdetroit.com and check out LeDuff’s many investigative reports to see what I mean.

  12. And to think all the money they wasted on idiotic gun buybacks could have been used to maintain those broken down ambulances.

    New Years gunfire in South Phoenix used to like a goddam war zone. I remember spending New Years of ’92 in South Phoenix and it was unreal. Neighbor to the left cranking out mag after mag from his Beretta 92, neighbor to the right ripping through 12 gauge shells like they had an expiration date and the rest of the neighborhood following suit. Serious crackdowns and jail terms have made New Years a “firecrackers only” event now.

  13. Detroit is the poster child for American de-industrialization. Insane neo liberal trade and tax policies have decimated the Rust Belt, and Detroit is the epicenter. It was once an economic and cultural powerhouse, where a skilled union worker could live the American dream. Blacks escaping the Jim Crow South (please don’t delete me RF) found decent jobs and dignity. An explosion of Motown musical innovation ensued. I’m not saying it was paradise, but it was quite a city. I’ve never been there, but I’d like to see it now, as sad as it may be. I think the rebirth of urban agriculture and even aquaculture there is fascinating – just the kind of bootstrap self-sufficiency many on this site espouse. The way things are going, our whole country may be like Detroit before long.

    BTW, the shooting your gun in the air thing is popular in Houston, as well. A friend of mine found a flattened bullet outside his office door once. Not good. What goes up….

  14. I live in south Warren. Less than 2 miles from 8 mile. Those are gun shots. The gunfire on NYE starts around 10pm, and ends around 3am.

    My brothers are DPD. The Detroit police “retreat” to their precincts on NYE around 11 or so. They come under too much fire. Even the police buildings take fire.

    The thing about Detroit that most people don’t realize is that it is empty. 2 million or so people have left the place over the last 50 years. Mostly a ghost town. Reasonably safe in most places…as it is empty. Just don’t deal drugs. Or use drugs. Or be around people that use or deal drugs. Or be their neighbors.

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