Granholm offers help to Benton Harbor

Detroit News ^ | 6-20-03 | Brad Heath and Gary Heinlein

[Dan from Michigan]

BENTON HARBOR -- A small army of well-armed police helped keep the peace for a second night in a row Thursday in Michigan's poorest city, scarred by two nights of rioting earlier in the week.

City officials on Thursday again deployed more than 250 police officers in a massive show of force that kept the streets largely quiet in the poverty-stricken area where the riots erupted Monday and Tuesday nights.

[Dan from Michigan]

Can someone tell me what the blue hell tossing money at this will do? Benton Harbor residents burned their own city down, and the rest of the state has to pay for it? What's to say that it won't burn down again after the next car chase?

It should never take violence to have elected officials pay attention, but we are going to move forward and we are going to pay attention."

Message. Riot and we listen...

It's simple. If BH wants to come back, they have to do it themselves, and take a stand against the bad guys. They need to improve their schools. They need to watch their neighborhoods and go after the scum.

"They can't keep all these extra enforcements out forever, and when they're gone, something else is going to happen."

Bingo.

[Chi-townChief]

Just like LBJ's Great Society slogan: "Burn one down, get one free!"

[OldFriend]

There are Benton Harbor's all over this country. Places where there is no parenting, no emphasis on getting an education, no effort to combat the street hoodlums who destroy the neighborhoods.

Places where policing is considered the problem rather than the solution.

Places where every excuse known to man is made for those who prefer to blame everyone but themselves for the condition of their neighborhood.

[Bodacious]

To really get the process started, the Mayor should get a restraining order against the Rev. Jackson.......

[Enterprise]

I want to send in some Royal Marine snipers to deal with rioters who beat and stab innocent bystanders.

[Onelifetogive]

A small army of well-armed police helped keep the peace for a second night in a row Thursday in Michigan's poorest city, scarred by two nights of rioting earlier in the week.

Chicken or the egg question!

Are they rioting because they are poor? Or, are they poor because they are the kind of people who will riot??

[Onelifetogive]

Gov. Jennifer Granholm pledged Thursday to devote state resources to finding answers to the poverty, crime and racial tension that helped ignite the rioting.

Isn't she a Dimocrat. I didn't think poverty existed under Dimocrat administrations...What gives???

[FreeTheHostages]

Well, it's not the fault of a kid born in that city to be born there. And they should have the same freedom of opportunity as any other kid in a perfect America.

So I do think something should be done about such places. Throwing $ at the problem won't work, in itself.

But school vouchers -- including vouchers for parochial school -- and greater police presence and community policy -- would help the next kid born in such a place to aspire to fix things rather than burn them down.

I for one DO care about fixing inner city poverty. I think the next civil rights and class battle is on education: will the Democrats continue with their class-based segregated elementary and high school schooling system, or will we moved toward a more merit-based, voucher-based system? Republicans have the solutions to what ails the kids in this city, not Jesse Jackson. True equality of opportunity -- not results -- is what we advocate.

[OldFriend]

We cannot fix other people's problems. They must take the initiative and make sure their kids study, do homework, visit the library, and keep their neighborhood safe.

Low income is no excuse for criminal activity.

There are endless reasons for the state of the inner city, most if not all of them are to be laid at the feet of democrat policy.

When you look at blacks from other countries who come to the US and see their success rate you must not assume that somehow it is 'society's fault for the condition of home grown blacks.

[Alberta's Child]

Berrien County emergency management officials said 21 homes burned down in arson fires at a loss of $350,000.

Note to Self: Don't ever invest a nickel in a place where the average home has an appraised value of less that $17,000.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm pledged Thursday to devote state resources to finding answers to the poverty, crime and racial tension that helped ignite the rioting.

Note to Ms. Granholm: Instead of spending valuable state resources to find these answers, you ought to just face up to one cold, hard fact: A neighborhood in which a demented 28 year-old @sshole who drives a motorcycle into the side of a building can trigger several nights of rioting is beyond redemption.

[Bahbah]

"Can someone tell me what the blue hell tossing money at this will do?"Actually, Dan, I think I can. The money will go into certain well chosen "community activists" hands. Once paid off, these activists will keep things quiet. Nobody's life will be improved, however, but Granholm doesn't care about that. She just doesn't want a political embarrasment.

[FreeTheHostages]

"Low income is no excuse for criminal activity"

True, but lack of equal opportunity can be. And these corrupt, incompetent public school systems that populate such areas sustain poverty. How much better for the kids and for the future of parochial education and for everyone if school vouchers were available.

[FreeTheHostages]

P.S. I don't blame society. I just look for the solution. Obviously, I think, vouchers are part of the solution. And they DON'T necessarily require more $ to be spent on education -- it just has to be spent differently.

[OldFriend]

If the people vote AGAINST those who favor vouchers.....what then.

After years and years of broken promises what are we to do for people who refuse to recognize the truth.

Just look at Washington D.C. and tell me how to solve the problems of those who wait only for a handout rather than taking their lives into their own hands.

My guess is that there are libraries in Benton Harbor. There are also jobs in Benton Harbor. There are hotels, and a major corporation.....WHIRLPOOL.

[martin gibson]

How much better for the kids and for the future of parochial education and for everyone if school vouchers were available.

b-b-but that's HATE SPEECH!!!

[FreeTheHostages]

Interesting you raise the case of Washington DC. I live there. The Mayor has recently accepted a proposal from the Bush Administration to have a voucher program in DC.

I say good, I say bravo. DC's a great test case. You can't look at DC and our public school system and say that kids that are assigned to certain schools have educational equality of opportunity. I know that's a goal that one might never perfectly achieve. But we should try. Not equality of results of course, but a fighting chance for a smart kid born in the wrong part of town.

I hope the voucher program works.

So I eagerly embrace your "look at Washington DC" argument. Yes indeed look there: it's a shining example of the failure of the public school system.

[OldFriend]

The moment the vouchers become a reality there will be an improvement in the public school system.

Years ago Newt Gingrich worked with Marion Wright Edelman to begin a voucher program for D.C. It was shot down by slick willie.

The dems owe too much to the teacher's unions. Until the people most affected by that monopoly realize they are pawns in the scheme of things, nothing will change.

[Old Professer]

During the Rodney King riots in California, one of the TV newsmen made the comment that some of the buildings being burned and vandalized were the same buildings that were burned and vandalized in the Watts' riots almost thirty years earlier; they did have a more diverse group of rioters the last time though, as many of the original black residents had moved out and Hispanics had moved in; the main LAPD station on Parker Center was a primary target as well.

Maybe we would be better off if the police just left these areas if all that is going to happen is a riot when they try to arrest someone.

[Old Professer]

I for one DO care about fixing inner city poverty.

I don't; I say, raze it and start over.

[Old Professer]

If criminal behvior can be excused, then we don't need laws.