It’s so funny how some people demand microscopically detailed and exhaustive justification for most accusations of racism, but love to grab that banner and run with it whenever they feel white people have been victims of it. Then they accuse everyone else of doing the same thing in reverse, all the time. It’s kind of hypnotic.
Kwame’s legal friends are saying on TV the mayor is entitled to a presumption of innocence. I understand the concept but in this case the tapes of his affair with his chief of staff are out in the public. Also the testimony ,where both he and Beatty denied on the stand that they were having an affair,were on TV. It is stretching credibility for me to have a starting point that he is innocent. I can’t get there.
I believe they’re taking that position so that:
-
Kwame, w/a presumption of innocence isn’t necessarily immediately out of a job.
-
They can go to court and argue that the records of the text messages were illegally obtained and therefore cannot be used against him.
-
w/o the text messages, it’s difficult to prove that there was a sexual relationship (of course if his protection detail can affirm that the two spent the night together alone in a hotel room, that’d go a long way towards proving it, I believe).
-
There’s also the concept that text messages alone do not demonstrate an actual real life physical relationship - there’s any number of folks who’ve had “phone sex” yet have never even been in the same room, let alone bed. I think this one is a bigger stretch than the rest of it, though. I suspect the average person would disclaim having ‘text sex’ alone w/a person they see in person daily, while never having any other physical relationship.
You have not heard the tapes. They can not be confused with playing sex. The relationship has been proven in many ways.
If the tapes get dismissed,that will not prove their innocence. Only that through a technicality that the proof is not allowed in the trial. It is a possibility that they will get excluded. But the evidence has already been in the public domain. We know what they did. . The text messages also cover hid firing of the police officers that were investigating his connection to the party and the dead stripper. He said in court that they were not fired. In a conversation he and Beatty were discussing how to cover their tracks in the dismissals. They wanted someone to find a way to put a different spin on it.
The problem is not about the sex. It is about the lying in court.
But if the text messages get excluded, doesn’t matter what ‘everyone knows’ . Remember, they don’t have to (legally) prove their innocence, prosecution must prove their guilty based on the evidence presented in court.
I understand that they’re scum. Not disputing that.
If the court tosses the texts ,he walks. But his constituency knows what was on the tapes. How can he govern. Getting away with it may keep him in office,but that is not innocence. I pity the councilpeople who have come out against him if he gets away with it. He comes down hard on who he perceives to be an enemy. Then a recall would be in order.
How in the world can potentially losing the text messages count for anything when the Mayor did the ‘suitably chastised apology with wifey holding the hand’ press conference where he admitted to the affair?
I only wish Ms.Worthy could go further, get him on buying that Lincoln Navigator for his wife on the city’s money, and remember Christine’s “Do you know who the fuck I am!?” reaction to being pulled over for speeding?
Best case scenario here is Christine turns on him, she’s the treasurer of his non-profit that’s being investigated too, she’s got so much dirt on him it’s not even funny and if Kym offers enough, Christine’d be stupid not to take it. Remember, King Kwame is still in a job, with a 70% approval rating, still married, still has the house in Florida, etc. Christine’s marraige broke up a few years ago, she resigned (a futile attempt to remove fuel from the fire, methinks) she’s got kids to feed and the last thing she needs is a prison sentence.
I expect Beatty to turn on him but I can not see her getting off free.
GR is usually just on the edge of the lake effect, so it might be a bit snowier than Lansing, but not like the Lakeshore.
Just about everyone involved is black. Kwame, his wife, his mistress, the cop they fired, the prosecutor, 6 of the 7 (I think) council members who called for his resignation, and members of the press who’ve done likewise. Of course, there are white people who are shocked that their mayor would perjur himself and use public funds as hush money, and** feed inside information regarding city contracts to an old friend** who also happens to be a felon. That last part is bolded because I don’t hear or read a lot about it, and thought it needed extra attention.
What Christine needs to do is say that she felt Kwame’s advances were something she couldn’t avoid, as he was her boss, so she felt obligated to have the affair against her better judgement.
Then rat the bastard out.
Wait-- first she needs to cut a deal with the prosecutor’s office.
Then rat the bastard out.
I wasn’t referring to the scandal but to some other comments in this thread about how Kwame is himself racist.
I don’t know whether Kwame himself is racist, but he maintaines power by race baiting and creating racial dischord.
To clarify, I wasn’t even commenting on whether he is a racist. I don’t know enough about it. Just that certain people have a double standard when it comes to crying “racist!”
What’s a party without one?
Presumption of innocence is what you give someone in court, when they are accused of a crime. Presumptions are somewhat more stringent in the case of elected office holders, and even more stringent, or one might hope, in cases of prospective candidates for public office.
Tris
There is definitely a double standard, and it is precisely that which Kilpatrick is desperately, and rather clumsily, attempting to exploit: it’s no longer seen as acceptable for white politicians/public figures to make overtly racially charged/race-baiting statements (or as in the recent case of Ferraro’s comments, statements that can be torturously spun to be “racist”),—but for black politicians/public figures, it’s much more common (almost obligatory) to chum the waters with references to “lynching,” etc., as soon as they find themselves under fire for their own behavior.
The same by-the-numbers approach was undertaken by (former Atlanta Mayor) Bill Campbell recently: under investigation for his own multiple scandals, he began appearing on black talk radio programs, pleading his case in front of local black churches, insinuating racial persecution, and generally reaching out to “his people” in a way that he hadn’t found nearly as necessary before he got himself into trouble.
It didn’t save Bill, and judging from the outcry from both black and white residents of Detroit thusfar, I’d say it may not save Kwame either. But that won’t stop him from using his blackness as a red herring, especially if there’s nothing else to fall back on.
The problem is that the presumption of innocence is negated because the tapes have been read,or excerpts have been on TV. The evidence is out. Even if the texting is excluded from the trial and he gets away,almost everybody knows what really happened. In this case the logical position is presumption of guilt.
Somehow, they will manage to squeeze their huge ego’s into all of this and get some face time in. Bet on it.
OT
Kwame and the Dead Strippers would be an great band name.
Except there was only one.