http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090128/METRO08/901280491
DetNews.com user comments on the article
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Frozen in indifference: Life goes on around body found in vacant warehouse
Detroit is putting up a good fight against New Orleans for the title of worst city in the entire United States.
Basically there is a bum frozen to death in some ice in an abandoned building. For a month a bunch of people are around the frozen body, even playing ice hockey next to it, but no one calls the police! Finally the reporter calls the police, the police don't show up, so he calls them again a day later and the cops finally arrive.
In all actuality though, I'd be reluctant to call the cops too, because they often look at the caller as the prime suspect if there is a crime involved, or try to fuck the caller over some other way (I know from first hand experience). If the dirty bums called the police, they might get blamed for the frozen bum's death, kicked out of their warehouse "home", charged with drug possession, trespassing, etc.
Some people bring up good points on the detNews.com forum. User "dechko" says:
"While sad, this isn't entirely surprising. First off homeless people are not really a priority when it comes to emergency services. They are seen as more of a burden than anything else. As for the homeless people who were indifferent to the frozen corpse; how can really expect someone who doesn't care about themselves to have any compassion whatsoever for anyone else? And when they are simply trying to survive, how can you blame them?"Others users comment that the indifference really started with the bum who was frozen, in that he didn't care about himself.
Of course, we also have some dumbass comments, such as one from user "Teresa Sardinha":
"Matty Moroun, the real estate mogul who is worth billions of dollars and owns this warehouse should convert this property into a homeless shelter. It's obvious he already has tenents. The least he could do for these poor souls would be to provide them some comfort and a hope of a future. It would also make ammends for the death of the man on his property that he has left in such disrepair."
WTF? Moroun is supposed to "make amends" for an alcoholic/drug addict homeless man trespassing and then dying on Maroun's property because of the homeless man's own suicidal and self destructive tendencies, carelessness, and total lack of concern for his own health? Fuck that. Moroun doesn't owe shit to these homeless people. Technically they owe him for crashing uninvited in his warehouse. Maybe this Maroun guy is a dickhead, maybe not, but either way he still should not feel obligated to bail out the lazy bums of Detroit just because he worked hard and became rich.
Another dumbass comment excerpt comes from user "Timeforchange":
We need to wake up and treat each other like human beings or we are no less then the terrorist that want to destroy us!"
Wow that sentence makes no sense. Terrorists actively attack people and infrastructure. In this frozen bum story, there was a total lack of action. In fact, the bum was probably the most like a terrorist, in that he essentially committed suicide, and we all know how terrorists love a good suicide attack.
Some people thought that the frozen man might not be homeless because his white socks were fairly clean and his shoes had fresh laces. However, follow ups on the story say that it looks like the frozen man really was a bum, not a regular citizen, and that no foul play is suspected. No shocker there. I mean look, the guy has white socks with black shoes...anyone with such poor fashion sense is probably homeless.
Wouldn't it have been crazy weird if they pulled the legs out of the ice and it turned out to be a reverse merman instead of a homeless man? Like the top half of his body was a fish? WHOA.
