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=> Detroit store raids smack of hostility toward business, dubious priori

Detroit store raids smack of hostility toward business, dubious priori
Posted by Jeff (Guest) - Friday, February 25 2005, 19:30:43 (CET)
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Friday, February 25, 2005


Detroit store raids smack of hostility toward business, dubious priorities


By Daniel Howes / The Detroit News

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The first one through the door was a minor, who tried to buy a 12-ounce bottle of Corona. But the guy behind the glass at the Beer Wagon on West Warren, Jimmy Hamama, turned him away.

No sale.

A police cruiser pulled into the parking lot; then two; finally three. On the store's security camera, the convergence of Detroit police power foreshadowed the kind of raid you might see on a recent episode of "NYPD Blue" or a grainy movie, circa World War II, on the History Channel.

But these officers -- 10 of them, according to the video record -- spent the next 45 minutes scanning sell-by dates on packaged foods and searching behind the sales counter, behind inch-thick security glass, for any violation they could find. They checked the baby food, the milk. Anything with a date, in a brand-new store opened less than a month, was fair game.

"What do you need that kind of manpower for -- scaring people to death," says owner Tony Kalasho, a Chaldean who's operated a "party store" on Warren at Vancourt for 19 years.

This, in Detroit, a city desperate for new business development. This in a city all but abandoned by major grocery chains. This in a city desperate to shed its enduring reputation as one of America's crime capitals, with a mayor willing to debate anyone who says otherwise, but with a police department still willing to commit precious resources to tasks better suited to health inspectors.

The police prize: One package of expired meat, a violation that cost Kalasho $950 -- a $200 fine and $750 for the lawyer. And a citation for Kalasho not being in the store, with his legally registered handguns, when the cops arrived.

The raid on Kalasho's store is one of 77 so far this year by Detroit police officers, on top of 314 raids last year. They've issued 28 citations for selling alcohol to minors (compared to 128 last year) and 130 more tickets for ordinance violations, such as selling expired food or loose cigarettes.

"No one says each and everyone of those store owners is bad," says James Tate, a police spokesman. "But you've got to weed out the bad ones."

Yes, you do. Business owners who want to stay in business should be smart enough to know that flouting the law by peddling bad meat to grandmothers or selling booze to kids or turning a blind eye to drug trafficking invites trouble -- crime, legal hassles and prosecution.

And politicians should be smart enough to understand that repeated inspections of a certain kind of establishment -- party stores owned predominantly by Chaldeans -- invite charges of discrimination and harassment.

But I'm not sure, after talking to the police department and the Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's office, that the "optics" of how bad this continuing campaign looks really matters to them.

It should. For outsiders, the police actions and City Hall's support of them reek of bigotry and a hostility to business. For Detroiters wearied by crime, the raids are evidence of misplaced priorities. It's time for a rethink.

Daniel Howes' column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at (313) 222-2106 or at dchowes@detnews.com. Catch him Fridays with Paul W. Smith on NewsTalk 760-WJR.



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