Posted On: Thursday - December 18th 2025 11:05PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Lefty MegaStupidity University Race/Genetics
This one's no big news, just some general stupidity that we run into every day.
It's really pretty non-discriminatory and welcoming, to non-criminals of different ethnicities.
Instapundit linked me to the following from a site called MLive, "M" for Michigan, I gotta assume: Here’s why ‘Neighborhood Crime Watch’ signs in Ann Arbor are going away. Ann Arbor is not just a college town, it's one of the very biggest, the college, that is. The University of Michigan has 53 1/2 thousand students.
Somewhat coincidentally, I came upon another MLive page about UM enrollment near the top of my search for that. Undergraduate enrollment is up 3% from last year, while grad student enrollment, composed of the bulk of foreign students, is down. Guess why. Guess who, more like it:
International students have been subject to increased scrutiny by the federal government. In April, the Donald Trump administration revoked visas or legal residencies over 20 international UM students and graduates.Ha. Gotta up that game, but that was a valiant effort... something completely O/T of my post here though*, other than, yeah, it's a college town, so you're gonna get some really unintelligent, stupid stuff happening quite often.
The federal administration restored the records of those students and graduates, officials said in an April 28 update.
We can't blame the foreigners for this bit. It's usually local people, as these college towns often have many hangers-on, people who can't get themselves to leave. They don't change their views from that indoctrinated university mindset. City councils go far left. I had a landlady long ago who told me that November to make sure and vote the local Commies out of office. I was glad to try to help her, but the place was truly hopeless.
Oh, this post is about "Neighborhood Watch" signs. I remember them. There was a point to these, back 25 years ago, before the age of ubiquitous cameras. Though the signs do make it seem like there is some sort of camera involved, nah ... The program, I assume having spread all over the country since it was started by the National Sheriff's Association in 1972, involved residents actually getting together in person and arranging their own watches of the neighborhood to prevent burglaries and maybe worse.
Perhaps by at least a decade ago**, all that's been left of most Neighborhood Watch programs has been the signs. At some point, criminals figured out they mean nothing. As a lady in the article stated, the signs are like furniture - I could not tell you where any of them are near me, even were there a dozen of them. So, OK, take them down. This will prevent eye clutter, hopefully cut down a few instances of vehicular damage involving Chinese grad students, and, from my quick calculation, the 5-10 tons of scrap steel would net the City of Ann Arbor ~$500 - $1000.
"That's very reasonable, so where does this get stupid?", you ask, reasonably. Here:
Neighborhood watch programs emerged in the 1970s during a period of national anxiety about crime and social change, but research shows they don’t reduce crime and often reinforce racism, council stated in a resolution.This is called "showing one's ass." That's technical terminology for which I felt obligated to go to (very appropriately here) this Urban Dictionary page. The bolded part of the definition is what I'm getting at:
“These programs were often rooted in assumptions about who did and did not ‘belong’ in a neighborhood, reinforcing race-based hyper-vigilance and suspicion particularly toward Black, Brown, and other marginalized residents and visitors,” it states.
“This dynamic encouraged informal surveillance practices that disproportionately targeted people of color and contributed to patterns of exclusion under the guise of public safety.”
... making yourself look like a jackass or an asshole, being a dick. embarrassing yourself or the people you are with in public or in front of other people, usually by doing something socially unacceptable. exposing your true colors in a negative way, also, having a nasty attitude in a public setting.The Neighborhood Watch program was unwelcoming to criminals. I'm sure you'd have read NOTHING about black and brown people. "Marginalized residents"? Well, if that means burglars and murderers, yes, the idea was to keep these people outside the margins of the Neighborhood Watch zones. "Yeah, we had to marginalize some folks."
This one gets stupider with every movement of the scroll bar.
But for many other residents and visitors, particularly people of color, the signs are very visible and the message they send is not one of welcome, but of suspicion, [City CouncilwomanThis statement had an obvious implication that it's these "people of color" who are the criminals. Yes, you're showing your asses here, Jen Eyer and the rest of the Ann Arbor City CouncilPeople. This story comes across as downright Babylon Beesque.KarenJen] Eyer said.
The self-defense shooting of Travon Martin in '12 was brought up by these people too.. I'd almost forgotten, but George Zimmerman had kept an eye on young Trayvon as part of his Neighborhood Watch group activities.
The tragedy of Martin being fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, did not happen in isolation,...No, it happened because young Trayvon was beating Mr. Zimmerman's head onto the concrete.
... Harrison said. It happened in a broader environment that normalized surveillance over relationship and fear over familiarity, she said.They do, and it doesn't. I can't believe people still say that with a straight face.
“Neighborhood watch was built on an old idea that heterogeneous neighborhoods create danger,” she said. “Ann Arbor is built on the understanding that diversity creates strength.”
As a university city, unfamiliar faces are not an exception, they are the norm, Harrison said. People from around the world come here to live, work, study and visit, and the city’s public messaging should reflect that, she said.Having unfamiliar faces as the norm is the opposite of having a community. I'd want to keep a watch on the potential criminals. That's the kind of discrimination that BUILDS communities.
* This and local happenings - yet MOAR building of student housing, I think - does have me thinking of that University Bubble and when it will pop.
** There's still a website up.
Comments:
Anonymous
Wednesday - December 24th 2025 12:19PM MST
PS Women and their harebrained ideas shouldn't be allowed anywhere any positions of authority.
Moderator
Saturday - December 20th 2025 10:15AM MST
PS: "This is a sustained stupidity, not an impulsive stupidity, and so deserves extra credit in the “most stupid” weighing." Sustained, long-term, slow-burn stupidity. Yes, thanks for pointing this one out. (I only had the thought in my head for a minute when I saw one of the images with that old sign, but I didn't write anything about it.)
You know people used to steal street signs for nostalgic reasons, lots of them college students - I know because I've seen many of them in dorm rooms way back. However, these old NW signs might be nice decor, especially the ones urging people to be on the lookout for George Rafts.
You know people used to steal street signs for nostalgic reasons, lots of them college students - I know because I've seen many of them in dorm rooms way back. However, these old NW signs might be nice decor, especially the ones urging people to be on the lookout for George Rafts.
SafeNow
Saturday - December 20th 2025 12:15AM MST
PS
“I think in the whole history of Neighborhood Watch, as a program, over 53 years, if it still exists, NOBODY has been worried about guys looking like George Raft being the bad guys” - Mr. Moderator
For this NOBODY reason, I think fedora-man-as-crime-culprit might be one of the stupidest single conceptions identified in the entire annals of Peak Stupidity. It is STILL possible to purchase a fedora-man neighborhood watch sign on Amazon. This is a sustained stupidity, not an impulsive stupidity, and so deserves extra credit in the “most stupid” weighing.
“I think in the whole history of Neighborhood Watch, as a program, over 53 years, if it still exists, NOBODY has been worried about guys looking like George Raft being the bad guys” - Mr. Moderator
For this NOBODY reason, I think fedora-man-as-crime-culprit might be one of the stupidest single conceptions identified in the entire annals of Peak Stupidity. It is STILL possible to purchase a fedora-man neighborhood watch sign on Amazon. This is a sustained stupidity, not an impulsive stupidity, and so deserves extra credit in the “most stupid” weighing.
Moderator
Friday - December 19th 2025 7:32AM MST
PS: YES, SafeNow! When I was picking out the image - I was in a big hurry - I did notice the old sign, plenty of which I've seen before, with the vague graphic of that guy with the fedora. He's an old fashioned gangster, see? No, not a stupid thug gangsta, but one of the guys from the movies, as in your picture.
I think in the whole history of Neighborhood Watch, as a program, over 53 years, if it still exists, NOBODY has been worried about guys looking like George Raft being the bad guys they're worried about roaming their neighborhoods. One would have to go back another 30 years at least.
It was PC even in '72.
BTW, it was not too long ago when road cautionary (yellow) signs that warned about slow-moving farm equipment had a guy on the tractor with a straw hat. That could have been updated to a John Deere baseball style cap long ago.
I think in the whole history of Neighborhood Watch, as a program, over 53 years, if it still exists, NOBODY has been worried about guys looking like George Raft being the bad guys they're worried about roaming their neighborhoods. One would have to go back another 30 years at least.
It was PC even in '72.
BTW, it was not too long ago when road cautionary (yellow) signs that warned about slow-moving farm equipment had a guy on the tractor with a straw hat. That could have been updated to a John Deere baseball style cap long ago.
Moderator
Friday - December 19th 2025 7:26AM MST
PS: I noticed that too, M. To me, that was a way of avoiding saying "President Trump", the "President" part, that is. They are loath to admit that (someone screwed up and didn't cheat hard enough such that) he won.. I do know about their attitudes, yes.
SafeNow
Friday - December 19th 2025 4:21AM MST
PS
Years ago my neighborhood posted neighborhood watch signs that depicted a culprit. Well, it would not have been acceptable to depict a guy in a hoodie. So instead, it was a guy in a fedora, pull-down menacingly over his forehead. It was like we had to watch for George Raft, the gangster-movie star, coming to our street.
https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/George-Raft-in-Scarface.jpg?resize=768%2C432
Years ago my neighborhood posted neighborhood watch signs that depicted a culprit. Well, it would not have been acceptable to depict a guy in a hoodie. So instead, it was a guy in a fedora, pull-down menacingly over his forehead. It was like we had to watch for George Raft, the gangster-movie star, coming to our street.
https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/George-Raft-in-Scarface.jpg?resize=768%2C432
M
Friday - December 19th 2025 3:50AM MST
PS
The "Donald Trump administration" versus the "federal administration"?
That tells you pretty much everything you need to know about their attitudes.
Though maybe they're just Noticing, that in many cases this is real. Though it's always a problem when it is.
The "Donald Trump administration" versus the "federal administration"?
That tells you pretty much everything you need to know about their attitudes.
Though maybe they're just Noticing, that in many cases this is real. Though it's always a problem when it is.