Israeli security guards at the Kerem Shalom border crossing into the southern Gaza Strip and Shin Bet operatives recently foiled an attempt to smuggle drones into the Palestinian enclave, the Defense Ministry announced Sunday.
During a search of an Israeli vehicle carrying toys, security guards found several drones of different sizes and types, all of which were equipped with quality cameras. Additional smuggling attempts of drones have been foiled by the Shin Bet in recent weeks.
The drones were apparently set to be used for spying on Israeli targets, the Defense Ministry said.
Israeli authorities launched an investigation into the smuggling attempts.
In March, Hamas drones reportedly flew out of the Gaza Strip and into Egyptian airspace above the Sinai Peninsula several times as the Egyptian army stood by helpless to prevent the incursions. Egyptian radar picked up three drones flying out of the southern Gaza Strip on numerous occasions, the Egyptian Al Osboa newspaper reported. The unmanned aerial vehicles penetrated as far as El Arish and Sheikh Zuweid, some 50 kilometers from the Egypt-Gaza border.
Border forces opened fire on the drones but couldn't hit them because they were flying at an altitude of 750 meters (2,250 feet), the report said. Under the terms of the 1979 peace deal with Israel, Egypt is not allowed to station any anti-aircraft weapons in the Sinai region.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-thwarts-attempt-to-smuggle-drones-into-gaza/
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 24 2016, @08:21AM
Did the drones have inscriptions "for use on Israelis targets" or something like that? I mean they can suspect that this was what the drones were intended for. They may even have good reasons to suspect it. But there's no reasonable way I can imagine that this can be apparent.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @01:13PM
A more correct headline would be:
Isreal steals toy drones bought by Palestinians from a truck filled with other toys.
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Wednesday February 24 2016, @02:59PM
Out of mod points otherwise I'd mod parent +1. They're freaking $70 kid's toys, they made it sound like they intercepted a truckload of armed UAVs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @07:59PM
It's the middle-east; those are the same thing there.
(Score: 2) by Urlax on Wednesday February 24 2016, @10:49PM
do the 70 buck versions go to 750m height? i thought anything under 100 bucks was limited to 15 minutes fly time.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @08:26AM
But it's quite fine for Israel to both spy on, and systematically bomb the Palestinian residents there. Meanwhile, the rest of the world stands by to watch it happen. gg, NATO. Perhaps they need to find some 'oil reserves' there; then again, that big oil-thirsty liberator is just a puppet state of Israel...
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @09:17AM
Meanwhile, the rest of the world stands by to watch it happen
1) For very many Palestinians any peace agreement is merely temporary their end goal is the destruction of Israel. Just look at what the charter/constitution/members of Hamas and Fatah have said for many years. Many Palestinians truly support this goal (many Muslims around the world too for that matter).
2) Most Israelis are against leaving and being destroyed.
So there is a conflict which can't be resolved easily.
I only have a little sympathy for the Palestinians because from what I see if the Palestinians had really gone for peace on condition of getting rights as Israeli citizens they would have a lot more power today. Just do the math:
Total population of Israel: 8.4 million
Population of Arab Israelis: 1.7 million
Population of Palestinians: 4.7 million
1.7+ 4.7 = 6.4 million
8.4 + 4.7 = 13.1 million.
6.4/13.1 = 48% = a lot more power than throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers or firing rockets into Israel.
Even the smaller number (20.7%) of Arab Israeli voters in Israel are already giving them a headache ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/03/17/on-israeli-election-day-netanyahu-warns-of-arabs-voting-in-droves/ [washingtonpost.com] ). The Israelis like to pretend they are a democracy to the rest of the world. If the Palestinians had "Made Love" instead of War it would have been much more difficult for the Israelis- they would either have to stop pretending they're a democracy or they would have had to concede more and more power.
But they chose War over and over and over again. Naturally many Israelis at the top are OK with War especially those who can do the math too (they wouldn't be in power if the Palestinians were voting).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @02:52PM
You are either misinformed, or intentionally spreading lies.
The Palestinians in the occupied territories (West Bank and Gaza, your 4.7 million) have no right to vote for Knesset elections, and therefore have zero power to influence the outcome of Israeli politics.
They tried the peace "process", and it was derailed. By no other than Netanyahu in the second half of the 1990s. The same Netanyahu who is in power now, and is not willing to compromise for any kind of permanent solution.
Now, does that give them carte blanche for terrorism? Absolutely not. If it was up to me, I would take up peaceful civil disobedience, Ghandi style, and that would have a chance of changing world opinion.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hemocyanin on Wednesday February 24 2016, @04:16PM
Your reading comprehension is poor -- GP never said the Palestinians in the occupied territories could vote -- the post was about how IF the Palestinians would have adopted a "make love not war" policy, they would have a lot of political power. And just so you know, Arab Israeli citizens can vote, Arab parties have elected representatives in the Knesset, and a judge on the Supreme Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel#Arab_political_parties [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel#Representation_in_the_Knesset [wikipedia.org]
There's even a whole section in the GP's post that is math showing how if you added up those Arabs who can vote with those who can't, that Israeli Arabs would be make up about 50% of those eligible to voting population, and pointing out that Palestinians have sort of shot themselves in the foot with their "make war not love" position (destruction of Israel).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Wednesday February 24 2016, @03:03PM
If you read the history of the British Mandate the conversation basically went like
Brits: How about we make one state where both Israelis and Palestinians are equally represented?
Palestinians: Hell no.
B: Well then how about we split the land in half and you each get your own state?
P: No, we want it all.
Then they tried to implement the 2-state thing anyway, and as soon as Israel declared independence because the Brits pulled out because they were tired of dealing with this shit, all the neighboring countries promptly invaded.
So I don't really see what Israel is supposed to do. The only way the Palestinians will be happy is if the entire Jewish population just leaves.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday February 24 2016, @03:32PM
the Brits pulled out because they were tired of dealing with this shit
A thousand years from now, or more, the history of this era of the middle east is probably going to be taught as
1) Conditions are screwed up
2) X easily invades
3) X pulled out because they were tired of dealing with this shit
4) Conditions become worse than ever
5) Repeat for a different value of X. How many empires have died in Afghanistan per historical records?
With a side dish of the Israeli policy of destabilizing any moderate or stable countries. Mark my words, the fact that Tunisia and Jordan and Bahrain are semi-stable right now means 10-20 years of intense political effort and we'll have american troops marching down their main streets. Seriously. Look at old news footage from Iran or Iraq or Egypt or Lebanon or Syria or pretty much any place America ended up bombing, a decade after a country is acknowledged as moderate and civilized, the USA is ordered to bomb it.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 24 2016, @04:45PM
While your take on the whole thing is more accurate than John Q. Public, I think you don't go far enough back to paint the whole picture. Starting in the 1890's, Zionist Jews were pressuring England to create a Jewish state. A lot of crap that happened during WW2 was - "allowed" to happen, by those same Zionist Jews. Some say that the Zionists actually instigated a lot of it, but I have my doubts on that score. But, they did "allow" atrocities to take place, knowing that those said atrocities would help to spur the creation of the Jewish state.
That out of the way, I am convinced that the Arab take on Jewish "extremism" in the latter '40's is more accurate than the western press has ever admitted. Villages of Arabs were massacred, the Jews bombed a hotel to "encourage" England to pull out, and more.
My stance is, "There ain't no good guys" in that conflict. Everyone is dirty, but I can accept that the Jews may be less dirty than the opposition.
And, in the end, everyone has an opinion, and they all stink.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @06:00PM
What's the difference between wanting to create a Jewish state in Palestine and wanting to create an Aryan state in Germany?
Maybe you don't really see what Germany was supposed to do? Let's hope Israel's tactics never get that bad despite the wishes [israelnationalnews.com] of its leaders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @05:54PM
Hamas was founded in 1988. That's forty years after Israel cleansed hundreds of villages and drove out the inhabitants who continue to be refugees and comprise half of Gaza's population today. The only reason Israel wont allow them to return is they aren't Jewish. 1988 is also twenty years after the start of Israel's campaign to cleanse and annex Gaza, by using its military to establish colonies in Gaza for the exclusive use of Jews. Yet you expect us to believe that Hamas and/or their charter is the reason this conflict exists?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday February 24 2016, @06:51PM
1) For very many Israelis any peace agreement is merely temporary their end goal is the destruction of Palestine. Just look at what the Zionists have said for many years. Many Israelis truly support this goal (many Christians around the world too for that matter).
2) Most Palestinians are against leaving and being destroyed.
So there is a conflict which can't be resolved easily.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:50PM
This is a propaganda article and should never have made it to the site.
Something we should rather be discussing is "Freedom of Speech under attack" - London removes anti-Israel posters under Israeli pressure [reuters.com]
And article footer such as "How does a modern man resist when he is being silenced by his own government from pressure by international terrorists? How can technology help set him free?"
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @08:26AM
Do we have to accept these anti-semetic agit-prop pieces from out dear and fluffly "all about the sex" Runaway1956? Seems like SoylentNews is getting a rep online, and I am not sure I like it. Even the Marco Rubio campaign does not cite Brietbart. And they don't even bother to deny that they cite Runaway.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 24 2016, @08:38AM
How is the article anti-semitic? It sounds quite neutral to me.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @10:39AM
It's typical Zionist rhetoric. Any time someone says anything bad about Israel, or any Jewish community, it's "anti-semitic". Welcome to the 21st century, where political correctness trumps freedom of speech and common sense.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday February 24 2016, @11:27AM
Any time someone says anything bad about Israel
To which part of the summary/article are you referring?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:40PM
Any of it, you dimwit. Dontcha see Israel? Any FA with Israel is goin' t'be an anti-semetic agit-prop piece o'shit.
Welcome to the 21st century, where political correctness trumps freedom of speech and common sense.
Jews are responsible an' are goin' to pay for it. All hail Trump, he's gonna fix it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:50PM
Spoken like a typical American. You do realise there's an entire planet outside of your nation's borders, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @01:54PM
Spoken like a typical American.
Yes, I think that was the joke.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @01:55PM
Yea pussies, a waste of land you are. You just wait. Trump's gonna liberate you from sand niggers, protect you from chinks and build new condos in Vatican for all popes who's gonna approve him.
(Score: 3, Funny) by deimtee on Wednesday February 24 2016, @02:00PM
Well, technically there isn't an entire planet outside of his nations borders. It would be missing the bit inside his nation's borders.
One job constant is that good employers have low turnover, so opportunities to join good employers are relatively rare.
(Score: 3, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday February 24 2016, @04:29PM
Well!
If you want to get technical - and who wouldn't, it's awesome - there are several (billion) entire planets outside of the nation's borders.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Funny) by deimtee on Wednesday February 24 2016, @09:10PM
Well, I was referring to the context of the planet he is sitting on.
But if you want to get really technical. according to this guy [scienceblogs.com] the difference between the true number and yours is at least five orders of magnitude more than the difference between your number and mine. So I was only 0.001% more wrong than you. :-)
(1, 5x10⁹, >10²⁴ if you don't want to bother reading the link)
One job constant is that good employers have low turnover, so opportunities to join good employers are relatively rare.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:25PM
Funny, it sounds like Israeli propaganda to me.
How that is "is prejudice against, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews as an ethnic, religious, or racial group" is anyone's guess.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Wednesday February 24 2016, @01:32PM
anything that doesn't support zion as an end goal, is anti-semitic.
anything that doesn't support the islamic state needs to be avenged by (a) god.
see the connection?
There can be no rational debate on many issues, until the poisoned sacred texts refined over thousands of years to coerce compliance through fear, are no longer taught to children.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:22PM
Runaway1956 is a Jewish sympathizer. He would gladly give his life and those of his children and race if a Jew asked him to. But the Jews have better use for tools like him. They cry in front of him in fiction movies and he thinks its real. He is completely and utterly lost. The decades of brain-washing "programming" he went through definitely had something to do with his behaviour today.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 24 2016, @05:22PM
Ahhh, a member of my fan club. Allow me to educate you about Runaway1956's attitudes toward Israel, Zionism, and the Palestinians.
I most certainly am NOT anti-semitic. I neither like nor dislike people who are Jewish. I meet a Jew, most of the time, I don't even know he's a Jew. I either like the person, or I take a dislike toward that person. Eventually, I learn that the person is Jewish, and that doesn't change my opinion of him one whit. "Oh, you're Jewish, Steve? Oh-kay, Happy Hannakuh then, no problem!" No it isn't "I have a lot of Jewish freinds!" in my case, but I do have some. And, I have a few Jews I'd like to see gone from this world as well. Being Jewish isn't an issue.
Zion? I don't really give a flip about it. If it is God's will that Zion be created today - then nothing in the world is going to prevent it. If it is not God's will, then nothing on earth is going to force it. Either way, God doesn't need MY HELP! I may be egotistical, but I'm certainly not THAT egotistical.
Palestinians? Collectively, they are dumber than rocks. They have just about a bronze age technology, and they continue to challenge the existing regime, which enjoys all the best of the space age technology, as well as the information age technology. Israel has it all, tech wise, and these bronze age warriors expect to challenge Israel?
Above, others have discussed strategies for challenging Israel's supremacy, which may or may not work. But, Palestine isn't going to attempt any other strategy than the old tried failing method of a war of attrition. The more Palestinians who die for the cause, the better. Stones against tanks, prayers against aircraft, bottle rockets against precision cruise missiles. Collectively, they are retards, and deserve to have their asses kicked regularly.
So, for all you members of my fan club - remember that I am neither a Zionist, nor an anti-Semite. Mostly, I don't give a damn about the issues that concerns either group of people.
What I DO RESENT is, the fact that my government spends trillions of dollars, and supplies Israel with the best of the best technology. My government should be neutral in the whole Zion issue.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 25 2016, @03:20AM
What I DO RESENT is, the fact that my government spends trillions of dollars, and supplies Israel with the best of the best technology
And what are you doing about it? Nothing! You are complicit in the massacre of civilians and their children for doing nothing.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 25 2016, @03:41AM
Cry me a fucking river. My government isn't exactly "mine", now is it? I've protested a lot of crap that Washington has done. Probably my most vocal protest involved the invasion of Iraq. I protested that for MY OWN REASONS, not necessarily reasons that you would approve of. I've protested other things, such as waterboarding, and the establishment of Gitmo as a prisoner camp. Again - I protested for my own reasons, not necessarily reasons that you would approve of.
Read my earlier post again. There ain't no good guys in the dispute over Israel. I neither empathize nor symapthize with Israel, nor do I empathize or sympathize with Palestine. Each of them has made historical decisions which they live with today. Each day, they make more decisions, with which they will have to live.
I did state pretty clearly that it's hard to empathize with the party to the conflict which is dedicated to a war of attrition. Neither party is willing to engage in a meaningful peace solution, or "process". One party knows it has the technological edge, they have no reason to seek peace. The other party is willing to throw lives into the conflict, and they don't care about peace either.
So, go on, cry me a river.
What have YOU done to promote peace? I mean, aside from whining about the Jews being "unfair"?
If I were actually forced to take sides on the issue, I would probably side with the Jews. I hate hanging with stupid people, and that's all I see from the Palestinian leadership.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @08:37AM
Everybody knows terrorists don't have any technology. Why do you think America targets terrorists? So every battle can be a curb-stomp battle, dude. Fucking up terrorists with drones so high in the sky they can't even fucking see what hit them. That's how war works, American style. Killing shit-colored fish in a barrel!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @09:26AM
Images like this did not help their reputation one iota. [siteintelgroup.com].
I mean, if you have a beef against someone, go after the one you have a beef with, not someone else!
Really looks like a big man there, huh? Fixing to do in two helplessly bound Japanese that didn't have a thing to do with it?
This is enough to make the rest of us so mad we begin to feel the whole mess over there needs to be nuked from orbit.
I still remembered that image enough to look it up to post here.
That image infuriated me. Big time. I remember when it was being broadcast on TV.
Very few images have ever got me as mad as that one did.
And I am not Japanese.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday February 24 2016, @10:35AM
> This is enough to make the rest of us so mad we begin to feel the whole mess over there needs to be nuked from orbit.
And that is the intention. The Jihadis know perfectly well that every drone strike, bombing raid or invasion creates 5 more Jihadis for every one it kills.
They also know that drone and missile strikes and so on cost the West millions in high-tech hardware and logistics, compared to their own costs of cheap explosives & AK47s (and human lives, of course, but they are considered cheap). Bin Laden's stated goal before 2001 was to lure the US into a hysterical frenzy of uncontrolled military spending and ultimately bankrupt it. Whatever afterlife he's burning in right now (assuming he really is dead), he's probably laughing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @10:44AM
lure the US into a hysterical frenzy of uncontrolled military spending and ultimately bankrupt it.
It sure is taking a while, but if the idiot voters insist on continuing to vote for the most evil most warmongering most radical most polarizing scum they possibly can, bankrupting the US is inevitable. I just can't wait to see which fucking asshole the idiots will elect after Oh!Bama! The demise of America is gonna be great!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:27PM
It sure is taking a while, but if the idiot voters insist on continuing to vote for the most evil most warmongering most radical most polarizing scum they possibly can, bankrupting the US is inevitable. I just can't wait to see which fucking asshole the idiots will elect after Oh!Bama! The demise of America is gonna be great!
If you recall 2008 Obama was elected on the promise of change. He didn't deliver, what makes you think the next one will? The president is just a puppet and senators are just tools.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:29PM
Images like this did not help their reputation one iota..
That doesn't look like Gaza to me. How has this image got anything to do with Hamas or the people living in the Gaza prison?
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday February 25 2016, @12:42AM
I wasn't sure what I was looking at (don't watch most news), so I did some digging. This [siteintelgroup.com] appears to be a relevant SITE blog post.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday February 24 2016, @09:44AM
High(er) Tech Terrorism?
Uh... no?
First of all, the headline tells you absolutely nothing about the story. It doesn't even hint at what's happened (if anything, it implies that some act of terrorism has occurred, which is not the case). It doesn't tell you where it's happened. You might as well have written "ZOMG dronies!!!1!"
Secondly, terrorism? Where did that come from? The article says nothing about terrorism. The closest it gets is to use the word "target," and the drones were thought to have been for use in spying on "targets," not attacking them, so any actual "terrorism" would be likely to be decidedly mediocre tech. And let's face it, whichever side of the (metaphorical) fence you're on, the Palestine/Israel situation doesn't really come close to sharply defined black-and-white categorisations such as "terrorism."
If you're going to take it upon yourself to label this as terrorism, you should at least try to justify it in your summary.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @10:48AM
Since when does 'terrorism' equate to 'attack'?
Terrorism is about frightening people, which these Israeli newspapers seem to be doing a good job of. Occam's Razor; drones amongst toys in a car. If anyone is reaching, it's the Times of Israel.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:24PM
The media and the politicians are the biggest terrorists arround. Look at the insanity in the US about ISIS. Look at the rhetoric around the UK EU referendum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @12:58PM
This is common practice in EU referendums c.f. Nice Treaty, Lisbon Treaty. The real tragedy is that we've become complacent with it. The frogs have been boiled.
"Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society."
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday February 24 2016, @11:50AM
Those are the cheapest toy drones you can find. I literally wrote "camera drone" in ebay and found identical models on the first couple of hits under 50$. They're either original or knockoff http://www.symatoys.com [symatoys.com] x5 series...
Seriously, what a joke.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Wednesday February 24 2016, @01:59PM
None of the parties in the Middle East is in any way sane, except *perhaps* Jordan. Fuck 'em all, including Israel.
Want to see some real drone-based terrorism? Try sprinkling the whole middle east with Bacon Bits from 15,000 feet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @02:50PM
That would be jewels to pigs.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 24 2016, @03:10PM
None of the parties in the Middle East is in any way sane, except *perhaps* Jordan
There's a continuum.
Tunisia today is pretty chill. I mean its not like Berkley but its probably more open minded than your average Mississippi or Texas land. Its like visiting Denver without the legal weed, kinda. The police won't beat you in Tunisia (as of 2016) unless you really objectively earned it.
Bahrain used to be as chill until very recently vaguely post arab spring. Life will really suck if you're a political protester or accused, but aside from that its pretty chill. Its like being on the wrong side of Chicago big machine politics, or being the wrong race in Chicago. Its pretty easy to end up getting the hell beaten out of you by the police, or worse, but you'd have to be pretty stupid or outright criminal, not to know how to avoid it.
UAE is another step less chill. Even for the "good guys", its like being in a slightly repressive public school, in many ways, think girls/womens dress code is roughly middle america high school from a few decades ago, or how they (mis)handle high school style bullying (UAE bullies "guest workers" aka neo-slaves). Its not completely uncivilized, when their police beat the hell out of and torture some foreign visitors (and this happened to some brits) the local .gov finds out and severely WTF's the local police, the banhammer is laid down, apologies are made, much more civilized than the USA WRT Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, but its definitely a smooth step down from relatively more chill Bahrain.
Its a big land with a bazillion small governments and there's a darn near smooth continuum from batshit insane to its like living in Texas. Note the implication that living in Texas isn't batshit insane, not going for sarcasm mod.
Actually the USA comparison to the middle east is pretty good. Some parts are like being the only white guy in the worst neighborhood in Detroit at 2am. Others are like being a black dude shot in the back in Baltimore. Then there's Manhattan which is pretty dang nice if you're rich, not so fun otherwise. Utah is really friendly if you're the locally correct religion, somewhat less friendly otherwise. The non-coastal areas are frankly pretty nice places to live, other than Detroit and little Somalia in Minnesota. And then the USA has a nearly empty concentration camp in Cuba of all places which is totally Fed up.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday February 24 2016, @03:23PM
little Somalia in Minnesota
I want to hear more about this.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 24 2016, @04:01PM
I guess the best way to describe the area formerly known as Cedar-Riverside is its like a higher crime Chinatown, or its like the West Virginia of Africans.
You're definitely not welcome unless your a Somali or a temporary visitor (going shopping, restaurants, etc).
The poverty rate is incredible (median income is like $14K). With some, Ahem, demographic groups, that low income would mean the crime rate would be thru the roof, but Somali's are somewhat more civilized than average, thus low crime rates, well, low by the standards of an inner city slum. Its not exactly the burbs.
The closest analogy I can find is rural Appalachia. They don't have any money, they really don't like outsiders, crime is pretty high, but the odds of being an innocent victim, at least as a visitor, are very low.
On one hand the racism is pretty bad unless you're also a Somali. On the other hand they don't mind if you're just visiting, they just don't want your type living there. On one hand the crime rate is low for a deeply impoverished inner city $14K median income anywhere else in the country, its not Detroit. On the other hand the crime rate is about the highest in the city because it IS dirt poor. Given that MN is what MN is, its basically Minneapolis's version of a slum.
I would describe the "feel" as on edge. In a decade its either going to gentrify up like a Chinatown and have tourist buses and restaurant tours, or its going to sink into crime and have to be bombed from orbit just to be sure. Its really on the razors edge of success or failure. In about 10 years you'll either want to visit or want to run like hell away. Time will tell I guess.
If I had to be dropped into a poor inner city anywhere in the country, I'd get dropped there. On the other hand if I had to get dropped anywhere in Minnesota, I'd prefer anywhere else.
I didn't make up the nickname. People I know who live in Minneapolis claim there have been city council proposals or WTF its called by the residents to change the name. Frankly I think its stupid. Everyone knows "China-Town" means tourist buses and cool ethnic restaurants and low crime, so "Somali-Town" would logically have positive vibes. "Little Somalia" makes me think of the Blackhawk Down book and movie, not quite so positive. "Little Somalia" sounds like a video game FPS sequel, stupid name for a neighborhood, but its their neighborhood to fix or F up, I guess.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday February 24 2016, @04:21PM
Oh, "Little Somalia" as in ethnic Somalis? I thought you were drawing a comparison to the place being completely outside the rule of law or a bunch of fighting warlords or something. That was why I was curious.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 24 2016, @05:49PM
No that's back home in real Somalia. There really is an ethnic neighborhood of the "good" ones in Minneapolis. Like a third of ALL of them that come to the USA move to Little Somalia. Its kind of on the edge. Its about to turn out either real good, or real bad. So far, mostly good.
There's a lot of sensitive commentary about them. You take the same genetic stock, more or less, as Detroit, subtract decades of freaky lefty politics because they're fresh off the boat, add lots of family structure, lots of religion, and apartheid to get an ethnically homogeneous neighborhood, (all that "bad Republican stuff") and suddenly despite extreme poverty you get lowish crime and basically healthy growing rapidly improving neighborhoods. Better off than every other black inner city in the country. How can everything be going so well for them without the "help" of Jesse Jackson and BLM protesters? Hmm. Pragmatic observation of what decades of supporting Democrats has done for the locals in every other city is the white men keeping the black man down suspiciously seem to ALL be lefties who claim to be friends and helpers, but clearly are not. Hmmm veeeery sensitive area given the locals vote "D" about 95% and what good has that done them for the last half century... none, it seems. And all the eeevilll republican stuff like family, church (well, mosque) and living with your own kind seems to result in the best living conditions for a poor neighborhood in the country... hmm makes ya think about who is the real friend and who is the real enemy of the black man. The propaganda message we've heard for decades seems to be at odds with reality...