Motor City Bad Boy: Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in Crisis

January 31, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Earlier tonight Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick emerged from his week long seclusion and went ahead with his scheduled apology to Detroiter’s from his “closed to the public” church in metropolitan Detroit. This comes on the heels of a nationally covered controversy surrounding his possible perjury in the text message scandal which consisted of sexual conversations with his now former, chief of staff, Christine Beatty. Beatty resigned from her position citing that she could no longer effectively carry out her duties amid the text-messaging scandal. So as he sat there looking rather pathetic, with his wifes hand clutched tightly like a scared boy would hold his mother, Kwame finally let it all out confessing to something an entire city has known for weeks now.

“Wednesday night, as he held hands with his wife Carlita, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick apologized repeatedly to residents, supporters, opponents, his wife and his sons for what he called “the embarrassment and disappointment” of the past few days.
“I want to start tonight by saying to the citizens of this great city: I’m sorry,” Kilpatrick said in a live television address from his church.”

Outside the church Kilpatrick was giving his statement from, both protesters and supporters of the disgraced Mayor clashed on the streets of Detroit in what ended up being an incredibly intense confrontation:

“Face to face, the demonstrators in support of Kilpatrick chanted “Standing strong” while those opposed to the mayor chanted back, “Resign.”

This is just the latest incident in a perpetual laundry list of troubling behavior exhibited from Detroit’s youngest Mayor. Since taking office in 2001 Kilpatrick has gotten himself into trouble time after time.

May 2005 - the Detroit Free Press reported that over the first 33 months of his term, Kilpatrick had charged over $210,000 on his city-issued credit card for travel, meals, and entertainment.
October 2005 - Kilpatrick caused controversy with an advertisement which compared media criticism of him to lynch mobs
January 2008 - Kilpatrick and his then chief of staff Christine Beatty lied about the sexual nature of their relationship and their involvement in the firing of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown.
In 2005 - Kilpatrick entered an expensive one year lease for a luxury SUV, a red Lincoln Navigator to be precise. It was to be used to chauffeur the mayor’s family around. The lease was for $24,995; $5 under the amount required that would need city council approval. He was ultimately forced to return the vehicle.
August 2007 - Kilpatrick was sued by two ex-members of his bodyguard staff for violation of the Whistleblower Law. It was claimed that he fired them in retaliation for them investigating his personal actions. Minutes after the verdict for the trial came in, in an angry speech in front of City Hall, Kilpatrick blamed the “wrong verdict” on white suburbanite jurors.
October 2007 - Kilpatrick has proposed selling off 92 city parks. City officials estimate it could generate $8.1 million from the sale of the lands. It has been noted that the sale of the city parks will generate a substantial portion of the funds required to pay the settlement of the whistleblower lawsuit against Kilpatrick filed by two ex-city employees in the lawsuit mentioned directly above this one.

This list of incidents is nothing compared to Kwame’s royal screw up, the one that really should have put this guy behind bars. started as rumors of a wild party in the fall of 2002 involving strippers at the the official residence of the mayor the city-owned Manoogian Mansion Carlita Kilpatrick, came home unexpectedly and upon discovering Kwame with the strippers began to attack one of the women. When questioning heated up Kilpatrick opted to hold a press conference –sound familiar?– He went on to state that he does not have ‘lewd parties’ and “I don’t whore around on my wife” and “I want people to understand that I would never disrespect my God, my wife or my children”.

Just as things looked to be dieing down Tamara Greene popped into the picture, Greene, was a a 27-year-old stripper that went by the name “Strawberry” and who claimed to have performed at the Manoogian Mansion party. While sitting in her car, Greene was shot more than a dozen times. Many have hinted that they would not put it by Kwame to do whatever was necessary to keep his power hold in tact. I am not accusing of anything, I am simply stating the facts.

Tamara Greene’s family believes her murder was a deliberate attack to keep her from talking to officers who were investigating the rumored party at the Manoogian. The Greene family is currently suing the city for $150 million dollars.” The fact that this man is still Mayor of my hometown really makes me sick, I mean this man has dead hookers showing up after wild house parties where his wife was fighting strippers. That took place in ‘02, I would have thought the people of Detroit would have scene this joke for exactly what he is, worthless. But I guess not, instead they opted to re elect the man, and to no one’s surprise he spent tonight apologizing, using his family as a shield, from an abandoned church somewhere in Detroit:

“This has been a situation where, yes, it’s been embarrassing, yes it’s been painful,” the mayor said. “But through all of that, through the grace of God, we’ve also had a feeling of thankfulness and freedom. We have committed to moving forward together to make our marriage better and stronger.”

“I want to thank the people of Detroit for their patience in allowing us that time. We as a family needed to do that,” he said. “Detroit, please continue to pray for our family, for our city and our continued progress,” he said.

“God bless you Detroit. I love you,” the mayor said in conclusion. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

If this doesn’t illustrate what a class act Detroit truly is then I really wouldn’t know what is. I mean d
o the people living in the city really have to wonder why the city is in absolute turmoil right now, both economically and socially speaking. I mean if they can’t figure it out then they deserve to have Kwame “Motor City Bad Boy” Kilpatrick as their Mayor. Text away Kwame, text away.