On Wednesday Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded for forgiveness from his wife and constituents. The televised apology was made from their family’s church the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ.
His plea for forgiveness included: “Finally, and most important, I want to make a public apology to my wife, Carlita, who I fell in love with when I was 19 years old. We decided to build a family together and we did that. Our marriage has not been perfect, but it has been great."
His wife statement included: "Like all marriages, ours is not perfect, but through our commitment to God and each other, my husband and I will get through this. Yes, I am angry, I am hurt, and I am disappointed. But there is no question that I love my husband."
I don’t doubt that she loves her husband. I don’t question her decision to “forgive” him. What I do have an issue with is the fact that he and his mistress have work together for 10 years. In fact Beatty resigned on Monday from her position as his chief of staff.
Therefore, I question Carlita's decision to stay married to him. How does a husband justify to his wife that he has been involved with a woman for at least six years? An involvement that included a sexual and more importantly an emotional involvement. An involvement with Beatty a woman that he has known since they were both in 9th grade. Why would a wife stay with a man who has destroyed their lives financially, emotionally, and spiritually?
Both Kilpatrick and his mistress Christine Beatty lied under oath about their affair last summer in a whistleblowers suit filed against the city by two former cops. Their testimony was part of a lawsuit by the officers who claimed they lost their jobs because they investigated whether Kilpatrick used his security officers to cover up extramarital affairs.
Text messages proved that the pair had an intimate relationship. In hundreds of text messages from 2002 to 2003, Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty who were both married declared their love for each other.
They also sent text messages in order to meet in motels in Detroit and on out of town business trips. One message from Kilpatrick to Beatty “I‘ve been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days…relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping, and making love.”
Keith Naughton of Newsweek magazine online reported that during a visit to Washington DC in 2002 for the Congressional Black Caucus's legislative conference, the mayor and his chief of staff shared a bedroom at his D.C. hotel while his bodyguards stood watch.
During the trial both denied a romantic or intimate relationship. It has been reported that Beatty lied about the affair 10 times on the witness stand in August 2007. A jury ruled against the City of Detroit and the officers were paid 8.4 million dollars. The lawsuit cost the city more than 9 million dollars.
The Detroit News and its reporting partner, WXYS reported recently that Mayor Kilpatrick was in a luxury resort hot tub and got a massage with a woman who was not his wife. The incident was reported to have occurred at a luxury resort in Asheville, NC during the 2008 Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend. Beatty legal representative is denying allegations that she was the woman with Kilpatrick.
Kym Worthy, a Wayne County prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation into whether Beatty and Kilpatrick committed perjury or other crimes. If convicted of perjury they could face up to 15 years in prison.
In his apology Kilpatrick stated, "I am the mayor. I made the mistake, I am accountable." Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should resign immediately if he truly is accountable and has any regards for is wife, family, and the people of Detroit.
Vera Richardson is the author of “A Case of Racial Discrimination and Retaliation Real or Imagined."
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?EAN=9780615177014&rv=1
Read excerpts from the text messages http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS05/301230008
2 comments:
he should leave office hes a disgrace to detroit
I live in Detroit,and if you ask the average citizen here if they think Kwame Kilpatrick should resign, the first thing that comes out of their mouths are, "that's the media picking on him because he's Black" But if you ask them what has he done for the community to improve our socio economic condition, and they'll say "he did a lot of things, look at all these new businesses coming into our city". Then I ask them how much have Detroiter's benefitted, then you bet silence.
Kwame Kilpatrick has been an embarrassment to the city of Detroit since he first took office. He's a charismatic thug with his 'bling bling' and hip hop behavior who's able to charm the poorest citizens with his smile and make them forget about asking for anything or what is he going to do about our situation. He has totally destroyed what Coleman A. Young created and built. Coleman Young was the first African American mayor of Detroit. He transforms Detroit whole infrastructure and administration to completely reflect the citizens they served. Before Coleman, it was very hard to get a job with the city. The upper administration was all white, our police and fire department was all white, no bid contracts were given to all white contractors, and most of the employee's lived outside the city therefore leaving no allegiance to what happens after 5:00. Coleman changed all that. The police and fire department was all Black, in order to work for the city, you had to live (keeping the tax dollars here), he initiated that 80% of all government contracts goes to Detroit residents, the rest have to bid upon, he opened up police mini-stations in the neighborhoods, built and/or restored our recreation centers, bought and opened up a summer camp, allowed the residents opportunities to buy HUD homes with a grant from the city to fix them up. He generated tax dollars.
Now this idiot comes in and completely sell most of the land here, allowed the casino's to give a one time $50 million dollar paymen rather than asking for a percentage of the profits which the citizens asked for, signed to lift the cap off charter schools (for his buddies), bought his wife a SUV with tax dollars, gave a big party at the mansion (it's not a myth), and now this. Up until now its been hard to recall him or not re-elect him because he appointed his friends to head the election, and county clerk office's (who somehow lost the petetion with the signatures). This time he is not getting back in. The power brokers don't need him anymore. They have all the land and our resouces. Plus the citizens are starting to see just how poor they really are.
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