Curiously, I only found out about the Kilpatrick relation one month ago, when I attended a speech in Antwerp given by Derk Jan Eppink, a Dutch born journalist and longtime columnist for the daily De Standaard, who now lives in the States because his wife has a high position at the UN. In the Low Countries, Derk Jan Eppink's succinct and to-the-point political analyses have established his fame, grudgingly acknowledged even by the left, and it's only natural that at some point in his career he said De Standaard farewell. In the spring and early summer of 2008, Eppink accompanied several presidential hopefuls on their campaigns (a.o. Giuliani) and, having ample time, he immersed himself completely in the fascinating world of US elections. When describing how Barack Obama, who represents himself as an agent of "change", is actually the product of Chicago's political machine, he mentioned in passing Obama's adoration for Kwame Kilpatrick, the notorious ex-mayor of Detroit, and the involvement of the latter in the murder of prostitute Tamara Green. This is what Wikipedia says about it:
Kilpatrick's controversies started from a wild party in the fall of 2002 involving strippers at the official residence of the mayor—the city-owned Manoogian Mansion. It is alleged by former members of the mayor's Executive Protection Unit that the mayor's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, came home unexpectedly and upon discovering Kwame with the strippers began to attack one of the women.[24] Allegations began to surface after Officer Harold C. Nelthrope contacted the internal affairs unit of the Detroit Police in April 2003 to have them investigate abuses by the mayor's Executive Protection Unit (EPU). Mayor Kilpatrick denied all allegations and rumors of any misconduct by him or his security team. An investigation by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and the Michigan State Police found no evidence that the party actually happened.[24] Nelthrope and Gary A. Brown, head of the Detroit Police Department's internal affairs unit allege that they were fired by the administration in retaliation for investigating the Mayor and other superiors. Nelthrope and Brown filed a whistleblower lawsuit and were awarded an $8.4 million-dollar settlement.
Additionally, two other officers of the Detroit Police Department, Walt Harris and Alvin Bowman, correctly claimed they were retaliated against for their involvement in investigations that would highlight the mayor's misconduct. Harris was a former member of the EPU, who was identified by the administration as cooperating with the state's investigation of the mayor and subsequently suffered a smear campaign in the media by the Kilpatrick administration.[24]
The murder of Tamara Greene
Tamara Greene was a 27-year-old exotic dancer who went by the name "Strawberry", and who allegedly performed at the Manoogian Mansion party and was, again allegedly, attacked by the mayor's wife, Carlita, the same night. While sitting in her car with her boyfriend, Greene was shot multiple times with a .40 caliber Glock handgun. Although official statement by Detroit Police Department claims that Ms. Greene was shot three times, sources from Homicide Division of DPD have claimed that she was shot 18 times. Her boyfriend was wounded, but he was not shot after the white Chevrolet TrailBlazer driven by the shooter(s) turned around and drove by a second time. This fact led Bowman to conclude that Greene was the intended target and not her 32-year-old boyfriend.[25] She was murdered on April 30, 2003, at around 3:40 am, near the intersection of Roselawn and West Outer Drive.[25][26] Her murder came after a first attempt on her life failed. This led to the theory that this was a "deliberate hit" by a member of the Detroit Police Department,[26] a theory that Bowman would investigate. He alleges his investigation was the reason that he was taken off of the case and transferred out of homicide.[25]
Yet, this is the guy who Obama called a "Great Mayor":
Upon learning more about Detroit's and Michigan's predicaments, I noticed that Detroit is something like Charleroi, and Michigan something like Wallonia. Charleroi, and by extension Wallonia, are economic graveyards, and I guess it has now become clear to most remote observers that the tensions in my country Belgium have everything to do with the unwillingness of Flanders, Belgium's rich north, to pay any longer 6.5% of its GDP annually to fill the bottomless pits in Belgium's south - Wallonia. Why is Wallonia dirt poor and miserable? Why is Charleroi a hellhole of corruption and misery? I guess for the same reason that Michigan and Detroit are: people, despite the evidence, voting for over a century for a party that has not their interest at heart, but only its own perverse interest in continuing its corrupt existence at the expense of... the very people they claim to support. In Michigan, which coincidentally has a Democratic governor, they are called Democrats. In Wallonia, Socialists. But they are two sides of the same coin, and the end result is the same: endless misery for their constituency. In Detroit, Kilpatrick was the iconic image of "democratic" rule. Given the fact that the WHOLE of the entire Democratic Party has moved significantly to the left over the past decades, and that Obama is now the icon of the Democratic Party, this bodes not well for the future of America. In short, America is in for Michiganizing should this walking disaster ever make it into the White House.
Kwame Kilpatrick called Obama "the next President of the United States". When you stand in that voting booth, ask yourself whether you really want to give a scumbag who was charged with eight felonies for a.o. perjury, misconduct in office, obstruction of justice and assaulting a sheriff, who held sex parties in the Mayor's residence, and who used money for public education to treat himself and his family to luxurey travels, what he wants.
Don't say you haven't been warned.
MFBB.
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