lily
03-14-2008, 02:26 AM
Well......I wasn't going to bring this up, but since we've made it to the big time and it's no longer just being reported locally.
Forget the N word accusation, that's just what brought it to the main stream media. Forget the perjury carges, the affair with his chief of staff, the spicy text messages (you can look those up).....what this is really about is the article below this one.
(http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnG4lfP2sI4vkfZS6twdLfE7T93QD8VC83OO6)
Detroit Mayor Exhumes 'Buried' Slur
By COREY WILLIAMS - 1 day ago
DETROIT (AP) - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick stood before hundreds of
people last summer and triumphantly proclaimed: "Die, N-word, and we don't
want to see you 'round here no more."
But although Kilpatrick and other black leaders symbolically buried the
racial slur in a mock funeral last July, he uttered it in his State of the
City address Tuesday, which was carried live on local television and radio
stations.
Facing possible perjury charges from testimony during a whistle-blowers'
trial and criticism over sexually explicit text messages he sent to his
former top aide, a defiant Kilpatrick lashed out at the media and opponents.
He said he and his family have been subjected to racial slurs, as well as
threats over the past month.
"In the past 30 days, I've been called a n-igger more than anytime in my
entire life," said Kilpatrick, 37. "In the past three days, I've received
more death threats than I have in my entire administration."
Kilpatrick's use of the slur drew a sharp response from state Attorney
General Mike Cox, who called it "race-baiting on par with David Duke and
George Wallace" on Wednesday and said the mayor should step down for the
good of the city and region.
"What he said cannot be unsaid, and he is not fit to be mayor anymore," Cox,
who is white, said in an interview on WJR-AM. "He's a very talented guy, but
he has overstayed his day. He should resign, he should quit, whether he's
charged or not."
Kilpatrick spokesman James Canning said Cox "has the right to his opinion"
but said the mayor will remain in office. He said Kilpatrick used the slur
in his speech as an example of how hurtful the epithet can be.
"He was explaining to the citizens of Detroit the situation he and his
family have been put in by some very vile individuals who have decided they
will thrust upon he and his family some very threatening forms of
communications," Canning said.
Some black leaders criticized Kilpatrick, saying he chose the wrong forum
and wrong language for his outburst.
"It most especially was not a place to use the same word that, supposedly,
we buried last summer," said the Rev. Edgar Vann, pastor of Second Ebenezer
Baptist Church in Detroit. "You can make references to it without using it."
But others said the context in which the mayor used the word should be
considered.
"He was trying to make a point. He wasn't using it in the typical
vernacular," said Richard J. McIntire, the national spokesman for the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The N-word has been used as a slur against blacks for more than a century.
It remains a symbol of racism, but also is used by blacks when referring to
other blacks, especially in comedy routines and rap and hip-hop music. The
Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as well as other national black
leaders, have called for an end to the use of the word.
Kilpatrick has been under fire since excerpts of sexually explicit text
messages between Kilpatrick and his chief of staff at the time were reported
in January by the Detroit Free Press.
In a trial over a lawsuit against the city brought by two police officers
who said they were wrongly fired, Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty denied
under oath that they had been romantically involved.
The City Council settled the lawsuit for $8.4 million, but councilors didn't
know about a secret deal to keep mention of the text messages out of the
settlement.
Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty denied that they didn't have a romantic
relationship during a lawsuit against the city brought by two police
officers who said they were wrongly fired. The City Council settled the
lawsuit for $8.4 million, but councilors didn't know about a secret deal to
keep mention of the text messages out of the settlement.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is deciding whether to charge Kilpatrick
and Beatty with perjury.[hr]http://images.chron.com/photos/2008/02/01/10345686/311xInlineGallery.jpg
What this is really about and what started the whole thing. (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5604448.html)
Cold case manages to keep the heat on Detroit's mayor
By P.J. HUFFSTUTTER
Los Angeles Times
DETROIT - In a city that routinely sees more than 400 murders a year, the
2003 slaying of Tamara "Strawberry" Greene was an easily overlooked crime.
Few people initially took notice when the 27-year-old stripper was found
slumped over the steering wheel of her green Buick Skylark. But soon the
city was buzzing with rumors that she had danced at a party at the mayor's
mansion - a story that never has been proved.
The investigation into the rumored party and her death helped launch Mayor
Kwame M. Kilpatrick's avalanche of current woes, but nearly five years
later, Greene's death has been overshadowed by recent revelations of an
affair between the mayor and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
The scandal, complete with text-messaged endearments, has been fueled by
reports that Kilpatrick and Beatty lied about the affair while testifying
last year.
Now Greene's death in April 2003 is emerging as a key story line in the
city's civic soap opera.
Pressured to drop case
Lawyers for Tamara Greene's 14-year-old son are pushing forward with a $150
million federal civil lawsuit against the mayor and the city, for allegedly
quashing the investigation of her slaying.
They recently filed a statement from a former Detroit police officer
alleging that his homicide unit was pressured to drop the case, even though
it appeared to him that Greene's death was a hit - one possibly carried out
by another police officer. They also have subpoenaed a slew of text-messages
among city employees, including those sent between 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.
on the day Greene was killed.
The city is petitioning for the case to be dismissed. A federal judge
ordered SkyTel and the city to save certain messages from 42 city pagers,
including Kilpatrick's, as well as all messages sent on the day Greene died.
Rumored mansion party
The sordid tale of Greene's slaying revolves around the rumored party at
Manoogian Mansion, the official residence of the mayor. Court documents lay
out the following sequence of events:
An officer with the Executive Protection Unit reported that a party for the
mayor and his friends had taken place and "the party featured nude female
dancers," according to a 2003 internal affairs memo commissioned by Police
Deputy Chief Gary Brown. The unit handles security for the mayor.
When the mayor's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, unexpectedly arrived at the
mansion, she saw her husband and the strippers, according to the officer who
reported about the party, Harold Nelthrope.
Nelthrope, who was not at the alleged event but learned about it the
following day, "further stated that a fight ensued between Ms. Kilpatrick
and a dancer and that the dancer received injuries requiring medical
attention." Nelthrope does not say who told him about the alleged events.
The dancer - believed to be Greene - was taken to a hospital, "and the
Executive Protection Unit confiscated all activity log sheets (from the
police precinct that responded)," Nelthrope said.
The mayor, who declined to comment for this story, has denied that the party
and the alleged assault took place. (Carlita Kilpatrick also declined to
comment.) So, too, have Detroit police officials - at least publicly. A
state investigation resulted in Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox
dismissing such claims as urban legend.
"They have no eyewitnesses, no caterers, not one person that said they were
there that has been named," said attorney Mayer Morganroth, who is defending
the city and the mayor in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Greene's son,
Jonathan Bond.
Bond's attorney Norman Yatooma said, "The mayor is a proven liar and
perjurer. Neither the party nor Tammy's murder are urban legend. It's
another legendary cover-up."
More allegations
Brown, a 25-year veteran, also was looking into allegations that officers on
the mayor's security team falsified overtime payroll, drank on the job and
hid accidents in city cars. He was fired unexpectedly after the 2003 memo -
in part, Brown claimed, for investigating the rumored party and because the
mayor and Beatty feared their relationship would be exposed.
The investigation into Greene's death, meanwhile, quietly was being
sabotaged, court documents allege.
In a 10-page affidavit filed earlier this month in connection with the son's
lawsuit, former Detroit Police Lt. Alvin Bowman - a 31-year police veteran
who headed the homicide unit looking into the Greene murder - said that top
police officials derailed his investigation in order to avoid any inquiry
into the party.
Bowman said files and case notes on the Greene case were deleted from
homicide investigators' computers and reports were removed from the file. At
one point, the file was placed in a combination-lock safe that Bowman and
others couldn't get into.
"The focus of our investigation was to solve Ms. Greene's murder, not to
investigate the Manoogian Mansion party," Bowman stated in his affidavit.
"However, because of the persistent and pervasive rumors concerning her
appearance at that party and rumored assault by the Mayor's wife, Carlita
Kilpatrick, my investigation required my (s)quad to follow up and
investigate those rumors."
Last week, Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings told reporters that
Bowman's accusations were "reprehensible," and, "There is no cover-up in
this police department into the death of Miss Greene."
Overshadowed by scandal
Kilpatrick once faced a bright political future. Called the nation's
"hip-hop mayor," the charismatic attorney was the youngest mayor in
Detroit's history, and many people - particularly his mother, U.S. Rep.
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick - predicted he could become the first black
president.
But his reputation was overshadowed by scandal, including a series of police
whistle-blower lawsuits.
Last year, after a jury sided against the city in one of the suits,
Kilpatrick persuaded the City Council to approve an $8.4 million settlement
to three police whistle-blowers. Part of the deal the City Council did not
know about but reportedly was approved by the city attorney: Proof of the
text messages showing the mayor and Beatty, his chief of staff, lied under
oath about their romantic relationship was to be concealed.
The affair first was reported in the Detroit Free Press in January after
investigative reporters obtained almost 14,000 text messages sent from, and
received by, Beatty's city-owned pager in 2002 and 2003.
Wayne County prosecutor, Kym Worthy, opened an investigation of possible
perjury and other charges against the mayor. The investigation, expected to
be completed this week, as well as the mayor's troubles have galvanized this
blue-collar community.
At a City Council meeting recently, angry Detroiters crammed inside the
public chambers, clutching handwritten speeches - and voiced commonly held
views about the mayor.
"He has disgraced my race and he is no longer able to carry on as mayor of
this city," said Hattie Massey, 73, a retired city school teacher.
Jonathan Bond was 10 years old when his mother was killed. Bond's father,
Ernest Flagg, filed the lawsuit on behalf of his son. His family has told
him to let the case go. Flagg recently moved his family out of Detroit after
their home was broken into and trashed.
Forget the N word accusation, that's just what brought it to the main stream media. Forget the perjury carges, the affair with his chief of staff, the spicy text messages (you can look those up).....what this is really about is the article below this one.
(http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnG4lfP2sI4vkfZS6twdLfE7T93QD8VC83OO6)
Detroit Mayor Exhumes 'Buried' Slur
By COREY WILLIAMS - 1 day ago
DETROIT (AP) - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick stood before hundreds of
people last summer and triumphantly proclaimed: "Die, N-word, and we don't
want to see you 'round here no more."
But although Kilpatrick and other black leaders symbolically buried the
racial slur in a mock funeral last July, he uttered it in his State of the
City address Tuesday, which was carried live on local television and radio
stations.
Facing possible perjury charges from testimony during a whistle-blowers'
trial and criticism over sexually explicit text messages he sent to his
former top aide, a defiant Kilpatrick lashed out at the media and opponents.
He said he and his family have been subjected to racial slurs, as well as
threats over the past month.
"In the past 30 days, I've been called a n-igger more than anytime in my
entire life," said Kilpatrick, 37. "In the past three days, I've received
more death threats than I have in my entire administration."
Kilpatrick's use of the slur drew a sharp response from state Attorney
General Mike Cox, who called it "race-baiting on par with David Duke and
George Wallace" on Wednesday and said the mayor should step down for the
good of the city and region.
"What he said cannot be unsaid, and he is not fit to be mayor anymore," Cox,
who is white, said in an interview on WJR-AM. "He's a very talented guy, but
he has overstayed his day. He should resign, he should quit, whether he's
charged or not."
Kilpatrick spokesman James Canning said Cox "has the right to his opinion"
but said the mayor will remain in office. He said Kilpatrick used the slur
in his speech as an example of how hurtful the epithet can be.
"He was explaining to the citizens of Detroit the situation he and his
family have been put in by some very vile individuals who have decided they
will thrust upon he and his family some very threatening forms of
communications," Canning said.
Some black leaders criticized Kilpatrick, saying he chose the wrong forum
and wrong language for his outburst.
"It most especially was not a place to use the same word that, supposedly,
we buried last summer," said the Rev. Edgar Vann, pastor of Second Ebenezer
Baptist Church in Detroit. "You can make references to it without using it."
But others said the context in which the mayor used the word should be
considered.
"He was trying to make a point. He wasn't using it in the typical
vernacular," said Richard J. McIntire, the national spokesman for the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The N-word has been used as a slur against blacks for more than a century.
It remains a symbol of racism, but also is used by blacks when referring to
other blacks, especially in comedy routines and rap and hip-hop music. The
Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as well as other national black
leaders, have called for an end to the use of the word.
Kilpatrick has been under fire since excerpts of sexually explicit text
messages between Kilpatrick and his chief of staff at the time were reported
in January by the Detroit Free Press.
In a trial over a lawsuit against the city brought by two police officers
who said they were wrongly fired, Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty denied
under oath that they had been romantically involved.
The City Council settled the lawsuit for $8.4 million, but councilors didn't
know about a secret deal to keep mention of the text messages out of the
settlement.
Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty denied that they didn't have a romantic
relationship during a lawsuit against the city brought by two police
officers who said they were wrongly fired. The City Council settled the
lawsuit for $8.4 million, but councilors didn't know about a secret deal to
keep mention of the text messages out of the settlement.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is deciding whether to charge Kilpatrick
and Beatty with perjury.[hr]http://images.chron.com/photos/2008/02/01/10345686/311xInlineGallery.jpg
What this is really about and what started the whole thing. (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5604448.html)
Cold case manages to keep the heat on Detroit's mayor
By P.J. HUFFSTUTTER
Los Angeles Times
DETROIT - In a city that routinely sees more than 400 murders a year, the
2003 slaying of Tamara "Strawberry" Greene was an easily overlooked crime.
Few people initially took notice when the 27-year-old stripper was found
slumped over the steering wheel of her green Buick Skylark. But soon the
city was buzzing with rumors that she had danced at a party at the mayor's
mansion - a story that never has been proved.
The investigation into the rumored party and her death helped launch Mayor
Kwame M. Kilpatrick's avalanche of current woes, but nearly five years
later, Greene's death has been overshadowed by recent revelations of an
affair between the mayor and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
The scandal, complete with text-messaged endearments, has been fueled by
reports that Kilpatrick and Beatty lied about the affair while testifying
last year.
Now Greene's death in April 2003 is emerging as a key story line in the
city's civic soap opera.
Pressured to drop case
Lawyers for Tamara Greene's 14-year-old son are pushing forward with a $150
million federal civil lawsuit against the mayor and the city, for allegedly
quashing the investigation of her slaying.
They recently filed a statement from a former Detroit police officer
alleging that his homicide unit was pressured to drop the case, even though
it appeared to him that Greene's death was a hit - one possibly carried out
by another police officer. They also have subpoenaed a slew of text-messages
among city employees, including those sent between 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.
on the day Greene was killed.
The city is petitioning for the case to be dismissed. A federal judge
ordered SkyTel and the city to save certain messages from 42 city pagers,
including Kilpatrick's, as well as all messages sent on the day Greene died.
Rumored mansion party
The sordid tale of Greene's slaying revolves around the rumored party at
Manoogian Mansion, the official residence of the mayor. Court documents lay
out the following sequence of events:
An officer with the Executive Protection Unit reported that a party for the
mayor and his friends had taken place and "the party featured nude female
dancers," according to a 2003 internal affairs memo commissioned by Police
Deputy Chief Gary Brown. The unit handles security for the mayor.
When the mayor's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, unexpectedly arrived at the
mansion, she saw her husband and the strippers, according to the officer who
reported about the party, Harold Nelthrope.
Nelthrope, who was not at the alleged event but learned about it the
following day, "further stated that a fight ensued between Ms. Kilpatrick
and a dancer and that the dancer received injuries requiring medical
attention." Nelthrope does not say who told him about the alleged events.
The dancer - believed to be Greene - was taken to a hospital, "and the
Executive Protection Unit confiscated all activity log sheets (from the
police precinct that responded)," Nelthrope said.
The mayor, who declined to comment for this story, has denied that the party
and the alleged assault took place. (Carlita Kilpatrick also declined to
comment.) So, too, have Detroit police officials - at least publicly. A
state investigation resulted in Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox
dismissing such claims as urban legend.
"They have no eyewitnesses, no caterers, not one person that said they were
there that has been named," said attorney Mayer Morganroth, who is defending
the city and the mayor in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Greene's son,
Jonathan Bond.
Bond's attorney Norman Yatooma said, "The mayor is a proven liar and
perjurer. Neither the party nor Tammy's murder are urban legend. It's
another legendary cover-up."
More allegations
Brown, a 25-year veteran, also was looking into allegations that officers on
the mayor's security team falsified overtime payroll, drank on the job and
hid accidents in city cars. He was fired unexpectedly after the 2003 memo -
in part, Brown claimed, for investigating the rumored party and because the
mayor and Beatty feared their relationship would be exposed.
The investigation into Greene's death, meanwhile, quietly was being
sabotaged, court documents allege.
In a 10-page affidavit filed earlier this month in connection with the son's
lawsuit, former Detroit Police Lt. Alvin Bowman - a 31-year police veteran
who headed the homicide unit looking into the Greene murder - said that top
police officials derailed his investigation in order to avoid any inquiry
into the party.
Bowman said files and case notes on the Greene case were deleted from
homicide investigators' computers and reports were removed from the file. At
one point, the file was placed in a combination-lock safe that Bowman and
others couldn't get into.
"The focus of our investigation was to solve Ms. Greene's murder, not to
investigate the Manoogian Mansion party," Bowman stated in his affidavit.
"However, because of the persistent and pervasive rumors concerning her
appearance at that party and rumored assault by the Mayor's wife, Carlita
Kilpatrick, my investigation required my (s)quad to follow up and
investigate those rumors."
Last week, Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings told reporters that
Bowman's accusations were "reprehensible," and, "There is no cover-up in
this police department into the death of Miss Greene."
Overshadowed by scandal
Kilpatrick once faced a bright political future. Called the nation's
"hip-hop mayor," the charismatic attorney was the youngest mayor in
Detroit's history, and many people - particularly his mother, U.S. Rep.
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick - predicted he could become the first black
president.
But his reputation was overshadowed by scandal, including a series of police
whistle-blower lawsuits.
Last year, after a jury sided against the city in one of the suits,
Kilpatrick persuaded the City Council to approve an $8.4 million settlement
to three police whistle-blowers. Part of the deal the City Council did not
know about but reportedly was approved by the city attorney: Proof of the
text messages showing the mayor and Beatty, his chief of staff, lied under
oath about their romantic relationship was to be concealed.
The affair first was reported in the Detroit Free Press in January after
investigative reporters obtained almost 14,000 text messages sent from, and
received by, Beatty's city-owned pager in 2002 and 2003.
Wayne County prosecutor, Kym Worthy, opened an investigation of possible
perjury and other charges against the mayor. The investigation, expected to
be completed this week, as well as the mayor's troubles have galvanized this
blue-collar community.
At a City Council meeting recently, angry Detroiters crammed inside the
public chambers, clutching handwritten speeches - and voiced commonly held
views about the mayor.
"He has disgraced my race and he is no longer able to carry on as mayor of
this city," said Hattie Massey, 73, a retired city school teacher.
Jonathan Bond was 10 years old when his mother was killed. Bond's father,
Ernest Flagg, filed the lawsuit on behalf of his son. His family has told
him to let the case go. Flagg recently moved his family out of Detroit after
their home was broken into and trashed.