Justice Served In Detroit

By Tanner McCarron

On July 28^th of this past summer, Detroit became the largest city in American History to file for bankruptcy. The Detroit Free Press published a report investigating the causes to the fall of one of America’s great cities. The article lists reckless borrowing and staggering deficits as detrimental to the Motor City; however, the greatest cause of the city’s to ruining was not a financial deficit; rather, it was a deficit in leadership. Detroit’s mayors over the past several decades, were quick to beef up pensions and government benefits but failed to make the tough choices that were needed to secure the long term interests of the city.¹ Former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick epitomized this type of disastrous leadership that led Detroit from being the city of soul and cars, to being the city of unemployment and crime.

Kwame Kilpatrick served as mayor of Detroit from 2001-2008. His administration came to a scandalous end when explicit text messages revealed that he was having an extra-marital affair with his chief of staff.² Unfortunately, the affair was hardly the worst thing he did to the people of Detroit. During his tenure as mayor, he received bags of cash from city contractors worth up to tens of thousands of dollars; moreover, he frequently crisscrossed the country in private jets. He turned tax-exempt non-profit organizations into political slush funds and used his political position to commit bribery and extortion for his own financial gains.³ While he was lining his pockets, his city was becoming infested with crime, and the central driver of the local economy, the automotive industry, was balancing on the precipice of extinction.

On the October 10^th 2013, Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He was found guilty on 24 counts and charged with running a “criminal enterprise” out of city hall, from which he steered more than 127 million dollars in government contracts to his friend Bobby Ferguson.⁴ Corruption cases of this magnitude typically reap a punishment of 15 years for the accused. However, due to Kilpatrick’s prior issues with the law, the judge ruled a 28-year sentence.  A variety of prior run-ins with the law weren’t raised in the trial, including: perjury, failure to pay restitution, and multiple probation violations. In his resignation speech Kilpatrick proclaimed, “Detroit, you done set me up for a comeback”. ⁵ Thankfully for the people of Detroit, a political comeback is no longer in the cards for Mr. Kilpatrick.

In the grand scheme of things, the amount of money that Kilpatrick cost the city of Detroit is only a fraction of the 18 billion dollar debt that led the city to bankruptcy court. The criminal acts of extortion and bribery that he committed were just as harmful to the city as the decisions his predecessors made by borrowing vast sums of money to cater to special interests, knowing full well that the city could not afford to pay back. Whether convicted of a crime or not, every mayor of Detroit is equally responsible for the current state of the city. Although not every mayor will be held accountable for his tenure as a mayor in court of law, on Thursday, October 10^th, Kwame Kilpatrick was.

Bibliography

Associated Press.  “ I’m ready to go: Ex – Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick sentenced

To 28 years in prison for corruption”.  Washingtonpost.com. 10 October 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ex-detroit-mayor-kilpatrick-who-put-city-hall-up-for-the-right-price-faces-prison-sentence/2013/10/10/cdfcc0e4-316a-11e3-ad00-ec4c6b31cbed_story.html.

Erick M.L, Schaefer Jim, Swickard Joe, Schmitt Ben. Kilpatrick to city: “ There’s

Another day for me”. Freep.com. 4 September 2008.  http://www.freep.com/article/20080904/NEWS01/309050001/Kilpatrick-city-There-s-another-day-me-.

Borney Nathan, Gallagher John. “How Detroit went boke: The answer may

May surprise you”. Freep.com. 15 September 2013. http://www.freep.com/interactive/article/20130915/NEWS01/130801004/Detroit-Bankruptcy-history-1950-debt-pension-revenue.

Fontaine, Smokey. “ Kwame Kilpatrick’s Scandalous Texts Messages

Revealed”.  Newsone.com. 13 March 2009.  http://newsone.com/128681/kwame-kilpatricks-scandalous-text-messages-revealed/.

Woods, Ashley. “ Kwame Kilpatrick Sentenced, Former Detroit Mayor Gets

28 Years in Prison on Corruption Charges”. Huffingtonpost.com. 10 October 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/kwame-kilpatrick-sentenced-prison-detroit-corruption_n_4066248.html.