Matty of fact

TAKE BACK THE PARK softball game. Meet 4:15 p.m. today (10-1-8) at Detroit’s Riverside Park. Gane at 5 p.m. Wear black t-shirts. Bring your own water!

[donation]

By Joel Thurtell

From: Joel Thurtell, Former Journalist

To; Matty Moroun, Tyrant Tycoon

Dear Matty:

I’m very disappointed in you, Matty. I hoped you would answer my appeal to you for giving back

Matty Moroun's Ambassador Bridge. Joel Thurtell photo.

Riverside Park and its public boat launch to the people of Detroit who own it. I also was hoping that you would respond to my request that you cite the federal Homeland Security authority you have invoked as you have had your shotgun-toting vassals harass citizens out of the public park adjoining your cherished Ambassador Bridge and which you also claim as good reason for seizing and using for your own trashy purposes sections of the City of Detroit’s Riverside Park.

I staked a lot on my belief that underneath all that mean-guy behavior there is a beating heart with a shard or two or empathy for people who are not, like you, billionaire international bridge owners.

I mean, Matty, what are the REAL reporters going to say, the ones at the two Detroit dailies who choose not to report on your activities as a billionaire trucking mogul who defies laws in Canada and the U.S.?

Ball diamond fence at Riverside Park Extension at end of 23rd St. near Fort in Detroit. Joel Thurtell photo.

I’m afraid now that those REAL reporters are going to poke fun at me and say I was naive to think you might actually prove to have a decent side. They will probably agree with your minion, Mr. Dan Stamper, that I am nothing but a “former journalist” and my sense of what is a story is fifth-rate at best, given that I am not on the salary of a daily newspaper and don’t have a business card that says I’m a “staff writer.”

But I would say to them, Matty, that you really DID answer me. Once again, your pawn, Mr. Dan Stamper, appears to have written up your response, but this time he addressed it to Deb Sumner, a civic leader in Southwest Detroit who has long been critical of you. But Mr. Dan Stamper was so kind as to have a copy of his letter to Deb Sumner emailed to me so that I would get the message, albeit indirectly.

The message I got is surrounded by one of the largest and densest expanses of vacant verbal real estate I have ever seen, but it does sort of address my question about your authority to bully people and even the City of Detroit by intoning the fearsome phrase, “Due to Homeland Security.”

Here is, in part, what your myrmidon of misinformation wrote to Deb Sumner:

The horrific events of 9/11 created a coming together of government agencies, along with public

Security guard who kicked me out of Riverside Park, falsely claiming "Homeland Security." Joel Thurtell photo.

and private corporations that own and operate critical infrastructures, in our country.  The changes that have happened at airports, tunnels, seaports, power plants and bridges are staggering, but necessary.  Our participation with all the federal agencies in a coordinated effort to better protect infrastructure and the traveling public is a daily endeavor, and yes, our participation did require creating a buffer zone around the bridge.

For some time now our efforts to secure the bridge have come under fire from a select few who have asserted we are operating outside of our boundaries.  Let me be clear.  Our efforts to secure one of the nation’s busiest border crossings and one of Michigan’s most valuable economic assets is well within the obligation of the Bridge Company.  All of our enhanced security efforts have been implemented in coordination and partnership with all federal agencies who have responsibility to secure our nation’s borders.

Here’s some language directly from a report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding its Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2008 – 2013. As it relates to the DHS’s efforts to preventing “external threats from coming to fruition,” they wrote:

“Building an effective national emergency response system will entail continuing efforts to develop and sustain national partnerships across all levels of government, voluntary organizations, and the private sector…”

In addition, the DHS wrote:
“Homeland security also requires a robust vertical integration of the federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the private and non-profit sectors, and the American citizen to build a secure, safe, and resilient Nation.”

To effectively do this, we have worked with all the security agencies to implement the appropriate measures to adequately secure one of our nation’s critical infrastructures.  All operations and efforts to do so are in direct coordination with those agencies.

Matty, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you that whoever wrote that passage, whether it was you or Mr. Dan Stamper or some lamebrained lawyer on your payroll, well, this is the weakest piece of argument I have ever seen.

For example, this seemingly key sentence: Our efforts to secure one of the nation’s busiest border crossings and one of Michigan’s most valuable economic assets is well within the obligation of the Bridge Company.

That is no authority, Matty. That is just you or your factotum saying this is so because you say it’s so.

Not good enough, Matty.

Think of it this way: What if I went back to Riverside Park and one of your shotgun-carrying bullies tried to kick me out? I’d say, by what authority? What’s the cretin gonna say?

“Our efforts to secure one of the nation’s busiest border crossings and one of Michigan’s most valuable economic assets is well within the obligation of the Bridge Company”?

Is that gonna be his line? What a laugh. That’s a big bunch of nothing, Matty.

Or is your hired hooligan gonna parrot, “Homeland security also requires a robust vertical integration of the federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the private and non-profit sectors, and the American citizen to build a secure, safe, and resilient Nation”?

Hokum, Matty.

In fact, it is the lamest excuse for reasoning I’ve seen in a long, long time.

I’d say short on fact, except it has not fact.

It is a long, articulated line of baloney.

Speaking of facts, Matty, listen to this: I just got off the phone with Ron Smith. He’s the public information officer for the Office of Field Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency under the federal Department of Homeland Security that works directly with your people on the Ambassador Bridge.

Know what he told me, Matty?

Key words: “On the bridge.” Not under, but ON the bridge.

Not at Riverside Park next door.

You have no federal authority to be bothering citizens who come to Riverside Park. That includes people like me who take pictures.

Phony "Homeland Security" sign placed by Matty Moroun henchmen on gate to Detroit city park boat ramp. Moroun closed public boat launch, citing bogus "Homeland Security" concerns. Joel Thurtell photo.

Moreover, you have no federal authority for seizing parts of that park and closing off the public boat ramp.

No wonder you didn’t want to answer my letter directly. You had no answer.

Instead, you sent a bogus response to someone else and slyly made sure I got a copy.

Everything about you is sly, matty.

Fact is, Matty, you STOLE that park.

Remember my appeal to what I hoped was the better side of your character to give the park back and fix it up?

Got a feeling it’s too late for generous gestures, Matty.

My city sources have dried up. Not talking to me.

Know what that means, Matty?

I’ll let you and your deputy, Mr. Dan Stamper, figure it out.

Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com