Friday Follies...

Welcome to the end of a sweltering week here in the Summit City.
We've one MORE day of this crap to endure, and then showers are supposed to roll in tonight and cool things down a bit...make that a "tad", because tomorrow's high will be in the 80s. Today's high will again reach into the lower 90s with humidity more like that of the 'Nam, in stead of the Midwest of America.
So sit back, relax, keep the A/C cranked up, the chilled beverages close-at-hand while we take a peek into all the other "stuff" that's been happening.
*** First out of the hangar today is the story of a once thriving city that could claim the FIFTH LARGEST in this nation...which is a shadow of it's former self.

It's a city that is BROKE...and we're not just talking financially.
Welcome to DETROIT...

Here's a city that LOST over 1/3 of it's population over the last decade or so, has gang and drug problems out the ass, a police department that takes on average FORTY MINUTES to respond to a call...ANY CALL.
That's if the patrol cruisers aren't breaking down due to AGE...just like the FIRE ENGINES in that city.

Entire neighborhoods look like the aftermath of some post-apocalyptic movie, rather than a city in AMERICA.
In some cases, you have maybe one or two people living on these blocks in these neighborhoods.

THIS is what the result is when you have liberal DEMOCRATIC leadership for such a long time (since 1962), rampant spending on useless crap, a corrupt city government...anyone remember Kwame Kilpatrick? Yeah, the former mayor is IN JAIL, where he belongs, and should have been sent a long time ago.
You can google Detroit and find SO much that has gone wrong with this once thriving hub of automobiles and even music.
With $18 BILLION in debt, and about $1 BIL in take in revenue, you have to wonder HOW it got this way, and which city in OUR nation will be next...because THAT is also coming.

Well, wonder no longer, for HERE is an article that describes in DETAIL regarding TWENTY-FOUR FACTS you need to know about Detroit:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/bankrupt-decaying-and-nearly-dead-24-facts-about-the-city-of-detroit-that-will-shock-you
Pretty scathing read...is it not?

Then there was a sad story from 2009 about an elderly woman, one Marabel Chanin, who died alone in a "ghost" neighborhood after moving there in 1954.
Marabel Chanin died alone, and afraid, because of what her neighborhood had devolved into.
Here's a link to her story as reported by Fox News 2 in Detroit:
This is the beginning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ap5GRopHs
And this is the epilogue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmOKKXFktB8
It's not a story for the faint-of-heart, and might even get you teary-eyed when you watch the videos.
Fortunately, she's in a BETTER place these days, but what she had to endure remains...and that's another reason Detroit is broke.

Many people fled to the suburbs, and took their city TAX money with them (don't they always?) and that left the city with less to do more - a prime recipe for criminal infiltration and expansion. both of which happened immediately, because although the thugs might be STUPID, they're not THAT stupid.

Add a healthy amount of ENTITLEMENTS to the mix, and you can clearly see the pattern that allows a city to become a third-world parcel of land in urban America. This scene is being repeated in L.A., Philly, Atlanta, Chicago, Cincy, Cleveland, and sundry other cities, albeit not as rapidly, thank God.

Here in Fort Wayne, the claims that we're NOWHERE NEAR what Detroit is experiencing might ring true...for now.
But, (take note city leaders) if you DO NOT get a handle on the crime AND the criminal element, and don't "write off" an entire quadrant of OUR city (like other cities have done in the past, with the usual results of this disease spreading outward), and stop allowing the manner of existence some people have chosen, because it's counter to evolution and civil behavior, you WILL become another Detroit.
When your city's TAX BASE begins to erode, due to people (and/or businesses) leaving the immediate area, you have started upon a course you HAVE to reverse ASAP.
And you can only ANNEX SO MUCH surrounding areas.
Perhaps it won't occur this decade...or the next, but it WILL happen, just as surely as the sun rises in the east.
Take heed...and pay attention to the telltale signs.
Moving on...
*** Got some recently-deceased D/Bs around town...

-- Two people were found dead in a burning house on Fort Wayne's (where else?) SOUTHEAST SIDE.

Here's the story link:

http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/Two-dead-in-Fort-Wayne-house-fire

This occurred around 0845 hrs yesterday in the 3200 block of Senate near Hessen Cassel.

Apparently ATF was involved in this investigation along with the FWFD and the FWPD.

Neighbors think is was suspicious that this happened.

Could be arson, or someone trying to cover up a double murder.

(( UPDATE - 1430 HRS: the deaths are listed as a double homicide, as both people found in the burning house had suffered gunshot wounds.
Police believe this to NOT be a random act.
Here's the link:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Fatal-House-Fire-On-Senate-215984771.html
That puts us up to 25 total homicides this year. ))
Nice to know I called that one.
But wait, there's MORE...
-- The second death investigation occurred in the 1700 block of High St. around 1230 hrs yesterday.

Here's the story link:

http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/body-found-on-high-street-mre

A neighbor called into dispatch about a body in a backyard.
The man was pronounced DOA by medics.

It was said he frequently slept off his drunks outside in the yard, so it wasn't that unusual.

It was also said he was in a fight the day before, in the alley behind the house, but this was never called into the FWPD, according to the PIO.
(( Update - 1430 HRS - This death was ALSO ruled a homicide...blunt force trauma to the head. Here's the link:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Man-Found-Dead-Behind-Home-On-High-Street-216024981.html
Had a feeling the fight "may" have caused it, IF he was struck sufficiently hard enough the day before. That makes 26 homicide now, doesn't it?)
In BOTH cases, people ARE on-edge, and deservedly so..
THIS is what you get whenever you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to what goes on.
THIS is what you get when you ALLOW the wrong people into an area and do nothing about it.
THIS is what you get when a community lacks cohesion, a sense of pride, and a willingness to report anything OUT of the ordinary.

And, as is usually the case, some folks WILL move the hell away, turning it OVER to the thugs, or the people that they associate with.
Now, if those decent people move OUT of Fort Wayne altogether, their (city) TAX money goes with them.
See how the pattern of Detroit can be easily woven?
Not a pretty picture of a possible future, is it?
*** Lastly today, I've lived "the adventure" down here for a while now...watched it devolve over time, from a neighborhood where you could play Frisbee in the street with your neighbor and his kids, and be able to sit on your step at night and enjoy the area, into a place where the streets are vacant, except for those mooks walking down the damn MIDDLE of it...a place where speeding vehicles have free reign, and double parking and horn-honking is the norm.
Few if ANY venture along the streets down here after dark, and with good reason - they don't wish to become the next STATISTIC.

The ONLY ones you DO see are people who have a probable (illegal) reason to be out...roaming from one rental crib to another, many with backpacks.
The streets belong to the boomcars - a problem that THIS police department doesn't seem to have ANY interest in stopping (low-priority) , and so we suffer from sleep deprivation...year after year.
Curbside drug deals happen weekly all over the area, certain houses have literally a HUNDRED plus "stop-bys" a month, and never any interest in shutting them down.

Overgrown foliage, tossed out furniture in the alleys, and an overall sense of a LACK of pride by most everyone.

Gunshots daily, burglaries, break-ins and vandalisms on the rise, and NO REAL concern by those in city government.

Now I'm sorry, but NO amount of praying this away will help as much as people would like to believe.
God helps those who help themselves, and that DOESN'T mean helping themselves to other peoples' stuff, either.

Sad thing is, OUR problems (here) are fast becoming the same problems ELSEWHERE in the city...
Crime WILL grow and spread like crabgrass, if left unchecked...that's a fact.

The BROKEN WINDOW THEORY will ALWAYS find a home in neighborhoods like OURS, as long as some people take it upon themselves to promote apathy, lack of civility, respect, and foster self-serving entitlements.

If you don't stop the small things, don't bitch about the BIG things when they happen, because it has been allowed to occur.

And if you never are part of ANY solution TO those issues, you have become part of the PROBLEM...plain and simple.
Whatever the case, let this be your guide this weekend...think on it and pray on it, before it PREYS on you.

DO have yourselves a good weekend.
And, if the Good Lord has anything to say about it, we'll see you on the flip-side.

Be well, make a difference to someone today, and as always...
Stay SAFE out there, America.