August 25, 2008

Penetrating the Kilpatrick Shield

The Kilpatrick machine loses another round and its possible that yet another layer will be peeled off the multi-layered wall of protection that is the Kwame Kilpatrick friends and family shield. Clearly, the Kilpatrick narrative is corruption, but could it be deeper than that? Could it be thuggery, even murder?

Kwame's current woes stem from his firing of police officers who reported and then investigated misconduct on the part of his security detail. Those allegations included claims of abuse of overtime, but also included the story of the rumoored but never proven Manoogian Mansion party. That rumor, known and believed to be true by every citizen of Detroit, tells the tale of a wild party at the Mayor's mansion that included at least 3 strippers, one of whom was reportedly Tamara Greene. Denounced as urban legend by Kilpatrick, the story goes that wife Carlita walked in on this party in progress to find Ms. Greene giving her husband a lap dance and clocked her. She had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. No evidence of the ambulance run or the police report from the response have been unearthed, though tantalizing bits of evidence and testimony have surfaced that may become the initial chinks in the armor. Of the three strippers thought to be there, all are now believed to be dead. In Tamara's case, she died in in a hail of bullets fired by assassins from a moving vehicle.

I myself, via the unique grapevine of urban communities, have acquaintances in Detroit who told me that the party happened for sure and they knew because their cousin catered it and told them about it. Stories of that sort are all over the Detroit community and everyone knows that party happened, just like everybody knew Kilpatrick was having an affair with Beatty. Credit Kwame's network of friends and family with top notch operational security that rivals Al Queda. Not one shred of proof nor a single person has been produced who will attest that this party ever occurred.

But as the pressure piles on, and real investigation begans to put regular folks on the spot who have lots to lose if they can be shown to be part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice in a murder case, the incentives to turn on the Kilpatrick machine will grow. The release of text messages from officials in the Kilpatrick administration in the period immediately following Greene's murder ratchets up that pressure another notch.