I'm sure you folks are pretty tired of the Saga Of The Hip Hop Mayor, but it seems like Kwame Kilpatrick is nearing the end of his rope. The charges were finally filed today, and it looks like ya' boy better start practicing the fine art of soap holding.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and former chief of staff Christine Beatty today with perjury, obstruction, conspiracy and misconduct. Kilpatrick said that he expects "full and complete vindication."Kwame Kilpatrick, a true debit to his race.
The mayor's attorney, Dan Webb, said the mayor will be found innocent of the charges and will not resign. Webb said he has instructed Kilpatrick to not respond to reporters’ questions. It wasn't immediately clear when the mayor and Beatty would turn themselves in to be booked and later arraigned on the charges in 36th District Court in Detroit. They could be arraigned as early as 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Kilpatrick, 38, serving his seventh year in office, is the first Detroit mayor to face criminal charges while still in office. The perjury charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
But Hizzoner's problems are only beginning.
I'm no conspiracy theorist, so I haven't bothered trying to make any connection between the Kilpatrick's current issues and the now-deceased stripper Strawberry (pictured above), whom the mayor's wife famously assaulted after a (rumored) wild party at the Mayoral Manoogian Mansion. Apparently, the journalistic integrity of the Detroit Free Press is a bit more liberal. The last thing you'd catch me doing is implying that a public official put a hit out on an exotic dancer. This article from late last week seems to do just that, but doesn't go all the way and connect the dots. It's damn close though.
Fearing for her life, Tamara Greene turned to the man she knew affectionately as “Dad” and told him: “Some people are out to kill me.”Let's keep it real; there's little redeeming about Kilpatrick. He was given the world on a platter (simply by virtue of being born with the right last name) and he handed it back covered in chicken grease and loose singles. By lying about a simple affair (not excusing his behavior of course), and firing the wrong person to cover it up, he cost the ailing city of Detroit $9M. He is obviously a bonehead who deserves to do time for his misdeeds.
The man she confided in was the Rev. Ken Hampton, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Detroit, in a conversation six months before her April 30, 2003 death. If true, Hampton’s statements in an affidavit could discredit a theory that Greene was killed as a result of a hotel party and fight about two weeks before she was gunned down.
Greene is the stripper known as Strawberry rumored to have danced at the never-proven Manoogian Mansion party in the fall of 2002. According to most versions of the rumor, the party occurred around Labor Day in 2002. Hampton said he and Greene spoke a month or two later, but he has no knowledge of her connection to the rumored party.
Greene, 27, was shot three times and died April 30, 2003, as she was parking her Buick Skylark on Roselawn near West Outer Drive.
Last week Joyce Rogers, a retired Detroit police clerk, came forward in an affidavit to say she saw a police report Greene had filed in 2002. In the report, which has not surfaced, Rogers said, Greene alleged that the mayor’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, assaulted her with a wooden object at the Manoogian after seeing Greene improperly touch the mayor and that Greene was sent to a hospital for treatment.
On the other hand, trying to tie the man (or possibly his wife) to a murder strikes me a downright callous for a semi-reputable newspaper.
Question: Assuming you read the article first, do you get the impression that the Detroit Free Press is implying Kilpatrick had something to do with Strawberry's murder, or is my third eye just blind today? If you're from The "D", and know something I don't, please chime in you-know-where.
Tamara Greene feared for her life, reverend says in affidavit [FreeP]
Mayor, Beatty charged with perjury, conspiracy, misconduct [FreeP]
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This dude just burns me up!
Yeah, I believe he had something to do with her murder. As my mom would say if you lie, you'll steal, and if you steal, you'll kill to do it.
Read this:http://www.clickondetroit.com/download/2008/0303/15478989.pdf
(Affadavit of Lt. A. Bowman)
It reads a script of The Wire. You can't make this ish up. Kwame is as greedy and as seedy as they come. And his wife and mistress are complicit in his garbage. (SMH @ his wife assaulting the stripper, and not his ass.)
"He has been beset by repeated controversies over extravagant spending with his city-issued credit card, lying publicly about ordering the police department to lease a Lincoln Navigator for his wife and battening down information hatches at City Hall, making it more difficult for reporters and the public to inquire about his activities."
"He also said the text messages were private even though he signed a policy directive in June 2000 advising city employees that all electronic communications should be considered public."
The nerve of this guy. You right, AB- homey need to start stocking up on soap on a rope. I hope they lock his grimey ass under the prison.
Imagine what it must be like to live here in Detroit as I do. You cannot get away from his mess. Kwame is full of shit and always has been. Now Detroit is more of a national joke than ever before.
As someone who was born and lives in Detroit I wouldn't call the Free Press a semi-reputable newspaper for stating what most people in Detroit already know.
The Free Press and The Detroit News plus all three major news stations in Det. have pretty much accused the mayor of being involved with this murder without actually coming out and saying it.
The Mayor...Involved in the murder of a stripper...right. You folks have been watching way too many Blaxploitation Private I. flicks. As a Detroit native (now in TX), I tried to give the brotha the benefit of the doubt on a lot of things and a pass on a couple of others, but it looks like Kym Worthy has enough to go after him like she did those rogue cops back in the day when she was a sassy & skinny ADA. Sorry KK, it's over. How apropos Aretha Franklin sang to a sell-out crowd yesterday.
I think the Brother better Plead, Kim Worthy is nothing to play with. Don't believe me check out some old court TV re-runs
Jusus
Damn , sound like they've seen the Popes thong .
I am from Detroit, and it's not that much of a stretch to believe Kwame (or his bodyguards) had Tamara killed. It's pretty well known his wife beat her with a bat at the strip party, and Kwame & friends went to great lengths to deny that party ever took place.
Let's see..Kwame also lied under oath to hide his affair with Beatty, and his firing of then-chief of police Gary Brown, and is now facing multiple felony charges because of it.
Murder is not that much of a stretch for Kwame - especially if he didn't have to pull the trigger.
Big Willie Kilpatrick has got to go. He is a disgraceful piece of work and his jump off Beatty seems like a bitter trifling female. Yes it takes two but if Beatty was all that, why didn't Kilpatrick do like Giuliani/McCain/Gingrich and leave his wife?
It seems like he wanted to be gangsta with it in the background but be Mr. Family Man/Churchgoer for the cameras.
Kilpatrick's wife should conjure up a scheme like the woman in "The Politician's Wife". Not only did the guy in that film lose his job, he lost his wife, his kids, his mistress and his self respect. This is EXACTLY what Kilpatrick needs.
I'm from Detroit originally, and a couple of people close to me have dealt personally with KK a lot. Yes, he's dictatorial, corrupt, sleazy, etc. But this article is typical of the Free Press/News' (largely white, suburban institutions) tendency to mercilessly dog any Black mayor who is the least bit 'uppity'. Like OJ this whole case is, at the end of the day, an illustration that one can simultaneously be a guilty scuzzbag AND the victim of a borderline racist witchhunt.
As far as soap-holding goes, he's a BIG dude, so maybe he'll be ok in prison -- or at least be allowed to pee standing up!
BTW, AverageBro, digging this blog a lot...
Whatever comes off my keyboard can easily be dismissed. I'm white and live and work in a suburb of Detroit, so my opinion doesn't count to tons of true residents. But I was born there, lived the first 17 years there (would have preferred to stay when my stepfather said "we're moving"), worked a few jobs there thru so I've paid a little into the city tax fund. My favorite foods are in Detroit, I go to plays and concerts there, etc. I don't think we shake those situations we're born into, and I still consider myself a Detroiter.
First off, AB, I love reading your blogs. George Bush has gotten us too used to functioning village idiots being the norm.
Second, to EBW, your mom was 100% right. Practicing (maybe perfecting?) one sin makes the next a whole lot easier. And logical. I can believe his ego would perceive a roughed-up stripper as a threat to his family's integrity and squash her like a bug.
King Kwame needs to go. He's raised corruption to "a whole nutha level." From the Lincoln Navigator he got for his wife from the police budget, to the Opus One carryouts, the romantic antics with Beatty on the city tab - a strapped city - "business trips" with non-Beatty ladies, private jets, private purchases kept just under the $25,000 that would've required City Council's approval, smearing and firing conscientious cops that were doing their jobs too well... he thinks he owns Detroit and whatever he wants is his for the taking. He said as much when asked if he would repay the $8.4 mil settlement. His response was basically that he repays that every day by his long hours of service. Sounds like a man who hasn't found his salary cap yet. (His spokewoman Denise Tolliver had the gall to call the $8.4 million "a drop in the bucket." How callous can his administration be?) And remember, the rumored party happened at the very beginning of his term. He began his term playing around with Beatty. With a stained beginning like that, what else should we expect but a continuing sliding scale of sins?
Wonder if he's heard of medieval lords who arrived at peasants' nuptials to claim their right to "bridal access" before the husband? He'd like that one.
City Council needs to grow whatever glands are required to unite and do the right thing, since he's incapable. He's hell-bent on bringing the city into court with him. He thinks it'll save his sorry ass.
I also have to comment on how despicable his ending to the City of the State address was. Like George Bush, who gave great "save our party" speeches to the Republicans (how about trying to remember you're an American first??), he'd rather divide to conquer.
And finally, being white, working primarily with whites, I have to say I haven't heard ANYONE use the "n word" about him since this all began. Not once. And of all the news coverage, I haven't seen a single clip of his wife shopping, or his kids going to school... all the shit he claimed was making his family miserable was an effort to make himself into the victim. Yes, there are crackpots everywhere unfortunately, and they'll always find a target, so I can believe he's gotten some of what he claimed. But shame on anyone who fell for his desperate try for sympathy by blaming the media for his situation.
And those claims of his about ultimately being exonerated and vindicated... what a pile of stinking shit. While he and his attorneys scramble to keep text messages permanently buried. Note that he isn't saying he's innocent. Guess he doesn't see that as relevant.
How low will he go? We'll all stay tuned to see.
Yo,
I was born in Detroit, raised in Detroit, went to school in Detroit, work in Detroit, and now own a home in Detroit.
Thus, i consider myself a Detroiter.
This Fool has got to go!
And contrary to what he claims, it's not about Black vs White. It's not about Detroit vs Suburbs. It's not about vindictive newspaper or anything else.
It's about RIGHT vs WRONG.
P E R I O D
We ALL need to remember THIS so we don't fall into kk's trap of 'Divide & Conquer'.
Detroiters & Suburbaners have more in common than we realize. Just because the localnews might roam the city streets; and put 5 'random' detroiters in front of the camera; and 4 of the 5 claim that kk is being unfairly targeted;
This does Not mean that All of Detroit feels the same.
Don't let your perception of reality be influenced by what you see on the localnews.
We (Detroit & Suburbs) need to come together and unite against this common foe. This Tyrant. This Divider. King Kwame.
That is my Challenge to us all...
Kwame Kilpatrick is hip hop.
check out my post at http://reallyrealtalk.blogspot.com/2008/03/dont-worry-if-he-writes-rhymes-he.html
He did it. I truly believe that Kwame had that stripper killed.
I dont know anything but if he was stupid enough to fight those officers in court when he could have settled the case a few years ago for two hundred thousand dollars then ended up giving up millions of the city's money to hide his affair makes me think is crazy enough to have had her killed.
Yes, the party did happen. Yes, the mayor's wife attacked the stripper. Yes, a hit was put out on the stripper by associates of the mayor.
A buddy of mine who moved from Detroit about 2 years ago confirmed that he used to play b-ball with Kwame and some of his bodygaurds. He said these guys are absolute THUGS! Kwame even offered him a job in his administration but his wife convinced him to turn it down. Apparently she went to high school with the mayor's wife and knows first hand what type of person she is.
Being a good friend of the mayor, he was also invited to the party. He said it was exactly as the pres described it - a wild party with strippers. He also said that Carlita beat Tamara Greene down with a bat. I asked him why no one has come forward to talk about what they saw. He replied it's simple: FEAR. He said Kwame is linked to some very dangerous people, many of them are part of his personal gaurd. Also many of the people associated with him are being compensated very well for their loyalty to him, but someone is going to break at some point.
He said he played ball with these guys and their bad behavior was very blatant. Also many of them are very skilled in military tactics. The hit on Ms. Greene was carried out with precision - gangbangers or drug dealers are more random with their drive-bys - I think we all know this.
I listened to my friend talk about this for over 2 hours and he said eventually someone is going to talk.
He also said that Kwame is very smart but very, very, VERY corrupt without a sense of true morals and vaules. His mother and father are also very questionable in their dealings. They are indeed milking the City dry and many people in his administration are going to feel the hammer vof the law sooner or later.
At this point I do expect some level of corruption from our elected officials. It just seems to come with the territory: politics=corruption.
But this is ridiculous!
If you want to read another salacious story about a (black) corrupt politician, do a Google search for Arenda Troutman from Chicago. They actually have this woman on tape conducting corrupt activities!
It's funny how people don't think about how much power these people really have! He is a member of a secret society (AphiA) as well as a politician. Any smart person would look at this situation and see that he had something to do with it and made sure that his hands would stay clean throughout the whole incident but the truth will find it's way sooner or later. KK deserved a much longer prison sentence and that young lady lost her life simply so he could stay in power and keep his face clean! He's the typical dog as well as a womanizer!
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