TBideon

I couldn't find a basic Plain Dealer forum, so hopefully the moderators will either be cool with me using this one orl move the post to a more appropriate forum. Laura Johnson and the editors that okayed this story should be ashamed. I really do start to wonder if the cleveland.com posters are right about the PD being out to "get" the city. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/02/are_you_a_victim_of_crime_in_d.html Are you a victim of crime in downtown Cleveland? Share your story Posted by Laura Johnston/Plain Dealer Reporter February 27, 2009 07:16AM Categories: Crime, Real Time News The Plain Dealer wants to talk to victims of crime in downtown Cleveland for a story on safety, in light of the recent shootings on East 12th Street. If you've been robbed, assaulted or victimized downtown recently and would like to share your story, please e-mail Metro reporter Laura Johnston at [email protected].

good point, I was thinking more of their 90s stuff

HIM and AFI Smashing Pumpkins have aged really well; I'm still a big fan

"What are you personally doing to improve downtown." Well, I probably spend anywhere from $20-$100 a week downtown for transportation, food, and overall recreation, and I try to maintain a positive image for nondowntown residents. I informed Tower City security of some drug dealings a few weeks ago too. I probably don't do all that much to be honest, but I'm usually too tired and stressed at the end of the day to really want to volunteer my time at homeless shelters/drug clinics or proactively go to bad spots so I can witness crimes, intervene, contact the police, and so on.

Wow, the cleveland.com forums are completely lit up. There's the occasional good point, in particular about the need for public housing reform, though most of the conversation consists of the usual endless black vs white drivel that's missing the point all together. Crime and poverty, not race guys. The fact that a lot of these killers are/were black is just incidental. What bothers me most about the murders are the reactions by Cimperman and Jackson, where they are reassuring the public that downtown is safe, these are isolated incidents, and so on. I find those responses to be inappropriate and naive, especially with so many testimonies about drgu deals and violence around that Perk Park Place (whatever it's called). Not only do Cimperman, Jackson, other city leaders, and the PD (god this town needs a better newspaper) need to acknowledge that crime is a huge problem, with drug deals by Public Square that I've seen, drug deals that I've seen at Mall B and that street where cars are parked, drug deals that I've heard about by the Park where the executions took place, and so on. That's just too much for a city our size, and our city leaders must acknowledge it and either permit us to properly defends ourselves (Ohio allows concealed arms but a lot of local businesses don't) or do whatever the hell Guiliani did to clean up New York.

Let's give it up to the police, they certainly worked fast

^I don't know if the two situations are comparable, since I haven't heard any reports of violence or even intimidation since the implementation of that new policy. Now outside is a different story, but at least inside the mall, I haven't seen anything that would make me the slightest bit wary.

I also wish that we had police or some kind of guardsmen walking around fully armed. They do in Israel and you feel completely safe as a result.

I would think that any information at this point, even if uncertain, is better than nothin and it's silly to discount all eye witness testimony simply because it's not always legally reliable

Man, this one still hits close to home, even a day after hearing it.

That story just makes me sick. I know people at the Cleveland Clinic Medical School, I know the area they were assaulted pretty well, and I have friends who live in nearby apartments. I always think of downtown as being somewhat insulated from the inner city crimes, but then you hear about crap like this and you almost hope that it's bar fight related

MTS, I am thrilled that you're (apparently) a fan of series. Based on a few of your posts, I never really took you for a fan of comics, or at least the more mainstream stuff. One of the cool things about the Watchmen is how the characters are allegories to some minor Charlton/DC superheroes i.e. Dr. Manhattan = Captain Atom; Night Owl 1,2 = Blue Beetle 1,2; Rorscharf = Question; Comedian = Peacemaker; Silc Spectre 1,2 = Black Canary 1,2; Ozymandias = ..... not sure actually

It was interesting reading about Hillary's trip to China last weekend where she implored them to buy T-Bills. She talked about how we're all in this mess together, and that we need them to invest in us so we can buy their goods, etc etc. My question is how can China continue to buy our treasury bills when their economy is on the verge of collapsing (like everyone else's).

Watchmen is AWESOME!!!! Not remotely overrated And now I'm on 'The Stand.' Pretty good so far but there have got to be 7 or 8 ongoing storylines I have to keep track of

20s haven't been very pleasant so far. 27 here.

^I was just about to post that article. When I had first read about the chimp tearing apart the woman's face, I immediately thought about the Cleveland Clinic's facial transplant success and the possibility of her coming here. And then a few days later, it turns out that's exactly what's going to happen.

I hear Shaq was at Beachwood Place a few weeks ago when the Cavs were playing the Suns. And I have a good friend who has waited on Victor Martinez a couple times at Cheesecake Factory. I think I need to hang out in that area more often.

un...be...leivable

"No Ticket!" Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade

^Interesting. But still, the legal differences between pornography and prostitution are nominal at best and there are no moral distinctions.

^Wouldn't legalizing it then address those concerns.

I flat out disagree. I haven't seen any real good reasons, even from the article, why prostitution is illegal. It talks about prostitution being demeaning, yet there are certainly many other "legal" positions that can be considered the same. Ever see a guy cleaning up at one of those 25 cent nudie bars? It's a sad sight, yet somehow that's less demeaning? How demeaning is too demeaning? The article correlates prostitution to sex slavery and uses Finland as example of a parallel relationship, but I'm sorry, correlation (if there even is any) is not the same as causation. I haven't seen that many sex slaves in Nevada (I've been to Vegas a number of times, even a few seedy parts), and I haven't heard of any anecdoes of the same in Rhode Island, so what are those states doing differently than Finland. Just to rehash something from one of my other posts, we already have legalized prostitution, albeit in different forms - porn stars, escorts, masssage parlor girls, people who marry for money - and while there are nominal differences, I mean, are you going to tell me with a straight face that there any substantial difference between a porn star and a prostitute? The law says there is, but the reality is that there really isn't, so let's just legalize it and give these prostitutes all the rights and privileges of any employee in a legitimate business. Of course it's a crappy job, but it ain't the only one. and that point about punishing johns but not prostitutes is ridiculous. should we just punish drug consumers and not drug dealers then?

It's actually $150/adult

Yeah, but that's really only a small part of the piece

There is no way these companies will survive - does anyone even KNOW anyone who has recently purchased a new Buick, Sedan, etc? And those cars are probably having massive sales. I know we'll lose millions of jobs if these plants close, but what's the point of keeping these companies alive since they'll fold eventually anyway. Let them file Chapter 11 or 7 (the latter so we can get our loans back immediately) now instead of a year from now, and we'll deal with the fallout instead of keeping our heads in the sand. I mean, how many billions do we need to burn through before appreciating and not avoiding the reality of the situation.