Pizza, Safety, & Raaaaacism

Jets Pizza in Dearborn, Michigan will no longer be delivering pizza in the city of Detroit after dark.  Recently a 19-year-old employee was shot point-blank in the chest while delivering a pizza.  The normal procedure had been two people would go to make any delivery in Detroit.  One of the delivery people was legally armed.  It was the last delivery of the night and only person remained and was willing to go to make the delivery.  Luckily the young college student was not killed.

The cries of raaaaacism didn't take long.  So let me see an employer has to take the extra step of hiring people who have legal carry permits in order to protect the delivery man from being robbed and/or shot at while in the city limits.  The management/owners of this pizza place have at very least a moral obligation to their employees for their safety.  In some states it may even be possible that they have a legal one.

I am sorry, but his has nothing to do with race, this has to with safety.  A young man was doing his summer job and was shot in the chest and the bullet nicked his lung.  He is a football player and more than likely will miss the season because he was trying to be responsible and do the job for which he was hired to do; deliver pizza.

Detroit is the armpit of U.S. cities at this point in time.  If I owned a business that had delivery options available it is very possible that I wouldn't even go into Detroit in broad daylight.  I wouldn't be able to live with myself if one of my employees was badly injured or worse yet killed just to make a food delivery.  It isn't worth it.

I do have sympathy for the people who are left in that city.  Good paying jobs are not easy to come by, the crime rate is very high, gangs have infested the city, and it is just downright dangerous.  The public school system is an abject failure.  We could spend $50K per student and it probably wouldn't make a dent.

But this has become the new mantra in the U.S., cry racism at every turn.  As an employer do you really think it makes a difference that the city is mostly black?  Do you think the owner of this restaurant would do something different if the city were mostly white and still just as dangerous?

A local resident said this:

Ryan, a resident of southwest Detroit where the shooting happened, said he would “never let his wife outside after dark.” Would he go outside himself after dark? “Yeah, I would, but I’m armed,” Ryan said.
He added that many delivery companies in Detroit won’t go to addresses they don’t already know.

This man lives there and is afraid to let his own wife go out onto the streets after dark.  Is he racist too?  Maybe he is one of those safe hating black men?

Another said this:

John from Chesterfield called in and said, “This is not racist, this is a high probability risk assessment. I was in the military … If you’re going to go into Detroit after dark the risk assessment is you’re going to be robbed, shot or mugged … There are people in Detroit who don’t want to go out after dark either, it’s crazy, but that’s it.

One more for good measure:

Mike, a U.S. Post Office manager, said he had a part-time carrier who moonlighted in that area as a pizza delivery man, and he was also attacked. “The guy jumped out of the bushes and basically attacked him, pulled out a gun … It’s very dangerous over there. I’m black, I’m from the city, but that’s the highest crime area I staffed. I can’t blame the pizza owner for doing that. He has to look at those employees every day.”

The owner/management of this business is doing the responsible thing.  He is protecting his employees from danger that can easily be controlled by not making deliveries after dark when the chances are high they will be robbed, mugged, or even killed.

As I said, I have a great deal of sympathy for the people in Detroit who are stuck in this crime ridden area and sadly can't find a way out.  From what I have heard, the mayor is really trying, but has yet to make a significant difference as of yet.

If you bought me a house, paid all of bills, gave me a very healthy monthly salary, I still wouldn't live there.

This isn't about racism, this is about common sense.  Sadly, there are elements in that city that put zero value on human life, personal property, or civil liberties.  I realize it is easy to say that the citizens need to band together to stop these elements when I am not the one doing it.  I remember a woman in Baltimore who tried to do just that and she was murdered, and her killer was never found.  She was killed in broad daylight in the middle of the street.  Someone saw who did it, but are too scared to come forward.  I can't say that I blame them.  But the problem is, until the citizens band together to rid their city of these elements, they won't be getting any pizza deliveries from Jets.  I have this feeling that many others will be doing the same.  The honest people in this city are being held prisoner by the thugs.

Where is Jesse Jackson on this issue?