A colleague just sent me this. We work in downtown Detroit, I mean right slap bang in the middle of downtown. It's actually quite nice here.
Like I said in the other thread, Detroit will never change. The problem with the whole situation is Detroit has run out of other people's money, and now they want more. The good folks up north are done sending their pay checks down state to be pissed away. I hope this is just rabble rousing that goes no where. If it does happen a lot of people will get hurt. You might want to start telecommuting or have a way to make a quick dash for Windsor.
I've got a few routes out of the city as part of my longer term escape plans if there were a terror attack on the Federal building, courts or even the Ren Cen. We've got a couple of parking decks and I've got access to keys for pool vehicles so that's a plus. We also have a lot of military types here. If all else fails I'm going with them.
Quite frankly, Nick, I don't see a terror attack on Detroit's "important" buildings, it's already enough of a mess that nothing much would come of it. With the likes of Kenyatta and Conyers, there's enough terror already going around. Now, I don't live in Detroit, and won't for the foreseeable future, but I've a friend that does. He is a staunch believer in a renaissance in Detroit, and actually is working on that. Rather than upset his OPSEC, I'll just say that he's involved peripherally in real estate in the worst areas; lives in one of them. His parents fear for his family's safety, but he's hard headed and won't get out of the area. It will not be an external attack on Detroit, it'll be internal, fomented by the likes of those two mentioned above or their followers and worshippers. It will NOT be a centralized thing that will yield readily to a fixed escape routing. I imagine it'll be a slew of spontaneous "happenings" randomly started with no particular timetable. Fast and light will be your watchword.
You could be right friend, but like your signature says "Live paranoia trumps dead bravado every time".... and that guy did try to blow up a plane over Detroit a couple of years back... of course I think that was a Saturday and I was home anyway. In fact, if they could time any attack to be on the weekend that would be ideal. Downtown is empty then.
I don't want to sound like I'm stereotyping, or a racist, but this is what came to mind when I read the article: Here in LA, every time the South Central (primarily black) community starts getting what they consider the short end of the stick, they threaten another riot (remember Rodney King?), and other such things. No one will ever convince me that the jury acquitted OJ Simpson because they thought he was innocent. I don't think his innocence was a factor, once they heard that they might have another riot on their hands. I lived through that, and it wasn't fun. It wasn't horrible, because it was only about a week, but I can see why ordinary 'normal' people would be pissing themselves thinking about another one. I just wish that some people wouldn't stamp their little feet and wave their flags when they thing they're being shorted, instead of realizing that EVERYONE is going to suffer. During the riots, several old, cornerstone businesses in the black community got burned down by idiots who were just destroying things.
It's really sad. I drive past the burned out buildings and don't even notice them now. I came to Detroit not knowing anything about it. I'd been in the US just a few months before I started working in Detroit. Ignorance is bliss. My co-workers thought I was crazy when I told them I'd stopped to ask for directions in Detroit.
Hey, when the fires start, I should be able to see the flames dancing in the sky (well as long as they really get it going). I might even have to bring the marshmallows.
I'm on the other side of the state, if out gets ugly and you can't go north, then head west and ping me. There are a few of us this way. I'm 30 minutes west of Lansing. I was out with a few friends last weekend and this came up, so far its quiet on this side of the state.
I heard a story about the Watts riots. A guy put a rottweiler in his back yard, left all the lights in his living room on and the blinds open, and rigged a giant crossbow, cocked and loaded, with a line going to the front door. Anyone who opened the door would get shot with the crossbow. Funny, he never got robbed, from what I hear.
