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

[Savonarola]

Here most MPs don't have a staff of more than 4. I'd be amazed if any councillor (outside London) had a staff, except maybe the council heads.

Edit: On the other hand from a British perspective it's really weird Detroit only has 9 councillors

Those are patronage positions today (admittedly they probably were back when the city was much larger.)  The last head of the city council, Charles Pugh, had his own spokesman, even though Pugh was a news anchor before running for city council.

How many councilors would be typical in a British city of 700,000?

[Sheilbh]

Leeds City Council is roughly the same size. They've got 99 councillors. But most British councillors are part-time. If they take on more responsibilities - say elected to the leadership or the transport committee - then they spend more time as councillor.

[dps]

Leeds City Council is roughly the same size. They've got 99 councillors. But most British councillors are part-time. If they take on more responsibilities - say elected to the leadership or the transport committee - then they spend more time as councillor.

99?  I don't think any American city, even NYC or LA, has anywhere near that many. 

Looked it up--NYC has 51, but LA only has 15.

[Admiral Yi]

99?  Totally wingnut.

[Eddie Teach]

99?  Totally wingnut.

Or they just want to ensure that the position is unimportant.

[The Brain]

Would make a great song though.

[Admiral Yi]

Or they just want to ensure that the position is unimportant.

Right.  Like party line voting. 

[DontSayBanana]

Would make a great song though.

"I got 99 councilors, but I ain't one."

[Savonarola]

Mob justice in the age of Facebook:

Detroit neighborhood takes vigilante action against rape suspect

On a pleasant, partly sunny afternoon, an armed security guard stood watch over an apartment building in the Hubbard Farms neighborhood in southwest Detroit.

The guard wouldn't say why he was there. But behind him last Tuesday, scrawled onto the ornate stone facade of the building on West Grand Boulevard, the word "rapist" could still be seen, even after efforts that morning to scrub it off. A faded blue arrow sprayed above the graffiti letters still pointed to an apartment window, still condemning whoever lived in that first-floor home.

But the 43-year-old occupant wasn't there any longer. His family moved him, afraid he'd be killed.

Inside the homes on these tight-knit blocks and along the thriving businesses and vacant storefronts of Vernor Highway in Detroit's Mexicantown, the former resident of that apartment is widely believed to be a rapist. His accuser is a 15-year-old girl who, as the streets have it, was cajoled into his apartment on July 17 and attacked. She's from the neighborhood, too. She has Down syndrome. The neighborhood is furious.

The man has not been charged. Police still are investigating. And last Monday, nearly three weeks after the alleged attack, frustration over the slow pace of justice went from simmer to boil.

During the lunch hour, people located the man, whose name and image had been circulated in the community, walking along Vernor. They beat him repeatedly. Witnesses at one point saw five attackers. At least one had a baseball bat. The man spent several hours in the hospital that day and then went into hiding.

Now the community is torn. Some residents are horrified and wonder how this vigilantism happened. Others have applauded the attackers, posting hallelujahs on Facebook. The Free Press spent last week interviewing neighbors and witnesses and talking to police and prosecutors to piece together how it all came to this.

Odd behavior
The walk to work is only four blocks. From her house, the girl goes two blocks north on Hubbard. Turns left on Vernor. Two more blocks to Cafe Con Leche, the neighborhood coffee shop. That's where she works. The owner said he thinks it's her first job.

The girl's biological mother, a single woman, died of cancer about seven years ago, and the neighbors across the street took in the girl and her siblings as their own. Other neighbors help out, too, leading many to call the teen a daughter of the community. Her new parents have legal guardianship.

She loves to sit on her porch and to hip-hop dance. Friends said the coffee shop job — twice a week, two hours a day — is to help teach her some independence. She started July 8.

"She worked pretty hard," said owner Jordi Carbonell, who has known the girl since she was 9. He also knows the rape suspect, saying he has had to kick the man out on occasion for hitting on women.

On July 17, the girl was late for her 3:30 p.m. start at the shop. Carbonell called her parents at 3:35, concerned. But the girl walked in a few minutes later, saying she had been with a friend.

But that night she told her parents that she had been raped. The girl, whom the Free Press is not naming because she is a possible victim of a sex crime, told police the man from the apartment building approached her as she walked to work and asked her to come to his home. Inside the apartment, she said, he kissed her, told her to disrobe and raped her. Then he took nude photos of her with his cell phone, she said. She dressed and walked to work.

The police were told the man's nickname and address. He is known in the neighborhood, familiar for odd behavior, high socks and puffy hair. The Free Press is not naming him because he has not been charged.

The parents waited for the results of the investigation. There were delays.

Frustration grows
Because of the girl's age and some challenges she has in communicating, police set her up to speak with a specialist. The police also ordered a rape kit — DNA samples that are to be tested for evidence — but did not get it to a Michigan State Police lab for testing until last Monday, 19 days after the incident. The State Police tests rape evidence in Detroit cases.

Detroit Interim Deputy Chief Charles Fitzgerald, who runs the Criminal Investigations Bureau, on Friday blamed an office move for that delay, saying the sex crimes unit was moved to the new police headquarters during that time, and the rape kit was not delivered.

"It's not an excuse," Fitzgerald said. "It should have been done, and it wasn't."

He said he has launched an internal investigation.

In the meantime, frustration grew in the neighborhood. The girl's parents are active in the community, and an alert signed with their names went to a local e-mail chain on July 26. The e-mail described the attack on their daughter and divulged that the man was still free in the neighborhood.

"Our family has been told not to rely on the justice system to protect or heal the family," the e-mail read. "We need to protect and support each other in a nonviolent manner."

The e-mail named the suspect and gave his nearby address.

The next day, another person posted another alarm: It, too, named the man and said he'd been asked to leave a youth function the previous evening in nearby Clark Park.

"BE AWARE THAT THIS MAN IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS," the e-mail said.

On July 29, 12 days after the reported rape, a reassuring e-mail was sent out:

"I witnessed (the man) being escorted out of his apartment by the police."

The suspect refused to answer a detective's questions. Police swabbed his cheek to get a DNA sample, and a warrant request was sent to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. An assistant prosecutor sent it back, asking for more investigation, including looking for possible witnesses and searching the suspect's apartment. On July 31, police released the man, who could no longer be held without criminal charges.

"We can't charge cases until we have the evidence," said the prosecutor's spokeswoman, Maria Miller. "We need a case that we can prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt."

The investigation continued. And restlessness grew.

Neighborhood action
The next day, another neighborhood activist weighed in on the e-mail forum:

"It has been confirmed that the rapist has been set free," she wrote. "I would like to take some ACTIONS."

She suggested creating a warning flyer with photos. "This is day 15 and NO ARREST WARRANT!!!!!!!"

Soon, the man's name spread beyond the e-mail chain. Flyers papered Vernor Highway from Grand Boulevard to Clark Park. It featured two photos of the suspect and, in bold type: "Rapist Warning." Amicci's Pizza got one. Same with the dollar store and the Valero gas station, among others.

On Aug. 2, 16 days after the rape report, police searched the man's apartment. An officer seized the man's bed sheet, blanket and cell phone as possible evidence.

Still, no warrant for the man's arrest. The rape kit had yet to be tested.

That day, state Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, called the State Police about trying to speed up the test. She had one of the girl's parents on the phone, too. Trouble was, the rape kit wouldn't even arrive to State Police from Detroit for three more days.

On Aug. 3, the same woman pushing for action two days earlier posted again to the neighborhood e-mail chain, suggesting a collection to have the DNA evidence tested at a private lab. "This is UNACCEPTABLE once again," she wrote.

Later that day, the fever for action hit Facebook, and the tone turned ugly.

The first post, on a page called "I grew up in Southwest Detroit," read, in part:

"ATTENTION/WARNING: this piece of s--- u see in this flyer RAPED A (15) YR OLD GIRL IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD !!! ... me personally, if i seen him, id call the cops then i would beat the s--- out of him myself till the cops arrive. I HATE WORTHLESS SCUM LIKE THIS. STAND UP FOR YOUR HOOD."

Within minutes, posts rolled in from people saying they recognized the man or had a creepy encounter with him in the past or just saw him recently walking here or there.

Then there was this: "Castration," wrote one woman. And someone else: "The law better find this fool ... before the streets do."

The next day, last Sunday, the call for violence continued. Someone posted a piece of artwork with the words: "This should be the punishment for child molestors and rapists." The cartoon showed five naked men tied to chairs, rats gnawing at their genitals.

'No mercy'
On Monday, there was news:

"GREAT NEWS FOR SOUTHWEST DETROIT... well...thanks to EVERYONE WHO SHARED THE FLYER AND SPREAD THE WORD. a friend of mine caught him." The post went on to describe how the attackers found the suspect, "banged both legs & hands with bats," and neighbors came out to join in.

Witnesses gave similar accounts to the Free Press.

It happened about 1 p.m. Monday. The suspect walked past Giovanna's Lounge on Vernor near 24th Street. A witness saw a man on a bicycle ride up, carrying a baseball bat. He jumped off and yelled: "You like raping little girls?"

Then he hammered the man's legs and continued beating him. The witness called police, but they showed up too late, saying they had been diverted to a fatal shooting outside a nearby Rite Aid store.

Meanwhile, the suspect had left Giovanna's, somehow making his way up 25th Street near Toledo, where he was accosted again. Witnesses said up to five people beat the man in front of a home on the corner. A young boy said he saw someone kick the man in the face. Police came, witnesses said, but the man went home with a relative, who took him to the hospital with head and leg wounds. No one was arrested in his beating.

Later that day, back on Facebook, a heated debate ensued.

Of the attackers, one poster wrote: "And the people who beat him up weren't arrested?"

"Why is that even relevant?" someone responded. "There should be No mercy. No compassion for the evil & wicked."

The debate went back and forth, with others joining in to oppose the lone critic, who eventually started getting threats of his own.

In fact, someone even went to the critic's Facebook page, fished out a photo of him and a young girl, presumably his daughter, and posted it for all to see. In the photo, he has his arm around her in a restaurant. She's wearing pink and eating ice cream. They are smiling.

"What if it was her?" the poster wrote. "Would u feel the same then?"

System failure
The suspect never returned to his apartment after the attack. Neighbors reported that someone broke into his apartment overnight Monday, then spray-painted "rapist" five times by his windows. The building owner brought in armed security for the day. Other residents were nervous.

One resident, a man who asked not to be named, said the suspect lived in the building for about six months and yelled and screamed a lot.

"He's just strange," the man said, adding that the man called himself Super Fly and an Aztec warrior. He said the man often was confrontational.

Wayne County Probate Court records show the man has a mental illness. A judge committed him to a mental health facility in 2012 and appointed a guardian to handle his affairs after reports from caregivers that he was aggressive and possibly a danger to himself and others.

Dr. Bens Sandaire, a psychiatrist at BCA StoneCrest Center in Detroit, wrote in January 2012: "Patient is severely depressed. He feels hopeless and helpless. Has plans to kill himself by hanging."

Tlaib, the state legislator representing the neighborhood where the suspect and the girl live, said she told police officials that something was going to happen if the rape investigation didn't move quicker.

"The system failed not only the victim but this alleged rapist. His life was in jeopardy as soon as he committed that crime. No one addressed his mental illness properly," she said. "We failed both of them completely. It's just so sad."

Vigilantism is not unheard of in Detroit.  In the 1980s and early 90s they had "Devil's Night" on October 30 where people would commit arson throughout the city.  Some of the fires were vigilantes targeting crack houses.  Still to see mobs form is shocking; that hasn't happened since African Americans first started moving to white neighborhoods.

[MadImmortalMan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07rZggtSw30

[Darth Wagtaros]

Does it normally take weeks to start lab work for a suspected rape?

[Savonarola]

Does it normally take weeks to start lab work for a suspected rape?

If not longer, Detroit has a backlog of over 10,000 rape kits.

[Savonarola]

Incorrect Detroit election date on billboards is 'human error'
Tom Greenwood

Detroit— Doh!

The billboards, which were put up on Saturday by International Outdoor, state that the election is Sept. 2 when it's actually Nov. 5.

"It's just human error," said Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey.

"I noticed the mistake and gave the owner of the billboard company a call. They owned up to it and got on correcting it ASAP.

"They sent an email apologizing for the mistake and what their game plan was going to be for correcting the error."

According to Winfrey, the billboards will be corrected by the end of the day Tuesday. Winfrey also said her department didn't receive any calls from the public pointing out the error.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130813/METRO01/308130067#ixzz2bsI0k7lF

Close enough.

[garbon]

Haha. Well at least it was positioned as sooner rather than later - so no major harm from this mistake.

[Sheilbh]

Or they just want to ensure that the position is unimportant.

Well I think that's it.

I mean historically our system didn't have an executive. Local government was just the council which would operate through various committees (on transport, parks etc.) and the elected leader of the council would just chair the most important committees. Now they have a leader and a cabinet chosen by the council - and some Mayors. But generally the council's there to provide oversight normally of the leadership and, especially, the CEO of the council who runs the local civil service.

Broadly it's been a largely unpaid part-time position, there's normally under 10 full meetings a year, but the committees will meet more often. Technically you don't get a salary but an 'allowance' that you can claim to cover expenses based on how much work you do at the council. Though it can end up being pretty high if you're the council leader, but that's a full-time job (Edit: Full-time job in cities and big councils, not in most rural ones so they get an allowance too normally).

Also councils are far more likely to end up with coalitions and minority cabinets. I think at the moment the majority of councils are in no overall control. And there's oddities - like the area Tamas lives which has been run by the Residents' Association since 1937

But, excluding parish councils which are tiny and entirely unpaid and part-time, there's over 20 000 councillors in the UK. So 99 for a city the size of Leeds isn't that odd. My borough in London (with round 300 000 people) has 63 councillors.

Edit: Incidentally this set me reading some parish council minutes from where my parents live. They're wonderful