MI - Boy, 9, dies in fall from apartment building, ruled suicide

[Jacie Estes]

The boy's funeral is set for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Historic Little Rock Baptist Church, 9000 Woodward Ave. in Detroit. A fund has been set up with Peace Funeral Home to help the family pay for the service.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120721/NEWS01/207210381

 

[Gardenlady]

It's always bothered me that those we most depend on, who risk the most for us, are the first ones cut. Either we need a more solid funding mechanism than fluctuating property taxes, or local govt needs to learn to better manage $ and put some back in times of surplus to protect vital services. Or cut waste and nonessential personnel & services!

Frustrating too that this mom's issues were known, she'd lost parental rights to the older children, he'd threatened suicide before, and CPS was involved with the family, yet this still happened.

Property taxes are indeed an extremely poor way to fund important local services like emergency, law enforcement, fire, education, etc.

Basing these things on property ensures only that the rich get excellent service, the poor get...well... POOR or NO service, and the working class gets what they always get, lots of juggling to try to make end meet to pay the bills (services).

I don't even begin to know where one would even start to turn things around, though, with a city in the shape that Detroit is in. The problem is so much deeper even than just funding for services, although yeah, being able to simply get an ambulance to the scene of a tragedy like this would be a start. I keep thinking of the neighbor in the article who said she heard the boy land, and then heard whimpering... What if he could have been saved?! :cry: