Kwame Kilpatrick Resigns As Detroit Mayor After Pleading Guilty to Two Counts of Perjury
Kwame Kilpatrick, the youngest mayor in Detroit, Michigan history, resigned from office (effective in two
weeks) after pleading guilty to two felony obstruction of justice (perjury) charges. He admitted to lying during a case where two former police officers brought suit against the city after claiming they were disciplined for investigating wrongdoing in Kilpatrick’s office. As a result, Detroit had to pay 8.4 million to settle a case brought to light after the Detroit Free Press obtained text messages evidencing Kilpatrick’s guilt.
As part of the agreement, Kilpatrick is ordered to spend 120 days in jail, pay the city 1 million dollars in restitution, surrender his law license and agreed not to run for public office while he’s on 5 years probation. He will enter jail when he is sentenced on October 28th.
Kilpatrick’s early political career highlighted his talent and thirst for success. When he served as leader of the Democratic Caucus, he became the first African American to hold a leadership role in Michigan’s legislature. He taught at Detroit’s Marcus Garvey Academy and is the son of Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick–US Representative from Michigan’s 13th District. He was elected to his mother’s Michigan House seat after she vacated it to run for Congress. When he was elected mayor in 2001, he became the youngest mayor in Detroit’s history at 33.
In 2005 it all hit the fan and his office became mired in mass corruption which ultimately became his undoing.
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September 4th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
This man was a joke the entire time he was in office, he is proof that blacks in large cities are stupid, because they supported this man overwhelmingly when all the evidence was stacked against him and showed him to be nothing but a crook, pure and simple. The sad thing is he drug the city down into the gutter with him, but the blacks in Detroit are still going to praise him and some might even make a martyr out of him.
Hopefully for the people’s sake they will put a honorable and effective leader in his place, but I really doubt that.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Hey, black folks in large cities aren’t stupid. It’s just that we have to quit showing blind loyalty to black folks in the public eye when they do something dumb (see Marion Berry, R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, etc).
September 4th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
The overwhelming favorite to replace Kilpatrick in the mayor’s seat of Detroit is former Piston and Detroit businessman Dave Bing. He would be both honorable and effective if voted in and I hope it happens.
As for Kwame, he didn’t do all bad while in office. He did increase police presence in bad areas and in turn crime went down. He also cleaned up downtown and oversaw new businesses and stadiums being brought into the city. But at the end of the day, he will be remembered for this scandal.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
So Davidwack are the white in big cities stupid who support poor mayors. Or mayors who have (as well as their families) connections to organize crime such as Mayor Daley in Chicago???
D@MN you are a dumb Bamma David.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:20 am
@origin, white people in big cities are stupid aswell if they vote for corrupt ineffiecent leaders. You are correct in calling out those in Chicago, the people in Los Angelos are the same, and we can’t forget New Orleans.
I point out blacks with regard to Kwame because I see a lot on message boards saying he doesn’t deserve what he is getting.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Sad day for the orange and green of FAMU. On top of Kwame, former classmate in ‘93, coppin’ a plea today the Rattlas gave it up in OT to Del State tonight. The hits just keep comin’.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
A number of men that I went to school with in Ann Arbor (who all originally hail from the D) were having this very discussion. Some were of the mind set that this reflected poorly on the electorate in the city. On a certain level, it must reflect poorly on the electorate, but corruption is so widespread (and voters know this), that most votes are reduced to a consideration of “the lesser of two evils.”
There are trade offs in any political system. Americans benefit from a relatively transparent system. It’s not a pure representative democracy, and the choices are really proscribed. The stranglehold of the Democrats on Black folk is extremely problematic. Black folk, for the most part, don’t even benefit from a two-party system. In other place and time, we might be better served by having five or six parties with the ways and means to focus voters around issues rather than identity.
People like Kilpatrick can win posts by appearing to listen to disenfranchised voters - by appealing to identity and by appeasing white corporate interests. Coleman Young didn’t have to do that because his time and mandate were different. Dennis Archer did it - because of time and temperament. Kilpatrick tried to mix the old with the new - without a moral compass. Stealing from the city of Detroit in order to tap ass is criminal and jail is too good for him.
If you take the surrounding communities of suburban whites in Michigan out of the picture — and look (even for a minute) at Detroit as an isolated Black community, you have a grown man who decides to steal from seniors and children in order to carry on an affair and flaunt his nose at the very law he pledged to uphold. That’s the very definition of a criminal. It’s so easy to recognize in Clinton, Bush and Cheney. It should be just as easy here.
I certainly don’t believe the voters of Detroit are stupid. Many, many Black Detroiters have voted with their feet and left the city and/or state in order to escape what they rightly see as a deeply entrenched political plantation. There is a dearth of vital, critical young leadership in the city. Previous mayors have contributed to this due to their long-standing refusal to invest in the cultural capital of the city.
There are so many talented youth in Detroit. Many of the smartest folks I’ve ever met went to schools right in the heart of Detroit. Remaining in the city to accept depressed wages, and serious political risk (replete with death threats and gangsterism) requires resolve, commitment and a team. It’s not a task most of them were mentored for in their youth. Detroit won’t be healed until the children of that city coalesce around an ethical center that roots out a corrupt body of misguided elders.
It’s a beautiful place that needs a little love.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Damn Temple…
nice post.
I definitely cosign.
Lani Guinier anyone?
September 5th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
@Mizzo
Detroit needs their own Palin, to bust up the crooks and clean house. Not an excuse maker like Ms. Guinier.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
A name who is thinking about running Coleman A. Young, Jr. and given the D’s penchant for name voting he has a legit chance. If he or any other ‘name’ gets in, it’s a wrap.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
DMac I was referring to Lani’s political ideals not her running in the race.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
@ Temple: Co-sign the fact that Detroit is a beautiful city that just doesn’t get the respect is deserves. With the auto industry still on the decline, it will take a mayor that offers ideas and probably tax cuts to bring jobs into the city. I still like the idea of Dave Bing as the next mayor.