What's most shocking about this story?

[tigerbob]

Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- This city has not always been a gentle place, but a series of events over the past few, frigid days causes one to wonder how cold the collective heart has grown.

It starts with a phone call made by a man who said his friend found a dead body in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building on the city's west side.

"He's encased in ice, except his legs, which are sticking out like Popsicle sticks," the caller phoned to tell this reporter.

"Why didn't your friend call the police?"

"He was trespassing and didn't want to get in trouble," the caller replied. As it happens, the caller's friend is an urban explorer who gets thrills rummaging through and photographing the ruins of Detroit. It turns out that this explorer last week was playing hockey with a group of other explorers on the frozen waters that had collected in the basement of the building. None of the men called the police, the explorer said. They, in fact, continued their hockey game.

Before calling the police, this reporter went to check on the tip, skeptical of a hoax. Sure enough, in the well of the cargo elevator, two feet jutted out above the ice. Closer inspection revealed that the rest of the body was encased in 2-3 feet of ice, the body prostrate, suspended into the ice like a porpoising walrus.

The hem of a beige jacket could be made out, as could the cuffs of blue jeans. The socks were relatively clean and white. The left shoe was worn at the heel but carried fresh laces. Adding to the macabre and incongruous scene was a pillow that gently propped up the left foot of the corpse. It looked almost peaceful.

What happened to this person, one wonders? Murder in Motown is a definite possibility. Perhaps it was death by alcoholic stupor. Perhaps the person was crawling around in the elevator shaft trying to retrieve some metal that he could sell at a scrap yard. In any event, there the person was. Stone-cold dead.

A symbol of decay
The building is known as the Roosevelt Warehouse, once belonging to the Detroit Public Schools as a book repository. Located near 14th Street and Michigan Avenue, the warehouse burned in 1987 and caused something of a scandal as thousands of books, scissors, footballs and crayons were left to rot while Detroit schoolchildren -- some of the poorest children in the country -- went without supplies.

The building was eventually sold to Matty Moroun, the trucking and real estate mogul who is worth billions of dollars and is the largest private property owner in the state of Michigan. Among other properties, Moroun owns the decrepit Michigan Central Rail Depot that squats directly next to the warehouse. The train station has become the symbol of Detroit's decay. Like much of his property in southwestern Detroit, Moroun's warehouse and the train station are gaping sores.

Story continues in link below...

This story has been in the news in Southeast Michigan today. I was listening to it on the radio, and one of the guys asked an interesting question - what part of the story is most shocking?

Is it:
- The media for "sensationalizing" a story with a relatively graphic picture?
- The fact that this homeless guy had been dead for as much as a month?
- The fact that other homeless people living there had basically ignored it?
- The fact that people playing a hockey game there saw the body and did nothing (except they went on with their game)?
- The fact that when someone did call, they called a reporter not the police?
- The fact that the police failed to show up until several calls had ben made?
- The fact that 1 person in 50 in Detroit is homeless?
- The fact that the building, like thousands of others in old Detroit, has stood derelict for years, despite being owned by a billionaire who could have paid the relatively small amount it would cost to have the building razed.

There was another point made on the radio show that the cops had not shown up because the guy was dead and there were other people who needed police help (i.e. limited resources). Maybe you find this more shocking than the other points.

One caller to the radio show made a point that people in some parts of Detroit (and, one suspects, other big cities that are decaying) are desensitized to that which most of us (I would like to think) would find impossible to just walk past. For me, this is I suppose the most shocking part - that a human life can be treated with such disinterest. At one time, 20 or 30 years ago, this corpse was someone's newborn baby, full of hopes, dreams and potential. Now all that has ended on a pool of frozen water at the foot of an elevator shaft in a derelict building - and nobody gives a shit. What a tragic epitaph, not just for the deceased, but for society, and arguably also an interesting metaphor for a city.

I'd be interested to hear what others think. BTW, within the link there are photos which some may find graphic.

Frozen in indifference: Life goes on around body found in vacant Detroit warehouse | detnews.com | The Detroit News

 

[garyd]

The police have scarce resources every where the result of continuosly stripping money away from the cops to create parks for junkies to hand out in. The left got everything they want in Michigan including an auto union that will kiss there butts at a a moments notice and vice versa. They have the highest minimum wage law in the Midwest as close to cradle to grave welfare as any state can have with the big three auto makers funding it via there legacy cost that will soon have them deader than dinosaurs if something isn't done, which it almost certainly won't be given that half the Dems in Washington have a Union lable tatooed to the back of there heads and if the big three go and the UAW with them, That will mean that almost all the remaining union workers are white collar governemnt workers, cops, and a few truck drivers. And The Dems can ill afford to lose the money. They already get more money from the trial lawyers lobby that is good for them.

Oh and whats most shocking is that the people of the state of Michigan continue to put up with this crap. Or maybe it's just that there is no one left up there taht really gives a good crap about much of anything anymore.

 

[tigerbob]

The police have scarce resources every where the result of continuosly stripping money away from the cops to create parks for junkies to hand out in. The left got everything they want in Michigan including an auto union that will kiss there butts at a a moments notice and vice versa. They have the highest minimum wage law in the Midwest as close to cradle to grave welfare as any state can have with the big three auto makers funding it via there legacy cost that will soon have them deader than dinosaurs if something isn't done, which it almost certainly won't be given that half the Dems in Washington have a Union lable tatooed to the back of there heads and if the big three go and the UAW with them, That will mean that almost all the remaining union workers are white collar governemnt workers, cops, and a few truck drivers. And The Dems can ill afford to lose the money. They already get more money from the trial lawyers lobby that is good for them.

Oh and whats most shocking is that the people of the state of Michigan continue to put up with this crap. Or maybe it's just that there is no one left up there taht really gives a good crap about much of anything anymore.

I was thinking about responding to your political points about unions, welfare and the Democrats, but (as you may have guessed from the OP if you read it) this thread was meant to be about something different.

Thanks for taking the time to make these unrelated points though. I feel richer for having read them.

 

[random3434]

I think what's most shocking is that humans could find a dead body, leave it there, and continue playing hockey.

That would be my #1, out of so many wrongs................

 

[Missourian]

I can't imagine trying to rank the multiple levels of shock this article illicited. Thank goodness we don't have such indifference in my neck of the woods.

 

[Enigma]

I think what's most shocking is that humans could find a dead body, leave it there, and continue playing hockey.

That would be my #1, out of so many wrongs................

I think I would have to agree. I understand the kids being afraid of calling the police right away due to getting tickets, but to continue to play hockey?

I was also shocked that 1 in 50 people in Detroit are homeless. I mean I knew things were bad, but not that bad. The homeless fighting over chairs to secure a spot in the limited shelters while a billionaire hangs on to decaying properties in the city without doing anything with them is just awful.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I think what's most shocking is that humans could find a dead body, leave it there, and continue playing hockey.

That would be my #1, out of so many wrongs................

I think I would have to agree. I understand the kids being afraid of calling the police right away due to getting tickets, but to continue to play hockey?

I was also shocked that 1 in 50 people in Detroit are homeless. I mean I knew things were bad, but not that bad. The homeless fighting over chairs to secure a spot in the limited shelters while a billionaire hangs on to decaying properties in the city without doing anything with them is just awful.

i heard it was one hell of an important game......the abandon building finals or something.....

 

[Enigma]

i heard it was one hell of an important game......the abandon building finals or something.....

Guess it must have been. Well hopefully they won the title in such an important event.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

I think what's most shocking is that humans could find a dead body, leave it there, and continue playing hockey.

That would be my #1, out of so many wrongs................

that is not being desensitized. far beyond it.

The who, story shows parts of Detroit and Michigan and especially those hockey players being bereft of the most basic human values.

I used to be a cold hearted fuk, but once I openly cried like a baby when I saw/found a man frozen to death near the fens gate near BU when I worked there. I cried openly because I was unable to help that poor, crazy, homeless bastard. I thought 'what is wrong with us' that we allow this type of thing in the name of personal freedoms? people who are supposedly no danger to themselves do not sleep out in the freezing cold in an inner city. inner city residents can get desensitized sure, but what does it take to push people into action or into supporting services for those less fortunate than us...a few tragedies like this? civilized society shouldn't allow these types of things in the name of freedom or anything else.

I don't have the answers for all...I only have answers for myself. I ended up volunteering my time at a few places.

sigh

 

[Zoomie1980]

I think what's most shocking is that humans could find a dead body, leave it there, and continue playing hockey.

That would be my #1, out of so many wrongs................

Well, they were hockey players......

 

[michiganFats]

I wish I could be shocked by this story, but I'm not. That is a horrible neighborhood and has been for years. I don't even like driving through there in the daytime. As long as derelict property is allowed to dominate the landscape in that area, it will be impossible to police.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

I wish I could be shocked by this story, but I'm not. That is a horrible neighborhood and has been for years. I don't even like driving through there in the daytime. As long as derelict property is allowed to dominate the landscape in that area, it will be impossible to police.

you should never lose your ability to be shocked by news like this. never.

we accept this shit. the owners of abandoned properties should at some point forfeit any ownership, and if it takes using the law(s) of eminent domain,....so be it.

 

[michiganFats]

DevNell, I agree. For whatever reason, Detroit will not claim eminent domain. There are buildings in that neighborhood that have been vacant eyesores my entire life. At this point I don't even care if the area is redeveloped. I'd be fine with merely razing them.

 

[tigerbob]

DevNell, I agree. For whatever reason, Detroit will not claim eminent domain. There are buildings in that neighborhood that have been vacant eyesores my entire life. At this point I don't even care if the area is redeveloped. I'd be fine with merely razing them.

Razing them would at least be a start. Redevelopment has to be linked up. If it feeds slowly out from the 2 or 3 areas of downtown that are worth visiting it may have a chance. Isolated redeveloped pockets are impractical.

I still have no idea why Dennis Archer got voted out. I didn't agree with him on many issues, but he was like night and day when compared to Kwame and Colman Young.

 

[tigerbob]

I wish I could be shocked by this story, but I'm not. That is a horrible neighborhood and has been for years. I don't even like driving through there in the daytime. As long as derelict property is allowed to dominate the landscape in that area, it will be impossible to police.

you should never lose your ability to be shocked by news like this. never.

we accept this shit. the owners of abandoned properties should at some point forfeit any ownership, and if it takes using the law(s) of eminent domain,....so be it.

Thing is, what would the City of Detroit do if ownership reverted to them? The city is basically bankrupt, jobs are disappearing in the thousands and corruption appears endemic in the City Council. The voters in Detroit have to elect people that will help the city. Unfortunately, they have spent 30 years electing people who have raped it.

It's a damn shame.

 

[xsited1]

Most shocking? When I read it, I saw this picture in my mind:

 

[Zoomie1980]

I wish I could be shocked by this story, but I'm not. That is a horrible neighborhood and has been for years. I don't even like driving through there in the daytime. As long as derelict property is allowed to dominate the landscape in that area, it will be impossible to police.

you should never lose your ability to be shocked by news like this. never.

we accept this shit. the owners of abandoned properties should at some point forfeit any ownership, and if it takes using the law(s) of eminent domain,....so be it.

Yawnnnn.... They go around Bombay, Calcutta, and other Indian cities and bag up all the dead people on the sidewalks every day before the rush hour..... Usually numbers a dozen or so a day....

 

[StaleBO]

1- The fact that the building, like thousands of others in old Detroit, has stood derelict for years, despite being owned by a billionaire who could have paid the relatively small amount it would cost to have the building razed. (Assuming this is true, I find it morally reprehensible and completely derelict of civic responsibility)

 

[RodISHI]

That anyone would disregard human life so easily is the most shocking portion.

 

[Zoomie1980]

That anyone would disregard human life so easily is the most shocking portion.

Millions of people die from various form of neglect every year, worldwide. It's part of the human condition. Has been since the dawn of human history and will until we go extinct. So what?