One's hometown never changes, its with you for life. Detroit will be my home town no matter where I am at. When Detroit goes through the good times (Like the Wings recent winning of the Stanley Cup) My heart is there.
More often the news is not good and can sometimes be down right awful as was the case at the end of this past week. Kwame Kilpatrick's slow arrogant meltdown found new lows with his assault on a Wayne County Sheriffs Deputy. The following are excerpts from the Free Press:
What's that old saying about when push comes to shove? Well, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has just pushed things too damn far. Enough already. It's over. It's got to be.
Kilpatrick has lost it. His mental fitness must be called into question. He should have been thrown in jail for shoving a sheriff's deputy, and he sure as hell should not be telling anybody else what to do these days.
If he won't resign, the mayor ought to offer a public apology -- for whatever that's worth -- and explain to the city's children that police officers have a job to do and must be treated with respect. Then he should take a leave of absence at least until his preliminary hearing on felony charges in September. Let him stay in the Manoogian. It'd be a small price to pay to keep him away from the levers of power.
For 3 1/2 hours Friday, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick didn't know whether he would go home or to jail.
Accused of manhandling a Wayne County sheriff's deputy, spewing profanities and racially charged remarks, the mayor spent much of the morning with his hands clasped in his lap, rubbing his brow or shaking his head, before finally learning his freedom would be curtailed but not ended.
"I have locked up defendants for approaching and saying things to witnesses for a lot less, let alone touching them," Giles said.
"Irrational" is how 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles described Kilpatrick's assault on a deputy who was trying Thursday afternoon to serve court papers on a friend of the mayor. Good for Giles to finally take real charge of the mayor's criminal case Friday, after weeks of swaying in the hot air from Kilpatrick's defense team. The judge set a thug-like cash bond for the mayor, subjected him to random drug tests, and generally dressed Kilpatrick down for incredibly bad behavior. In short, he treated the mayor like the criminal defendant he is. About time.
During his testimony, Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy White said he was trying to serve a subpoena on another city official when he saw a Ferguson Enterprises truck he suspected was driven by Bobby Ferguson, one of the mayor's friends, outside a home on LaSalle. Deputy White testified he had a warrant for Ferguson, who is a witness in the Kilpatrick case, and didn't know the house belonged to Kilpatrick's sister, Ayanna, who is married to Ferguson's cousin.
What comes next can easily be compared to a bad Jerry Springer episode.
After getting out of his vehicle with his partner, White said he saw one of the mayor's police bodyguards, identified himself and was permitted to approach the front door.
White said he met a man who identified himself as a relative of Ferguson, then said he heard shouting from inside.
"Don't tell those f-- anything. ... Get the f-- out of here," White testified he heard. Then he testified: "At that point Kilpatrick comes storming out through the door, gets behind me, grabs me with both of his hands behind me and throws me into Investigator Kinney," referring to his partner, retired Detroit police homicide Sgt. JoAnn Kinney, who is now working for the prosecutor as an investigator.
At that point in White's testimony, Kilpatrick turned, wide-eyed, toward one of his police bodyguards sitting in the front row of the courtroom. The police officer, who later said he did not witness the incident, shook his head.
White continued.
"Get the f-- out of here," he quoted the mayor as saying. "Leave my f-- family alone. Get off my f-- porch."
White testified he was not confrontational and left the scene rather than respond to the mayor's laying hands on him. Kinney testified the same later.
The pair also testified that Kilpatrick injected race into the confrontation.
"It happened so fast," Kinney testified in quiet tones. "I was like, I couldn't believe this was happening."
Referring to Kilpatrick as "Mr. Mayor," she said Kilpatrick shouted: "You, a black woman, being with a man last name White, you should be ashamed of yourself and ... why are you a part of this?"
Added to the already insurmountable trouble Kilpatrick is in over the texting scandal, the additional text messages that are to be released next week showing that he has had multiple affairs with other women and the scandals that kicked it all off in his first term, one has to wonder why would this man, the Mayor believe he should continue in his position. Detroit does not need a blacker eye Kwayme... The auto industry, the layoffs, the piss poor economy Detroit does not need any more, your an embarrassment to the whole world so please, please step down!
