Kilpatrick must go

[COMMENTARY] After months of turmoil and controversy, and now facing eight felony charges for perjury and obstruction of justice, it is time for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to put the interests of the city he claims to serve ahead of his personal ambitions.

I’ve done things wrong in my life. I’ve wronged other people. And I’ve been wronged by them. One thing I learned a long time ago was that you cannot simultaneously accept responsibility for your actions and blame others for the consequences of those actions. You cannot say “I did this and I’m sorry” while also making excuses for your actions and lashing out at those who call for accountability for those actions. And Kilpatrick tried to do both of those things in the overwrought “apology” he gave a few weeks ago. Let us count the levels of hypocrisy in his recent behavior:

First of all, he delivered his speech at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. He went to a church so that everyone would think that he’s really a good Christian man. Yet where was his concern about his faith when he was cheating on his wife with one of his employees? Where were those religious ideals when he was lying under oath to cover up his infidelity? Where were they when he was selling out the lives and careers of three police officers to keep his dirty laundry secret? This is not a hypothetical. It’s no longer just an allegation. A jury unanimously found Kilpatrick legally liable for firing the deputy chief of police for daring to investigate charges of corruption and malfeasance by Kilpatrick himself.

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The mayor began his speech that day with what sounded like a genuine apology, to his wife and his family and to the people of Detroit, for “the embarrassment and the disappointment” he had caused them all. He said that he had told his three sons that “when you make a mistake, you learn from it, you get up, you dust yourself off and you keep moving forward.” He sounded like he was ready to accept full responsibility: “I am the mayor. I made the mistake. I’m accountable.” But we have heard this before. We heard it during his reelection campaign in 2005, in the wake of several previous scandals, when he said that he had “learned a valuable lesson.” Yet it was after he made that declaration that he ended up being indicted on felony perjury charges.

Kilpatrick’s attorney, Jim Webb, outlined his case against those charges in a press conference yesterday. He made three basic arguments:

1. That the prosecution was “selective” and that perjury charges are usually only brought in criminal cases, not civil suits.
2. That the questions he was asked that he is accused of lying in response to were “vague” and “ambiguous.”
3. That the text messages between Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff Christine Beatty — the real smoking gun in the case — should not have been turned over to the court. He said he will file a motion to suppress that evidence.

Notice what’s missing here? Not once did he even imply that Kilpatrick didn’t do what he is accused of doing. Indeed, the very fact that he is demanding that the key evidence in the case be suppressed is virtually an admission of wrongdoing. And perhaps most laughable of all, he is prepared to argue that those text messages should not be admissible because it can’t be proven that Kilpatrick himself sent them. Does he really expect us to believe that someone other than the mayor used his phone to send literally hundreds of text messages back and forth with Beatty over the course of days and weeks? Does the mayor make it a habit of giving his cell phone to someone else for long periods of time every day? Frankly, such a flimsy argument is nothing less than an insult to the intelligence of the people of Detroit.

Perhaps worst of all is the fact that he is trying to distract attention from his own actions by making this a racial issue, saying, “In the past 30 days I’ve been called a n—– more than any time in my entire life” and criticizing the “lynch mob mentality” of his accusers. Well, I’m sorry, mayor, if people have called you by racial slurs, particularly that one, there is no excuse for that and those that have done so should be ashamed of themselves. But their shame does not cancel out the shame you have brought to yourself or your city. That racist things have been said to you or about you does not mean that everyone who accuses you of wrongdoing is a racist, nor does it function as a “get out of responsibility free” card. You still did what you did even if racists have called you names over it.

The Detroit City Council voted 7-1 for a resolution demanding that Kilpatrick resign for the good of the city. Seven of the eight members of that council are African-American and the eighth was married to an African-American. Claiming that all of this is happening because of race is an excuse that simply isn’t going to fly. The City Council is right. It is time for Kwame Kilpatrick to put an end to years of scandal and corruption, to resign from office and to allow the already beleaguered city of Detroit to move forward without the distractions or the drama. That is the only honorable thing to do.