Ann Arbor Passes An Ordinance To Be More Welcoming - To Criminals

Mlive.com: Here’s why ‘Neighborhood Crime Watch’ signs in Ann Arbor are going away

City Council voted 10-0 Monday night, Dec. 15, to direct city staff to remove all neighborhood watch signs in the city by July 15 as the city strives to be more welcoming and inclusive.

Because watching out for your neighbors and your property and theirs  and being against crime is, according to the city council, racist. 

 Because, of course it is.

And of course, they brought up the canard of Trayvon Martin:

a young Black teenager walking through a neighborhood he had every right to be in, yet perceived as a threat simply for being there.The tragedy of Martin being fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, did not happen in isolation, Harrison said. It happened in a broader environment that normalized surveillance over relationship and fear over familiarity, she said.

She left out the part where dear, (not so) innocent Trayvon was  killed only after trying to bash that volunteer's head against the pavement.

Because of course she glossed over that. 

Then, of course, she runs with the progressive bromides for which an easy objection is that the bromides are simply not supported by any evidence that they are true:

“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 we remove signs that have long communicated warning, we also have an opportunity to replace them with messages that say something better,” she said. “When people feel welcome walking down the street, visiting family, looking for a place to live, or simply existing in public, our neighborhoods are not just more inclusive. They are safer.”

 There's no facts whatsoever that has shown that diversity creates strength, noir that Neighborhood watch was built on the idea that heterogeneous neighborhoods create danger - she just made that up.

Nor is there any facts that a neighborhood is safer by having people feel inclusive.  Indeed when criminals feel included and unwatched, crime tends to increase and a neighborhood becomes less safe.