In this series of posts we will show the most dangerous cities in America, but we will not stop there . We will show who is responsible and wherever possible we will try to show key policies which have contributed to the current state of affairs.
Detroit
Mayor
As Mayor of Detroit, I want you to know that City government’s most important role is to serve your family and community. Whether it’s making your streets safer or improving your local park, your quality
of life must be the focus of our efforts.
I encourage you to participate in making Detroit better and stronger by attending a local police district meeting or one of my regular town hall meetings in your community, or by calling City Hall or one of your City Council members with your ideas or concerns. If you run a business — or want to start one — I hope you’ll take advantage of the assistance we can offer. If you are interested in volunteering to help our city, we’d be happy to offer ideas — or to hear yours. full story
Cockrel, an African American and a cum laude graduate of Wayne State University, is a former journalist for the Detroit Free Press and a former Wayne County commissioner. He is the son of Kenneth Cockrel, Sr., a former Detroit city council member, attorney and self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist who died from a heart attack,[4] and Carol Cockrel, a schoolteacher.
Crime Rate (source)
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| Detroit Violent Crime Rate per Capita: | |||||||||
| Murder | Forcible Rape | Robbery | Aggravated Assault | All Violent Crime | |||||
| National | Local | National | Local | National | Local | National | Local | National | Local |
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| Is 5.16 times the National Average | Is 2.41 times the National Average | Is 2.86 times the National Average | Is 3.49 times the National Average | Is 3.38 times the | |||||
Previous Mayor
Mayor Kwame Kirkpatrick won the November 2005 mayoral election. In 2008, he was indicted on eight felony charges including perjury, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and misconduct in office steming from a past affair with his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
DETROIT — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigned, pleading guilty to two felony charges that will put him in jail for no more than 120 days. His resignation ends a six-month legal saga that leaves the city in a state of flux and could challenge Democratic Party efforts to win Michigan in November.
Under an agreement with prosecutors, Mr. Kilpatrick Thursday pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice and will pay the city $1 million in restitution, give up his pension benefits and not seek elected office for five years. complete story
Police Commissioner
Police Chief James R. Barren, Ph.D., is a clear example of what perseverance, confidence and integrity in an individual can bring. Appointed Chief of Police on September 19, 2008, by The Honorable Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., Chief Barren is the 38th person to lead the Detroit Police Department in its 143 year history
Previous Chief of Police Ella M. Bully-Cummings, Esq.
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Detroit City Council
Council President Monica Conyers
Conyers admits ex-con is her brother
City Council president had at first denied ex-con who got city job was related to her
David Josar / The Detroit News
Detroit –One day after denying it, City Council President Monica Conyers acknowledged that Reggie Esters, the ex-con she helped get a job in City Hall, is her brother.
“We can’t pick our family,” said Conyers, who explained her initial denial by saying she did not understand how records obtained by The Detroit News identified Esters, 38, a felon with a long rap sheet, as her sibling. When speaking to a reporter Thursday at City Hall, Conyers said, “That’s not my brother.”
This is not the first time she has hired a relative. The News has reported that Conyers also had hired her teenage son and he traveled with her on pension board trips.
Her brother was eventually fired last summer on claims of absenteeism.
“Everyone has a right to be productive,” she said. “That is why I fight so hard at council for ex-offenders to have jobs. We just want to lock up people and not give them training. That is why there is such a high rate of recidivism.”
She added that she also visits inmates at local correctional facilities to “lift and encourage them.”
Barbara Rose Collins
Then U.S. Congresswoman Barbara-Rose Collins says she was misquoted in Detroit newspaper about hating whites
Jet , August 19, 1996
Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins (D-MI) of the 15th Congressional District in Michigan says her remarks about White people were taken out of context when she was quoted in a Detroit newspaper as saying that she hates the White race.
The Detroit Free Press newspaper published a story in July and reported that Collins
said racism is “so ingrained in American society that there’s nothing I can do about it. I think God is going to have to burn it out of White people.” In another quote in the story, Collins said, “All White people, I don’t believe, are intolerant. That’s why I say I love the individuals, but I hate the race…”
he reporter, Anne Hazard, said she turned over the tape of the two-hour interview to the newspaper and a 22-page transcript.
“I stand by the accuracy of the quotes,” said Hazard.
Recently, in a two-page faxed statement, Collins explained that her views on racism were mischaracterized in the article.
“In order to set the record straight, let me just say quite plainly that I am not a racist,” Collins said in her statement.
“I summarized my thoughts on racism by stating that I loved the individual but that `I hated the (sins committed by) the White race against people of color throughout history,’ ” she added.
Kwame Kenyatta
Detroit councilman Kwame Kenyatta walks away from his mortgage
..But then, one day in December, City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta and his wife packed up their belongings, locked the doors, mailed in the keys and walked away — adding another vacant house to the thousands in a city hard hit by the nation’s mortgage crisis.
“We’re already underwater when it comes to what we’re paying on the house versus what the house is worth,” Kenyatta said.
It could damage his bid for mayor of Detroit this summer, particularly since he has been one of the city’s most vocal supporters of measures to improve neighborhoods and clean up blight.
“If I’m going to follow you, you need to be a leader,” said Patricia Dixon, a former neighbor of Kenyatta’s. “You don’t show leadership by walking away from your home in the city of Detroit. You have vandalism where they find out the houses are vacant. You have people stealing fireplaces.”
Kenyatta, a Democrat, is not the only elected official facing mortgage trouble. The Wayne County prosecutor’s Detroit home has gone into foreclosure. And California Rep. Laura Richardson nearly lost her home before she paid up delinquent home loans.
Congressional Representatives
John Conyers Jr.
John Conyers, Jr. (born May 16, 1929) is a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Michigan’s 14th congressional district, which includes most of northwestern Detroit, as well as Highland Park, Hamtramck and part of Dearborn. A Democrat, he has served since 1965 (the district was numbered as the 1st District until 1993). In January 2007, Conyers became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in the 110th United States Congress; he had been the committee’s ranking Democrat since 1997.
Conyers is currently the second-longest serving incumbent member of the House (just after fellow Democrat from Michigan, John Dingell) and the fifth-longest incumbent member of the entire Congress by length of service (after Robert Byrd, John Dingell, Ted Kennedy and Daniel Inouye). He is married to Monica Conyers, who is currently President of the Detroit City Council and the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation into political corruption in the city.[1]
John Dingell
WASHINGTON — Rep. John Dingell, the iron-fisted Michigan Democrat and advocate for Detroit’s automakers, was honored Tuesday by former President Bill Clinton and congressional leaders as he became the longest-serving House member in history.
Dingell, who succeeded his late father in Congress in 1955, will begin his 19,420th day in Congress on Wednesday, surpassing the late Rep. Jamie Whitten, D-Miss.
DETROIT (June 30) – Gunmen in a green minivan opened fire on a group of teenagers waiting at a bus stop near a Detroit school on Tuesday, wounding seven including two who were in critical condition, authorities said.
The gunmen exited a vehicle and “asked for a person by name” before they “opened fire at the crowd,” said Detroit Public Schools Police Chief Roderick Grimes.Four boys and three girls ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old were hospitalized, two of them — a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old female — in critical condition, said Deputy Chief James Tolbert. source