How to eff up Dr. King's Dream Class 101

pimpalicious Mayor and his wife

Keepin in the theme of honoring Dr. King for MLK Week for me, I found out about this story. It's sad, but the reality is that a young, black mayor of a major city got caught up with an affair of his chief of staff and fired some folks when the pressure of being exposed was at its highest.  It may not seem like a way to honor the legacy, but it is.  Dr. King is honored in my eyes because of the opportunity presented.  How the opportunity is squandered is another story.

I'm certainly no saint, but just like the old sayin goes..."with great power, comes great responsibility"...


DETROIT (AP) — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick exchanged romantic and sexually oriented text messages with a top aide, contradicting their denials in court that they had romantic ties, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The county prosecutor's office declined to comment on the legal implications of the report, first posted Wednesday on the Detroit Free Press' Web site. A conviction of lying under oath can bring up to 15 years' imprisonment.

Kilpatrick issued a statement Wednesday night saying the messages "reflect a very difficult period in my personal life."

Last summer, Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty testified in a police whistleblower lawsuit and denied any sexual or romantic ties in 2002-03.

Mike Stefani, a lawyer for the officers, asked Beatty if she and Kilpatrick were "either romantically or intimately involved with each other" during the period covered by the case.

"No," she replied.

Stefani asked Kilpatrick if he was "romantically involved with Christine Beatty" in 2002-03.

"No," he replied.

At another point in his testimony, Kilpatrick expressed anger about claims of an affair between him and Beatty.

"I think it was pretty demoralizing to her — you have to know her — but it's demoralizing to me as well," the mayor said. "My mother is a congresswoman. There have always been strong women around me. My aunt is a state legislator. I think it's absurd to assert that every woman that works with a man is a whore.

"I think it's disrespectful not just to Christine Beatty but to women who do a professional job that they do every single day. And it's also disrespectful to their families as well."

But the Free Press said it examined about 14,000 text messages on Beatty's city-issued pager from two months in 2002 and two months in 2003 and found many examples of such ties.

Kilpatrick is married, and Beatty was married at the time.

"I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote on Oct. 3, 2002.

"I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty replied. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!"

On Oct. 16, 2002, Kilpatrick wrote Beatty: "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."

In a statement released by his office Wednesday night, Kilpatrick said: "It is profoundly embarrassing to have these extremely private messages now displayed in such a public manner.

"My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago. I would now ask that the public and the media respect the privacy of my wife and children and of Christine Beatty and her children at this deeply painful moment for our families."

Kilpatrick was scheduled on Wednesday to chair a panel discussion on responding to the mortgage crisis at the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington and attend a breakfast and luncheon at the conference on Thursday.

Elena Temple, a spokeswoman for the organization, said Thursday that Kilpatrick didn't attend the conference.

When asked if the prosecutor's office would open an investigation into possible perjury, Wayne County prosecutor's spokeswoman Maria Miller said: "We have not received anything from anyone. Other than that, we have no comment."

In the civil case, a Wayne County jury awarded $6.5 million to two former police officers in the lawsuit against the city and Kilpatrick.

The jury said Kilpatrick and the city unlawfully dismissed two officers — Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope. The men claimed they suffered after looking into alleged wrongdoing within Kilpatrick's security unit.

The events happened in Kilpatrick's first four-year term. He was elected to a second term in November 2005.

The Free Press didn't explain exactly how it obtained the text messages, but said it was outside a lawsuit it filed to get all records related to the settlement the city reached with the two officers. The newspaper said it cross-referenced the text messages with the mayor's private calendar and credit card records from that period to verify events in some messages.


quick summary: Kilpatrick is 37, known for being the "hip hop mayor", not well liked by most of his peers, known to party hard, known for being a bling-blinger, exposed for using city money for non city expenses...He is a Black Mayor of a major city. He should know that he is unde the microscope anyway.

Why why why...why would he be so smug to commit perjury in court, then when they had an opportunity to settle for 100K...not do so. Why would he let his d*ck and lying cost the city over $9M when Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the country with a forclosure rate that is astronomical.

I know why..

When you are an arrogant, selfish, sneaky f*ck that thinks that you are where you are because you feel entitled, feeling invincible goes with the territory. Additionally, since he isn't personally responsible to pay one cent, I guess it's no skin off his nose. Motherf*cker!!!!!!

to see the sourceClick here.