WOW, this is what it's like to deliver pizza in Detroit?

[Ns1]

DETROIT (Talk Radio 1270) Has it come to this? Yes it has, according to Joan McKenna, whose son Tim McKenna, 19, was shot while delivering pizza in Detroit.

In the wake of the shooting, a Jets Pizza franchise in Dearborn ruled it will no longer deliver to Detroit after dark. Before the shooting, they sent two drivers to every nighttime Detroit delivery, one of whom was armed, Joan McKenna said.

“They usually send somebody with a guy … who carries a gun,” she said. “Usually they have two go into Detroit after dark, if they have a delivery … One guy has a legal, he can carry a gun. That night, Timmy was the only one left, they had this one run to do, he said ‘yeah, I’ll do it.’ He’s a kid, he doesn’t think anything’s going to happen to him.”

Tim McKenna was shot in the ribs, and the bullet hit a lung, but he survived and plans to return in the fall to Adrian College, where he plays football. Pizza delivery was his summer job.

“He can’t play football right now, he’s on the team at Adrian, it’s really hard … It went right in the chest, this guy shot him right in the chest,” Joan McKenna said, adding, “It was a robbery, the guy wanted his money, he hit the gas and the guy went ‘pop pop’ and he was shot in the chest.”

Her son had about $35 on him, which is what the drivers carry, McKenna said.

“I had no idea he was in this kind of danger, I really didn’t,” McKenna said. She and her husband returned to the neighborhood to hand out fliers listing a reward for whoever turns in the shooter, but even in daylight they were too afraid they would get shot driving around, McKenna said.

“I realize this is a terrible situation, it is tragic, but some people say it’s racist, we’re eliminating Detroit, we’re sectioning Detroit off from the rest of the world,” Langton said during his show on Talk Radio 1270, adding, “Some people will say ‘ Why should we let the acts of one stupid gun person, make a whole policy that alienates a city?’”

But Joan McKenna thinks any claims of racism are hogwash.

“You want to talk about racism? This has nothing to do with color, it has to do with people who are not willing to get up, plug in the coffee maker, and go to work … Come on, get a job, we’re not talking race here,” Joan McKenna said.

The shooter has not been caught and the McKennas are agitating Detroit police to keep searching, worrying it’s “awful low on their priority list.” “I need help because it’s not going to happen with the police,” Joan McKenna said.

She said police told her: “We’ll never catch this guy, literally, that’s what they said.”

Langton said the shooter, whoever he is, should face attempted murder charges. “You shoot a gun, nearly point blank at somebody, that’s attempted murder,” Langton said.

“When you want a pizza, you live in Detroit, you want it delivered after dark, thank the guy who shot my son, thank that guy,” McKenna said.

John from Chesterfield called in and said, “This is not racist, this is a high probability risk assessment. I was in the military … If you’re going to go into Detroit after dark the risk assessment is you’re going to be robbed, shot or mugged … There are people in Detroit who don’t want to go out after dark either, it’s crazy, but that’s it.”

Ryan, a resident of southwest Detroit where the shooting happened, said he would “never let his wife outside after dark.” Would he go outside himself after dark? “Yeah, I would, but I’m armed,” Ryan said.

He added that many delivery companies in Detroit won’t go to addresses they don’t already know.

Mike, a U.S. Post Office manager, said he had a part-time carrier who moonlighted in that area as a pizza delivery man, and he was also attacked. “The guy jumped out of the bushes and basically attacked him, pulled out a gun … It’s very dangerous over there. I’m black, I’m from the city, but that’s the highest crime area I staffed. I can’t blame the pizza owner for doing that. He has to look at those employees every day.”

You gotta be strapped just to deliver pizza!

 

[sygyzy]

This is what it's like to live in Detroit.

 

[DesiPower]

Wonder why normal people, those who work and run businesses, still live there.. Its a virtual waste land...

 

[ussfletcher]

This is what it's like to live in Detroit.

Exactly, the most of the people of Detroit are really a lost cause, it will take generations to make them anything other than gangsters and thugs.

 

[MontyAC]

If anyone is smart, just nuke the city and start over.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Before the shooting, they sent two drivers to every nighttime Detroit delivery, one of whom was armed, Joan McKenna said.

to me, this is the craziest part.

 

[Krazy4Real]

Good ole detroit

 

[DesiPower]

If anyone is smart, just nuke the city and start over.

Nuking will destroy other surrounding useful cities...my vote would be to aerial spray with some kind of sterilization virus...

 

[Red Squirrel]

What I don't understand about that city is why arn't the cops doing anything? Is it just so bad that they give up?

I think they need to make a GTA pizza delivery game based in Detroit.

 

[darkxshade]

lol permit for concealed delivery!

 

[darkxshade]

What I don't understand about that city is why arn't the cops doing anything?

That's what OCP is for

 

[MontyAC]

Nuking will destroy other surrounding useful cities...my vote would be to aerial spray with some kind of sterilization virus...

Ok, then burn the whole city, don't wait for Devil's Night.

 

[DesiPower]

I don't think delivering with gun protection is a good idea. Once a driver kills an attacker, the business owner would probably loose everything down to his underwear...

 

[RaistlinZ]

I've never been to Detroit. But whenever someone mentions it I always picture it like this...

 

[Ns1]

I don't think delivering with gun protection is a good idea. Once a driver kills an attacker, the business owner would probably loose everything down to his underwear...

because...

 

[DesiPower]

because...

Douche bag lawyers

 

[EagleKeeper]

Some parts are nice and taken care of by the local community residents. Then two blocks away can be broken/burned out shells. City does not do anything about those for years. (Per personal observation last year). They should issue a condemn order, give the registered owner one month to clean it up to a habitable condition. Inspector takes a look. If repairs on the way, schedule a 6 month visit. No repairs, let owner per tax records and/lien holder know that the property is being demolished. Let a contract to year down the property and grade it to an empty lot. Bill owner for work and upkeep for a year. No pay in one year, eminent domain for local park.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Some parts are nice and taken care of by the local community residents. Then two blocks away can be broken/burned out shells. City does not do anything about those for years. (Per personal observation last year). They should issue a condemn order, give the registered owner one month to clean it up to a habitable condition. Inspector takes a look. If repairs on the way, schedule a 6 month visit. No repairs, let owner per tax records and/lien holder know that the property is being demolished. Let a contract to year down the property and grade it to an empty lot. Bill owner for work and upkeep for a year. No pay in one year, eminent domain for local park.

So what do you do with the tens of thousands that no longer have homes?

 

[Exterous]

When I did field work we always sent two people into Detroit and we never allowed after dark appointments to be scheduled.

Some parts are nice and taken care of by the local community residents. Then two blocks away can be broken/burned out shells. City does not do anything about those for years. (Per personal observation last year). They should issue a condemn order, give the registered owner one month to clean it up to a habitable condition. Inspector takes a look. If repairs on the way, schedule a 6 month visit. No repairs, let owner per tax records and/lien holder know that the property is being demolished. Let a contract to year down the property and grade it to an empty lot. Bill owner for work and upkeep for a year. No pay in one year, eminent domain for local park.

They are demolishing houses but its time consuming and expensive considering the number of homes needed to be torn down. Its about $8500 per house and there are over 10,000 homes to that need to be demolished. Thats $85,000,000. Detroit is not exactly swimming in money

 

[darkxshade]

They are demolishing houses but its time consuming and expensive considering the number of homes needed to be torn down. Its about $8500 per house and there are over 10,000 homes to that need to be demolished. Thats $85,000,000. Detroit is not exactly swimming in money

WTF, can't the city just borrow a dozen abrams tank from the military or something and just have em roll right on through?

 

[Binarycow]

the irony here is this is happening in many of our large cities and yet we're overseas policing places like Iraq and Afghanistan, promoting peace there. Maybe we need to bring those soldiers back here and keep our citizens safe instead. It is so hard for me to believe that we as a nation cannot solve this and keep allowing our law-abiding citizens to be terrorized by domestic thugs.

 

[ElFenix]

So what do you do with the tens of thousands that no longer have homes?

what tens of thousands? there are tons of empty houses in detroit waiting to be demolished. the city doesn't have enough bulldozers to handle it.

 

[Balt]

What I don't understand about that city is why arn't the cops doing anything? Is it just so bad that they give up?

I think they need to make a GTA pizza delivery game based in Detroit.

I don't live in Detroit, but I do live in New Orleans. There are generally a few problems with relying on the cops.

1) The police force is under orders to generate revenue. This means dedicating manpower to things like handing out tickets for expired inspection stickers and anything else they can come up with. It generates a lot more money to hassle the upstanding citizens and tourists than to hassle the thugs.

2) Sometimes the cops aren't much better than the criminals. Corruption is always a problem in these hopeless cities.

3) In defense of the police, even if they had every resource they needed, there's no enforcement/reactionary cure for a city full of deadbeats. There was a shooting here last year on a touristy block of Bourbon that had 1 cop on each corner. It didn't stop the guy from opening fire on another guy who had checked out his girlfriend. The culture of the city is rotten to the core. That is a sociological problem that can't be fixed by the police once someone has already reached 'adulthood'.

 

[Pulsar]

What I don't understand about that city is why arn't the cops doing anything? Is it just so bad that they give up?

There aren't enough police to answer the calls. To put it another way, there are so many calls so frequently that you will NEVER see a Detroit Police Officer sitting in his car watching cars drive the speed limit.

To put it in perspective, the waits on a call for something like domestic abuse or burglary can range into the 10's of hours. The ONLY time you get cars showing up in fairly responsive fashion is if there's been a major shooting or a high school is threatened.

The city has no money because of decades of mismanagement. The schools are bankrupt. The police are so understaffed it's unbelievable.

If there is one place in this country where it would be totally worthwhile to declare martial law, it would be Detroit. March in with the National Guard. Bulldoze every single building that is condemned or abandoned (i.e. taxes stop being paid). Soldiers with guns and orders to shoot to kill if they see ANYONE pull a weapon other than a uniformed police officer.

Unfortunately, that'd clean up the city but wouldn't do anything to bring in business, fix the schools, or fix the budget. The city is totally screwed.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

what tens of thousands? there are tons of empty houses in detroit waiting to be demolished. the city doesn't have enough bulldozers to handle it.

Oh, I assumed they were all filled with a thriving underworld of thugs and drug dealers and stuff. If they're abandoned it'd seem better to work on the places where the criminal types actually live.