We have all heard the news streaming from Detroit over the past half-decade regarding the effects of the real estate collapse.  In order to generate some much-needed revenue, the Mayor's office has designed several programs to demolish the thousands of vacant condemned homes across Detroit, and auction salvageable properties that have been foreclosed for non-payment of taxes.

When property owners do not pay their property taxes, Michigan law provides a foreclosure process for the county treasurer to sell the property out from under the owner, similar to a mortgage foreclosure.  In Detroit, the tax foreclosure process has taken on a Kafkaesque dimension due to the sheer volume of distressed homes and the unusual tenacity of squatters.

Just as 75,000 properties in Wayne County are being prepared for tax foreclosures and sale by auction in 2015, a father and his adult daughter were gunned-down last week when entering their newly acquired home in the bucolic Rosedale Park section of Detroit.  They purchased the home at a tax foreclosure auction and were taking possession the day after Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately for the now-deceased new home owners, the former tax-delinquent owners were either unaware of the foreclosure sale, or did not care, leaving an uninformed family member to occupy the home over the holiday weekend; he was armed and probably thought he was protecting family property.

The most discouraging aspect of this story is where the murders took place.  Rosedale Park is the largest historic district in Michigan; it's homeowner's association is nearly a century old.  Among the residents of these historic and beautiful neighborhoods -Rosedale, North Rosedale and Grandmont- are some of Detroit's leading citizens.

The percentage of distressed homes in Wayne County, especially Detroit, that have delinquent tax issues, squatters, auction complications, or outright condemnation is critically high.  Getting law enforcement from Detroit and Wayne County to coordinate these property transfers with the County Treasurer will be a challenge.

This challenge must be met, however, or more blood will flow in the "D" as new property owners clash with former property owners, and as squatters are confronted with self-help eviction methods.

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I remember driving to Detroit for a child support hearing the morning of Tuesday, 09/11/2001.  I was just about downtown on I-75, when the "Imus in the Morning" show reported an odd story about a "commuter" plane that had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

The matter was being reported in those early moments as an errant plane.  The discussion was about near misses that happen more than we realize.

As Don Imus described what he was seeing on the video monitors, his entire radio show crew erupted when the second jet struck the South Tower.  I slammed my fist into the empty passenger seat of my car, shouting in disbelief.  Along with the rest of the country, I knew instantly what was unfolding in New York was no accident.

By the time I parked my car, cleared security at the Penobscot Building, and made it up to the 9th floor to the Wayne County Friend of the Court, the Pentagon had been struck by another jet and everyone was talking about being under attack.

Everyone's plans changed that day.  Some people were saying that yet another hijacked jet was heading due West toward Cleveland and Detroit.

The FOC hearing room was packed with people associated with more than a dozen cases.  Thinking I would be trapped there all morning, I started to worry about what was happening in New York and Washington D.C.  My brother Terrance lived in Manhattan back then; was he ok?  Could I even find out?

Waiting for the Referee to take the bench, I tried Terrance's cell; no answer.  I tried a second call; this time Verizon did not even make the connection.

By a stroke of luck, my case was called first.  Just as we completed our arguments and received our ruling from the Referee, two Wayne County Sheriffs announced that the Penobscot Building was closing and instructed us to vacate in an orderly but immediate fashion.  Mine was the only case called on the docket that day.

Back on the street, all the intersections were choked with vehicles like it was 5:00 on a Friday afternoon; folks were literally fleeing the downtown area.  So this is what it feels like to be under attack in America.

Later, I found out my brother Terrance had plans to play tennis at courts located near the World Trade Center that morning; they cancelled their plans due to some puddles from a rain storm that lingered on the courts.

Thinking back on it now, while I stood there chirping to the Referee about eliminating my client's child support obligation for children that DNA results said were not even his, those heroes from Flight 93 wrestled control of their jet, executing some major league damage control from which every citizen in this country has benefitted.

In my mind at least, I have always held the belief that Flight 93 was destined for the Capitol Rotunda. We still have our beloved Capitol, the very soul of Democracy, thanks to those men and women on Flight 93.

Now, let's make it count people; we've got to make it count...

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