Detroit thread. Post Kwame, Monica, and $1 houses here.

[Jaron]

This is what happens when niggers get involved in government.

Would ANYONE be shocked if this was happening in Nairobi? Or Capetown?

No?

No one at all?

(Jaron listens to the echo of his own voice and his jaw drops to the ground *_* )

I rest my case. This is black government in what was once one of the proudest AMERICAN cities on the continent.

What a paradox though that one of the foulest and blackest cities in the Union has one of the best hockey teams. I wonder where those guys live. Canada?

[Savonarola]

 

That was an impostor, not Dearing, chatting with us

By BARB ARRIGO
FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER

Jai-Lee Dearing did an end-run on us, I'm sorry to say.

As I'm sure most of you know, we're doing live chats with candidates for council and the charter commission. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, we can connect with them wherever they are. They do not have to come to the Free Press.

Yesterday, when "Jai-Lee Dearing" was live-chatting with Free Press Editorial and Opinion Editor Stephen Henderson (who is out of the office today, which puts me in the chat seat), Dearing was also live on WCHB with two other council candidates. When challenged about it during the chat, this was the response:

12:19 Jai-Lee Dearing: I have a member of my staff in the studio typing for me

12:19 From Jai-Lee Dearing: and I am approving these answers before they come to you

The cohosts of the radio program, Angelo Henderson and Tracy Henry, have been very clear that no one was showing anything to Mr. Dearing during the broadcast. So I called Michael Carroll, Dearing's campaign manager, and Carroll said that he was, in fact, the one doing the chat with us but that "Jai-Lee and I are of one mind. They're his answers."

Carroll apologized during our phone conversation and said, "It was not our idea to mislead anyone," that Dearing has answered all these questions before, and that not only is Dearing on top of everything happening in Detroit, but he's also got a campaign staff that takes it all seriously, too.

We have told candidates that they may want to have someone with them to help them keep track of the questions, which tend to come in fast, and/or to type what they dictate if they're very slow on the keyboard. Now, unfortunately, we've had to add that if a campaign staffer is doing the chat, the staffer will have to sign in under his or her own name, which is what Mike Carroll should have done, and now concedes.

I know campaigns are high pressure. Carroll said he did not expect the radio show to run as long as it did, but I think we could have done some rescheduling on our end, if necessary. At the least, we would like to have known what was going on, and Carroll should have had better sense than to imply, when challenged, that Dearing was approving each answer.

Anyway, that's what I know as of now. We think the chats provide a useful perspective, with allowance for the fact that not everyone is a keyboard/computer whiz and that some people are bound to have computer problems. That, however, was not the issue yesterday!

Sounds like the perfect man for the job.

[Savonarola]

Rape evidence shelved?
Worthy troubled over how Detroit police handling sex assault kits
BY JOE SWICKARD and CHRIS CHRISTOFF
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy wants an independent investigation into what she says may be thousands of kits holding evidence of possible sexual assaults that were found in a Detroit Police Department evidence storage facility.

In a Sept. 8 letter to Police Chief Warren Evans, Worthy said there may be more than 10,000 so-called rape kits and hundreds of other pieces of evidence warehoused, unanalyzed, in a police "overflow property room." The situation raises fears that cases could be affected if the evidence is challenged in court, Worthy said.

Police spokesman John Roach said Monday that Evans has an internal investigation under way, and that so far, police have found no mishandling of evidence and no cases that have been tainted. Roach also said the evidence is secure.

But Worthy contends in her letter that though the issue predates Evans' administration, the investigation should be handled by an outside agency. Worthy's letter also asks for an immediate meeting, but none has been set.

The police crime lab was shut down a year ago because of an extraordinarily high error rate in firearms cases.

William Winters III, president of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association, said it may be time for federal authorities to look into the lab and the handling of evidence. "They have the money and resources," he said.

Worthy wants an outsider to conduct police evidence probe

The discredited Detroit Police Department crime lab continues to haunt the criminal justice system a year after it was closed because of errors and mishandled evidence.


Officials have to act decisively to assess thousands of sexual-assault evidence kits found in an evidence facility, and it's going to take an outsider to do it, Worthy told Evans in an urgent letter sent this month.

The problems that closed the police lab "have already raised too many issues within the courts with how evidence has been processed and tested," Worthy wrote in the Sept. 8 letter.

She called the evidence handling "alarming." Worthy's spokesman, Jack Fennessey, said Friday that she was stunned by the reports. He did not return calls Monday.

But Detroit police spokesman John Roach said that, so far, the department's preliminary investigation shows the kits include ones "already processed for criminal investigations, as well as a large number of kits that never required processing because the cases were resolved without the need for DNA evidence."

Those unprocessed kits include cases in which a person didn't want to pursue the charges or the prosecutor declined to issue a warrant, he said. Other cases ended with a plea or involved assaults that would not have left DNA, Roach said.

Boxes of evidence found

Worthy's letter, however, offered a grimmer view, of an evidence room that to her "understanding," was filled with sexual-assault evidence kits, known as rape kits, and other evidence that had not yet been analyzed. The problems have been worsened by the destruction of other, unspecified evidence that needed to be retested because of "the sub par work conducted by the lab," Worthy added in her letter.

Boxes of rape kits were found in an evidence room several weeks ago during a routine inspection of police facilities by Michigan State Police.

The evidence warehouse also had hundreds of other pieces of evidence and case files, some of which, Worthy wrote, is "unmarked and not catalogued in any intelligible way."

If any of the kits are used in court, they are open to challenge "on a number of levels, and my office needs to know the clear gravity of this situation," Worthy wrote.

Roach said the internal probe was under way before Worthy's letter. "Once the internal affairs report is finalized, the chief will determine whether an outside review is necessary, and he will share our findings with the prosecutor," Roach said Monday.

He said judgment should be withheld until the investigation is concluded, and the department "takes sexual assaults very seriously and is committed to making sure all evidence is handled appropriately."

The lab was closed last year after an audit found an error rate of 10% in firearms cases. The entire lab was shut down out of fear the slipshod practices extended to other testing.

Detroit reported 1,264 rapes from 2006 through 2008, according to the latest FBI statistics released last week.

Bigger than just Michigan

Worthy acknowledged that any problems with the rape kits existed before Evans was tapped as police chief, but she said in her letter that an outside agency should lead any investigation. Without independent eyes, the situation "is a huge problem for us, the bench and other parties in the criminal justice system," she wrote.

State Police spokeswoman Shannon Akans said Monday that it's up to the Detroit Police Department to request an audit. No request has been made.

"We don't know how many of the kits were analyzed or not analyzed," Akans said.

Worthy also raised questions in her letter about the department's practices in entering information in rape and other criminal cases into a national DNA databank.

William Winters III, president of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association, said Worthy's concerns are justified, given the lab's history and the implications for the national databank. "This can affect the whole country," Winters said.

[Savonarola]

Kilpatrick seeks payment delay
Former mayor claims plea deal allows him to halt restitution payments until 2013
Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Kwame Kilpatrick wants to make no monthly payments for five years.

That was the deal, claims the lawyer for the ousted former mayor. Kilpatrick agreed to pay $1 million restitution and wants to be left alone until the bill comes due Oct. 28, 2013.

"We have objected to the monthly amount because it violates the original plea agreement," Kilpatrick's lawyer Michael Alan Schwartz said Friday.

Meanwhile, copies of Kilpatrick's pay stubs show his monthly pay as a salesman for Compuware subsidiary Covisint has fallen from $20,000 to $10,000 a month.

"I've heard that people don't like the way he's living. He's got a nice house and a nice car," Schwartz said. "It comes down to how people want the man to suffer, and we don't see that happening. That's not how the justice system is supposed to work."

The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected Kilpatrick's argument Thursday for lack of merit. Schwartz has said his client is considering an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Kilpatrick made a bargain last year to resign as mayor, serve jail time, give up his law license, pay $1 million and not seek elected office during five years of probation. He pleaded guilty to felony counts of obstruction of justice and assault on an officer in exchange for avoiding trial on charges related to the text message scandal that carried potential sentences of up to 15 years.

Monthly payments of 30 percent of Kilpatrick's income were imposed in March by Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner. Kilpatrick paid $6,000 per month until he sent $3,000 from his Texas home Wednesday, claiming he has stopped receiving advances on anticipated commissions and bonuses.

"The deal was the deal whether you like it or not," Schwartz said. "When you give your word that is your bond. Mr. Kilpatrick pleaded guilty expecting the deal was as it was presented."

However, the Michigan Department of Corrections said waiting until the close of a probationary period before trying to collect restitution would be highly unusual. Judges statewide set monthly payments, said Russell Marlan, spokesman for the prison system.

"We like to see progress. There may be all the great intentions in the world to come in and pay it at the last minute, but we don't like to leave it to that."

The expectation always has been that Kilpatrick will make some additional payments beyond the monthly amount. Even if Kilpatrick were to continue paying $6,000 a month, the city is going to be left more than $500,000 short.

Schwartz said he provided the judge copies of Kilpatrick's most recent twice-monthly pay stubs. Copies obtained by The News show Kilpatrick was paid $5,000 for the two-week period ending Aug. 31, and $5,000 for the period ending Sept. 15.

An additional $60,000 in pay advances is listed on the pay slips. In six months, Kilpatrick has earned $72,000 in base pay plus advances for a total of $132,000.

Schwartz said Kilpatrick has yet to close any sales so he is obligated to repay his advances.

I can't imagine why anyone would want Kwame to suffer punishment for his crimes; that's not at all how the justice system works for the wealthy and privledged.

[Savonarola]

What happened to the Detroit I used to know and almost tolerate?   

Detroit council to debate crackdown on strip clubs
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The City Council will debate a possible crackdown on the city's 33 topless bars today, including a ban on lap dances and VIP rooms, that one owner calls "un-American."

The changes could keep topless dancers six feet away from customers, on stages at least 18 inches high and in rooms of at least 600 square feet. That would make tipping dancers difficult and eliminate VIP rooms. Most club employees -- from disc jockeys to dishwashers -- also would have to pass background checks and wouldn't get licenses if they've committed specific crimes, including some drug and sexual offenses.

But that's not all. Some religious groups still are pushing for an alcohol ban and a requirement that dancers wear opaque pasties, despite council members who panned going that drastic earlier this summer.

Strip-club owners are promising to go to court, where the city already is facing about five lawsuits related to its regulation of clubs.

"I feel like I am operating in 1930s Russia," said Rob Katzman, owner of the Toy Chest Bar and Grille. "Why should they dictate what someone else enjoys?"

"We are on a high-speed train headed for millions in litigation."

The crackdown emerged earlier this summer, led by religious and neighborhood groups, who say the clubs bring down the city's property values and increase crime.

"They want to use the city of Detroit as their dumping ground of their bottom-feeding, gutter-living behavior," said Richard Mack, an attorney and member of Perfecting Church. "Then they want to go back to their nice, suburban communities."

"It's a shame that poor people, minority people are always the dumping ground for this."

It's not clear how far the city council -- which is in the midst of an election year -- will go in the crackdown. The meeting is at 2 p.m. in City Council chambers.

"We will hear from both sides and go from there," Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi said Monday.

Mayor Dave Bing didn't have comment on the proposed changes Monday, which he could veto.

The crackdown stems from a court battle in which a federal judge in 2007 struck down Detroit's regulations on where clubs could open and ordered them rewritten. City staffers have recast the laws, but added tougher proposed restrictions elsewhere.

The city has spent $75,000 to get advice from Scott Bergthold, a Tennessee attorney who has worked nationwide to shut clubs down. And it has settled two federal lawsuits involving strip clubs recently for almost $670,000. The clubs say they bring in more than $3 million annually to Detroit in property taxes and fees, and employ nearly 6,700 people.

Larry Kaplan, executive director of ACE of Michigan, the state association of clubs, said they approached the city's law department about a "stipulated injunction," in which the city would hold off on the changes while the clubs challenged their legality in court.

The clubs would agree not to pursue damages. The law department refused, Kaplan said.

Mack said he believes all the proposals are legal. Similar measures were instituted in Grand Rapids, he said.

I like the part about it being un-American.  This country was founded on gentleman's clubs in low income neighborhoods, by golly, and now the Detroit City Council wants to take it all away. 

[charliebear]

Kilpatrick probation fight going to court
Worthy says cutting restitution, failing to turn over pensions are violations
BY M.L. ELRICK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


Months of debate over whether Kwame Kilpatrick violated his probation could be resolved next month, when the former mayor's case returns to court.


Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy forced the issue Wednesday, filing a motion accusing Kilpatrick of violating his probation by cutting his restitution payment in half, failing to turn over his pensions, and ignoring a court order requiring him to disclose information about his personal finances.

"He has flagrantly failed to comply with the term and conditions of his probation and the Orders of this Court," the prosecutor's motion says. The "violations prevent the Court from making an appropriate assessment of his ability to pay the restitution he owes."

Kilpatrick's lawyer Michael Alan Schwartz has said the ex-Detroit mayor properly reduced his monthly restitution payments from $6,000 to $3,000 because his pay dropped by 50%.

Schwartz did not return a phone call Wednesday.

Kilpatrick agreed to pay the City of Detroit $1 million in restitution as part of his guilty plea to two felony charges stemming from the text message scandal. He also served 100 days in jail.

Worthy: Kilpatrick must fork over more
One week after Kilpatrick cut his restitution payments in half, Worthy urged a judge to order the ex-mayor to increase his restitution payment, arguing that Kilpatrick's failure to disclose his assets is a "flagrant and willful" violation of his probation.


The matter is set to go before Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner on Oct. 28.


Kilpatrick attorney Michael Alan Schwartz did not respond to calls seeking comment.


In a motion filed Wednesday, Worthy says Kilpatrick has failed to comply with an order Groner issued earlier this year requiring Kilpatrick to report not only his income, but gifts worth more than $100 that he has received, his wife's assets and any assets being held for him by anyone else. Worthy also says Kilpatrick has not turned over his pensions or a bond he posted, as required by his plea deal with the prosecutor when he pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice stemming from the text message scandal.


The prosecutor's motion says Kilpatrick "has not made a good faith effort to pay the restitution he owes."


Worthy also cites comments that Schwartz, the Kilpatrick attorney, made earlier this month to the Free Press in which he said that someone other than Kilpatrick was paying the rent on his large home in upscale Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Schwartz declined to reveal who was making those payments.


"Clearly, when an unknown third party pays the cost for" Kilpatrick "to live in a million-dollar mansion in a gated community, this is benefit or gift worth more than $100," the prosecutor's brief said.


Schwartz also said Kilpatrick was complying with the terms of his probation. When the ex-mayor reduced his monthly restitution payment from $6,000 to $3,000 earlier this month, Schwartz said that was proper because Kilpatrick's pay dropped by 50%. He noted that Groner's order last March required Kilpatrick to pay 30% restitution each month and not a specific dollar figure.


Kilpatrick is a salesman for Covisint, a subsidiary of Compuware, which pays him a base salary of $10,000 a month. His office is near Dallas. The additional payments of $10,000 a month Kilpatrick had been receiving as an advance ended last month.


Still, Worthy said Kilpatrick should have received Groner's approval before unilaterally lowering his restitution payment.


Kilpatrick agreed to pay the City of Detroit $1 million in restitution as part of his plea deal last year to resolve criminal charges stemming from the text message scandal. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of obstructing justice and served 100 days in jail.


Schwartz has previously argued that Kilpatrick's monthly expenses have left the ex-mayor with only $6 left over at the end of each month.


He said Kilpatrick should not have to make monthly restitution payments. He said Kilpatrick's only obligation should be to pay the $1 million by the end of his 5-year probationary period.


After Groner rejected Kilpatrick's bid to end his monthly restitution payments in March, Schwartz took his case to the Michigan Court of Appeals.


That court rejected his bid last week.

If you or I tried to pull these shenanigans, we'd be behind bars. 

I like how the Kwam-ster's lawyer says he doesn't have to make monthly payments as long as he pays the $1million in five years.  By paying $6 a month?


http://freep.com/article/20090924/NEWS01/909240422/1318/Worthy--Kilpatrick-must-fork-over-more-cash-to-city&template=fullarticle

[charliebear]

Here's a summary for those playing along:

Kilpatrick's repayment to city has been bumpy ride


Just how former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will pay the city $1 million in restitution has been a controversial matter. A summary of the legal twists:



-- Sept. 4, 2008: Kilpatrick pleads guilty to two felonies in the text message scandal. He is sentenced to 120 days in jail and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution by the time his probation is up in 5 years.



-- March 10: Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner orders Kilpatrick to pay 30% of his salary from his sales job at Covisint, a subsidiary of Compuware, amounting to $6,000 a month. He also is ordered to disclose his assets, those of his wife and any gifts he receives worth more than $100.



-- March 24: Kilpatrick files a motion seeking a change in Groner's restitution terms. He says he has only $6 of his $10,000 monthly salary left over after expenses.



-- May 8: Judge rules against Kilpatrick, says he needs a full picture of Kilpatrick's financial resources to assess what he can pay. Groner notes that Kilpatrick apparently did not pay the upfront costs of his family's leased home in a tony Dallas suburb or gifts of private airline travel and a new Cadillac Escalade.



-- May 29: Kilpatrick appeals Groner's ruling.



-- Sept. 4: Kilpatrick lawyer Michael Alan Schwartz notifies Groner that the ex-mayor henceforth will pay only $3,000 a month in restitution because he is no longer getting advances, effectively cutting his Covisint pay in half.



-- Sept. 8: Groner tells Kilpatrick he first needs to file court papers and produce documentation of his drop in pay. At that point, the judge will decide if the payments should be reduced.



-- Sept. 15: Schwartz replies that his client doesn't need the judge's blessing. Kilpatrick then sends $3,000 to city.



-- Sept. 17: Michigan Court of Appeals denies Kilpatrick appeal.



-- Wednesday: Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy accuses Kilpatrick of "flagrantly" violating probation by lowering his payment; not fully detailing his and his wife's assets or disclosing whether anyone else is holding assets for him, and by not turning over bond and pension money as required.

http://freep.com/article/20090924/NEWS01/909240422/1318/Worthy--Kilpatrick-must-fork-over-more-cash-to-city&template=fullarticle

I kind of like the "I only have $6 left over" defense.  Think that'll work for me?

[Savonarola]

Yet another fine example of how the Detroit Public School System worked prior to state control:

Inquiry shows DPS overpaid millions in real estate deals
Bobb demands answers after investigation raises questions
Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News

Detroit Public Schools overspent millions in taxpayer money in purchases related to the Fisher Building, Cass Technical High School and the Detroit School of Arts, according to an investigation by the district's inspector general.

The findings indicate in several cases that instead of DPS buying the land directly, the property passed through the hands of other agents at considerable markup -- up to seven times its value.

The deals, occurring during a state takeover of the district, were made possible with funds from a $1.5 billion bond issue that voters approved in 1994 as part of a plan to fix dilapidated schools and build more than a dozen others.

  Investigators have found "a gross lack of due diligence in looking after taxpayers' dollars," said inspector general John Bell, a former FBI official who conducted the investigation. Bell indicated that questions remain as to who benefited from the business deals.

Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb is seeking those answers before November, when he's asking voters to approve a new $500 million bond proposal. He'll conduct evidentiary hearings next month.

Among the findings, the investigation shows that DPS:

• Bought five floors of the Fisher Building in 2002 for the new district headquarters for $24.1 million, from a company that in 2001 paid $21.7 million for the whole building.

• Paid $5.6 million for properties for the new Cass Tech and Detroit School of Arts in 2001 and 2002 when the city had appraised the land at $812,800.

• Spent $11.9 million for a property in March 2003 that less than two years earlier was sold for $1.3 million. The buildings on that property, 1425 E. Warren, house the district's support services complex.

• Paid $114.9 million, or $286 per square foot, for the construction of the new Cass Tech High in 2004, well above the state average, DPS noted.

• Spent $13 million upfront for a 99-year lease of property from the city of Detroit. DPS spent nearly $100 million to build Brenda Scott Middle School, Heilmann Elementary and Heilmann Middle schools on the properties. The city will own the schools at the expiration of the lease agreement.

• Paid $121.8 million, or $399 per square foot, for the construction of the Detroit School of Arts in 2004. The district also paid $3.8 million for 200 additional parking spaces that were never used by the school.

In an interview Wednesday, Bobb said he plans to call key witnesses in these deals to testify in unprecedented hearings allowed under the state emergency financial manager statute.

Farbman Group, a Southfield-based real estate firm, is related to several of the transactions, DPS officials say, and representatives could be called as witnesses.

For the land purchases, DPS hired an agent, Interior Systems Inc. of Washington, D.C., to negotiate the best deal, which would have been protocol, experts said.

However, instead of DPS signing all the papers on closing day, the land that now houses the new Cass Tech and the Detroit School of Arts passed through the hands of several agents.

"At some of these properties, the school district instructed ISI to insert another purchaser in there, which in this case was Detroit Property Acquisition -- a Farbman company," Bell said his investigation found. "The net result of that is the price continued to skyrocket in terms of what the district ultimately paid."

In one deal, two parcels valued at about $57,000 were bought by Detroit Property Acquisition for $550,000 and sold immediately to ISI for $701,500. DPS' final purchase price was $743,000 the same day.

"The more we delve into these contracts, the more we just end up shaking our heads," Bell said.

"We come up with more questions than answers. ... How did this happen? Why was this allowed to happen?"

Kenneth Burnley, the CEO of the district between 2000-05, declined comment Wednesday, but said moving DPS headquarters to the Fisher Building was heralded at the time and he has no reason to think differently now.

"It was felt to be a positive for the community," Burnley said. Then-Gov. John Engler, who oversaw the state takeover of the Detroit district, did not respond to a request for comment. And Farbman Group didn't provide further explanation for the real estate deals.

"Farbman Group maintains a positive working relationship with Detroit Public Schools," Michael Layne, a Farbman Group spokesman, said in a statement.

"We maintain an open dialogue and a spirit of cooperation with DPS and always welcome the opportunity to discuss any transactions directly with management."

Investigators haven't been able to indentify any ties between DPS leaders and the main benefactors of these deals.

"Everything you see, you say there must be a relationship," said Diana Sobczak, the DPS deputy inspector general who works with Bell.

"But we can't tie it."

The inspector general's team also questioned the amount paid in project management costs to the group that oversaw the $1.5 billion bond projects.

In anticipation of the bond work, six companies united to form DPS PMT LLC to manage the project. They are Barton Malow, CTE Engineers Inc., Jomar Building Co., Spillis Candela DMJM, W-3 Construction, and A-MAC, according to DPS.

They received nearly $156.2 million in program management fees, that experts said should have been more in the $15 million range. Bobb said he is pursuing the issue so the district can move forward. All who were involved in these deals will be asked to appear as witnesses, he said. Others with information are encouraged to step forward, he added.

Bell said, "There's no criminal penalty for stupidity, but if you can prove a quid-pro-quo, then that's a different story. We want to take this as far as we can take it. And we'll take it wherever it goes."

[MadImmortalMan]

That's gotta be deliberate. These are payouts.

[Valmy]

That's gotta be deliberate. These are payouts.

Yep that is classic Tammany Hall sorta stuff.

[Savonarola]

That's gotta be deliberate. These are payouts.

I would think so too; there are so many, they're so blatant and the school system has a history of corruption.  Proving that will be difficult, though, since the system kept such poor records.

[Savonarola]

Detroit News "Living in the D" blogger Dianae McNary learns a valuable lesson about life in the city:

Here's one reason there's so much garbage on the streets

I was out this weekend, thinking about a follow-up post to my last one about food availability in Detroit and realizing it was a bigger story than an occasional slice-of-life blogger could tackle, when something else happened that left me shaken. It was the kind of encounter that made me ask, yet again, what's wrong with this town? Or maybe, what's wrong with me?

I'll try my best to tell it straight and refrain from editorializing, because I'd like to hear some thoughts. I can share my own later.

Walking to a neighborhood fish market, I was disgusted by the amount of trash blowing around. Sometimes I'll bring a bag along and pick up as much as I can, and I hadn't this time, but I could've been out there all day. It was too much for any one person. Besides, I thought, doesn't it feel futile sometimes? Every few months, there are organized cleanups, then the knuckleheads come along and turn the streets into open dumps all over again. Volunteers - or "society," as some would say - pick up the trash, then more appears. Rinse and repeat.

While I was pondering this, two men walked up to a truck parked in front of me, and the one on the passenger side got in, chucked a pop can onto the sidewalk near my feet and closed the door.

No you didn't, I thought.

What happened next was entirely preventable and I'll never do it again.

I picked up the can, went over and tapped on the window, and said, "I think you dropped something."

"Huh?" he said, rolling down the window about six inches.

"I think you dropped something," I said, offering the can back to him through the window.

"Huh?"

"Is this yours?"

"Yeah."

"And you need to throw it away?"

"I did."

"No, you threw it on the sidewalk. You meant to throw it in a trash can, right?"

"Huh?" He made no effort to take the can back though it was well inside the window and in front of his face.

"This is yours and it belongs in a trash can," I said, dropping it into his lap and walking away.

Like a switch had been flipped, he went from dazed to a raging bull. He let out a stream of expletives and threw the can as hard as he could toward my back. It missed and I bent over and picked it up.

"OK, I'll throw it in the trash for you," I said as I turned away while he continued to verbally assault me.

As I walked away, a glass bottle flew by me, shattering on a wall, and the man's yelling became louder and more threatening. I turned around, and, careful not to raise my voice, said, "I said I'd throw it in the trash for you."

He was out of the truck, stomping toward me as the driver warned him to stop.

"Nah, I'm fitting to f*** this b**** up!" the very large, very angry man yelled as he advanced toward me. I kept walking, expecting to be knocked to the ground from behind, wishing I'd worn my ugly sunglasses with the rear-view mirrors, saying my prayers.

For whatever reason - maybe he listened to his friend or maybe he realized an assault on a woman on a busy street was a bad idea - he retreated to the truck. The fish market - where I was headed in the first place - was on the next block and I got inside before I heard the truck starting up.

With my heart beating like a bass drum, I bought some fish and walked back home.

[HVC]

Detroit News "Living in the D" blogger Dianae McNary learns a valuable lesson about life in the city:

Don't be a bitch?

[Neil]

Detroit News "Living in the D" blogger Dianae McNary learns a valuable lesson about life in the city:

Don't be a bitch?

Wrong.  Don't take pride in your city, when that city is Detroit.

[Admiral Yi]

Don't be a bitch?

Are you serious?