[Indentured Servant]

Has anyone watched the new Netflix Documentary/Drama "Flint Town"? I watched it last night and overall thought they did a good job, but thought it was interesting that they did it from the perspective of the police.

[nikki66]

Never seen it, what is it about?

[Indentured Servant]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfNURrdgWTU

[westcoastlife]

I watched it, and found it very informative. I knew about the water crisis, but I had NO idea the city has so many problems. I hope they make another season.

[Coldjensens]

Media loves to pick out the worst parts and worst issues in a troubled town. Now that it is no longer PC to make Detroit look worse than it is, Flint is the new target. Yes they have a lot of problems. Most of them are problems every other city has, just to a greater extreme. However for shock value these problems get exaggerated for media hype presentations, it attracts more people. Go visit Flint. Definitely a troubled town, parts of it are truly horrible, but the city as a whole is nowhere near as awful as they make it appear.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Media loves to pick out the worst parts and worst issues in a troubled town. Now that it is no longer PC to make Detroit look worse than it is, Flint is the new target. Yes they have a lot of problems. Most of them are problems every other city has, just to a greater extreme. However for shock value these problems get exaggerated for media hype presentations, it attracts more people. Go visit Flint. Definitely a troubled town, parts of it are truly horrible, but the city as a whole is nowhere near as awful as they make it appear.

Yes, that goes without saying. They also never mentioned that the State Police and County Sheriff, I believe, was doing patrols during that period. Therefore, it was not JUST the FPD trying to protect and serve the city.

I really liked the connection that a few of the officers had with the citizens. I mean, in one case the officer was preaching to this young man about how he can do better and is going to have to do better....and you could see it resonating in the face of the young man. On another incident an officer was arresting a suspect and commenting how he looked just like his dad. When there was a police community connection, there seemed to be very little resistance and anger for being arrested. They knew they had made a choice to do wrong and accepted the consequence. One guy who was running a trap house said he knew it (being busted) was gong to come sooner or later. He was simply surprised that it took the police that long (they ended up shooting his two dogs in the raid).

One officer said that he just did not think it make sense to be confiscating the cars of poor people, ticketing them for minor things.....because it just weighed them down more. I see it kind of like charging people higher interest rates because they have a bad income to debt ratio and or on time payment history. Ergo, making people, who seem to have a problem affording and paying their bills, have to pay even more, because they are not likely to pay it back on time or at all. I mean....if you are risk to pay back 300 dollars a month.....you make them have to pay back 400 dollars a month due to sky high interest rate. Seems counter intuitive if you ask me. The same with police confiscating homes, cars, etc of poor people.

To me...when a city gets to that condition and like Detroit....where you cannot afford basic police protection, the state needs to allocate resources. I wish Michigan had annexation laws that allowed principle cities to expand like Columbus and Indianapolis does. This would prevent a lot of the decay from loss of tax base.

One other issue of note, Flint was generally ranked in the top 5 cities, with 100,000 population or more, for violent crime. However, Flint's population is now below 100,000 and as a consequence, no longer appears on that list....not because its crime reduced, but because its population has dropped it of that list. Saginaw has been a leader of violent crime rates for cities of less than 100,000 for a long time. I don't think its number one anymore, however. Saginaw has many of the same issues as Flint, except for the water.

[slowdawg]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Media loves to pick out the worst parts and worst issues in a troubled town. Now that it is no longer PC to make Detroit look worse than it is, Flint is the new target. Yes they have a lot of problems. Most of them are problems every other city has, just to a greater extreme. However for shock value these problems get exaggerated for media hype presentations, it attracts more people. Go visit Flint. Definitely a troubled town, parts of it are truly horrible, but the city as a whole is nowhere near as awful as they make it appear.

Why do people get so defensive when people speak negatively about a city truly in trouble? They are bringing to light problems that MUST be discussed honestly and tackled to save the place?

Whats exaggerated?

Whats good about Flint?

How many decent areas are there where people don't need to worry about burglaries or car thefts?

The vast majority of the city is not safe from property crimes and previously stable neighborhoods are showing noticeable increases in violence and abandonment. A good percentage of the city is empty with all the homes demolished or burned. Many were mostly occuppied a decade ago and completely emptied out and burned down in a short period of time. Once nice neighborhoods are now infected with severe poverty. decent, desireable neighborhoods probably make up 15% of the city. There are very small businesses left except for a few liquor stores. Flint is in its death throes and its residents have largely given up. Literally everyone who can leave already has.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by slowdawg

Why do people get so defensive when people speak negatively about a city truly in trouble? They are bringing to light problems that MUST be discussed honestly and tackled to save the place?

Whats exaggerated?

Whats good about Flint?

How many decent areas are there where people don't need to worry about burglaries or car thefts?

The vast majority of the city is not safe from property crimes and previously stable neighborhoods are showing noticeable increases in violence and abandonment. A good percentage of the city is empty with all the homes demolished or burned. Many were mostly occuppied a decade ago and completely emptied out and burned down in a short period of time. Once nice neighborhoods are now infected with severe poverty. decent, desireable neighborhoods probably make up 15% of the city. There are very small businesses left except for a few liquor stores. Flint is in its death throes and its residents have largely given up. Literally everyone who can leave already has.

The area just does not have much going for it. GM was all it really ever had to attract people. General Motors Institute used to be pretty prestigious back in my day, as well. I have not been to Flint in about 30 years.....so I don't know what it looks like or the attitude of the people. I would guess, especially after the water crisis, that people feel pretty hopeless that the place will ever make a turn around.

That having been said, Netflix did highlight the bad and did not appear to look for any good. However, the whole purpose of the series was to show a troubled city and you do not show a troubled city by focusing on the good side.

Again, I have not been to Flint in 30 years or more. However, based upon general perceptions, I would probably find more than 15% of the city livable for my standards. I used to live in areas people thought were just terrible, but did not have a lot of issues. That is not to say that bad things did not happen, but rather that not engaging in certain types of activities greatly reduces the probability of become a victim.

[drro]

Originally Posted by Indentured Servant

One other issue of note, Flint was generally ranked in the top 5 cities, with 100,000 population or more, for violent crime. However, Flint's population is now below 100,000 and as a consequence, no longer appears on that list....not because its crime reduced, but because its population has dropped it of that list. Saginaw has been a leader of violent crime rates for cities of less than 100,000 for a long time. I don't think its number one anymore, however. Saginaw has many of the same issues as Flint, except for the water.

That's an interesting observation, I noticed too Flint dropped off the radar in the last few years. It's murder rate actually went up last year but since it's population declined below 100.000 people it doesn't show up in the statistics anymore.

Flint Town is on Netflix over here in Europe too, it's on top of my things to watch list.

[drro]

I watched the first episode and Flint is actually worse than I thought. At the meeting in North Flint the elderly lady says there are shootings back and forth all night. The police are understaffed and can't respond to many calls, a man who got robbed and assaulted got a visit from the police the next day. At the end a teenager got shot and killed in the drive-way. Pretty disturbing stuff.