Crime in Detroit? Shhhh.....

Did you happen to read the Edmonton Sun on Wednesday? I didn’t either, but I did hear about an article written ahead of Edmonton’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. Robert Tychkowski, staff writer for the Sun, opened his article with, “Welcome to Detroit, where the forecast, as always, is muggy, with a chance of murder. When you’re trying to breathe a little life back into your year, this is not the place to visit. And not just because they use more white chalk at crime scenes than they ever did in the schools.”


Brilliant. Of course not everybody saw it this way, especially those from Detroit. The outcry has been loud, aggressive, and well, ill informed. Some have called for him to be fired, while one commenter even said he “…should be careful if he ever returns to Detroit, as that chalk will be for (him).”

What the hell has happened to society? Can people not put anything into perspective anymore? To begin, there are a lot of murders in Detroit. In fact, there are almost as many murders each year in Detroit as in all of Canada. So this means people are pissed off because this writer was…telling the truth. Maybe people think that if no one ever says it, it won’t be true. I suppose that strategy is cheaper than social programs or police, but I still have doubts about its’ effectiveness.

I try to avoid reading the comments of any newspaper article, as I’m worried I’ll pop a blood vessel or break something. But the comments on this article were too much to resist. Let’s see, there’s “…you try backing yourself up by saying something is ‘statistically accurate?? So pathetic.” This guy doesn’t have a problem with the comment it seems, but with the fact that it is backed up with ‘statistics.’ Another suggested he should have “…molten glass poured down (his) rectum.” Not sure where that came from, perhaps he just got back from the middle ages.

When I was last in Detroit for a hockey game, in April of 2007, across from my hotel, sat a thirty storey building that had been abandoned. The bottom floor was boarded up, and the other twenty-nine floors didn’t have any windows. Somebody had simply dusted their hands off, threw the keys into the lobby and walked away, washing their hands of an entire skyscraper. This wasn’t the only one either, as the downtown area was filled with abandon buildings. Tiger Stadium, which last hosted a baseball game in 1999 was still standing. The Packard plant, a giant factory complex was still standing even though Packard went out of business in 1956. But, when I was walking away from the arena in my Flames jersey, somebody yelled at me, saying, “…your city’s a dump!” How ironic I thought.

But besides the laissez-fair attitude towards their buildings, there is a lot of crime. The fact that this writer pointed that out, in jest, shouldn’t be a problem. While Detroiters preach their freedoms, including their right to carry a gun, which results in their extremely high murder rate, they obviously don’t include the freedom of speech. Perhaps if their energies were directed at the sources of their crime, instead of people talking about their crime, they could kill (pun intended) two birds with one stone. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch my new favourite show, Detroit 187, which I can only assume never mentions murder or crime.

-TheRev




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Someone Has To Win, Right?

Well if this is not the perfect time to face the lowly Oilers, I do not know what is. Coming off of 9, yes 9, consecutive losses, the Flames look to ‘bump the slump’ against the worst team in the NHL on Saturday night. The only solace Flames fans have these days is the fact that the Oilers have lost more in a row (12) and occupy the very bottom of the NHL standings (Ouch). That being said at least the Oilers are due for a top pick in this years upcoming NHL Entry draft, whereas if the Flames continue to slump they have no such guarantee( The Flames traded their Number one pick in the Jokinen deal last year). Good news is that the Flames have feasted on the Oilers this year, winning all five match-ups thus far. They have outscored them 19-10 in those games. Large in part to the play of the powerplay(That must be a typo). The Flames have gone 6-18 with the man-advantage against the Oilers and should hope that another meeting rekindles that lost magic touch.

The Flames have issues, which are painstakingly evident. It’s the solution that the Flames must focus their attention on.

Well the saviour is here! Or maybe it just seems that way as Mikael Backlund, the Flames 07’ first rounder, is going to be centering the top line with Captain Jarome Iginla. Coming off his first career goal in the desert on Thursday night, Backlund will look to help ignite Iginla and the Flames into a prolonged ‘non losing’ skid. When drafted in 2007, Backlund was thought of to be ‘that guy’ who could solve the Flames number 1 center problems. Well, whether this is too soon or not, Flames fans will get a close up look at what the young Swede can do. I for one am quite happy with the move, as every other first line combination either gets kyboshed by the coach(Langkow-Glencross-Iginla) or worked 8 years ago(Conroy-Iginla) or will never work(Jokinen-Iginla-Any Player). Backlund provides a much needed boost of enthusiasm and energy as he is eager to prove to the world that he is an NHL calibre player.

When trying to be optimistic about Saturday night’s game you need not look further than Flames record on Saturday nights which is a very modest 9-2. Coincidentally their last win came on a Saturday night against the Canucks in early January. Also, if the Flames somehow beat the Oilers they will have captured points in 3 straight games, something they haven’t done for almost three and half weeks.

A warning to the Flames though: If you do not win tomorrow night, prepare for the biggest chorus of boos and hisses you have ever heard. Losing 9 straight is one thing, but losing to your provincial rival in your own building, who have lost 12 straight themselves, will not be acceptable.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

Source of Photo: http://www.oskaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Calgary-Flames-vs-Edmonton-Oilers.jpg

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