Evidently they were intoxicated with power and could not handle the excesses of it. The signal was clear when Kilpatrick’s former chief of staff and lover Christine Beatty insulted a police officer for pulling her over in traffic by telling him, “Do you know who the f… I am?”
There was no known reprimand for that kind of behavior coming from someone who was designated a public servant. As a matter of fact, the administration always defended members of its team when they did wrong.
Unlike some political administrations that are careful about their actions and image, and would retire anyone who was seen more as a liability than an asset, there was no real purging of the Kilpatrick administration. The mayor always bragged about having the best team which raised serious questions about introspection and how they were managing the affairs of the city.
The same team that came on board during his first term pretty much remained to the end of the collapse of the administration.
They convinced themselves that they were the team if residents wanted Detroit to be a 21st century model city.
WHAT WE WERE not told at press conferences is what is now coming to light. Shady dealings and the alleged shakedowns in exchange for lucrative contracts eliminated some honest businessmen and women struggling to survive in the city because they would not grease any palms.
Their public definition of power that worked well for them on the campaign trail, netting thousands of votes and hefty campaign donations, was different from their inside definition of power that oiled the wheels of the seven- year oligarchy at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building.
The two-faced reign of the Kilpatrick empire in Detroit is no different from what has taken place in other cities like Hartford, Connecticut, where the current mayor, Eddie Perez, is stepping down after being convicted on corruption charges. But what is difficult to understand in this instance of destructive power at play is that Detroit is in a unique position, often branded as a city that has many impediments to growth.
SINCE THAT description is tied to the history of the racial, economic and political evolution of this city, it places upon any administration the sacred responsibility of not only proving the skeptics wrong, but also doing everything it can to advance the city.
That means running an administration that is devoid of any scandal that could potentially end the mandate from voters for that administration.
Looking at how the Kilpatrick house of cards is falling apart it’s hard to imagine if any of them in the former administration read books on political power and what amounts to public malfeasance.
Aside from Kilpatrick, what kind of political exposure did his team members have before they were entrusted with some of the most influential positions in city government?
Since most of those positions were not
elected posts, preventing the public/voters from asking tough questions about their skills and intentions, the appointees likely did not understand what it means to be in the seat of power and how to handle it.
Was this a deliberate snub of the public faith placed in them, or where they simply caught up by the demands of political expediency?
Or could it be that they were joyriding in a vehicle fueled by their inflated egos, instead of making life better for the 70-year-old senior citizen imprisoned in her own home because her neighborhood has been decimated, making it a crime hub?
Granted, powerful Black elected officials are often subjected to more scrutiny than their White counterparts. And Black officials who do wrong have always used that line as a scapegoat to avoid punishment — that they are the victims of a deep racial conspiracy. We agree that the justice system has not always played fair in issues of Black and Brown.
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