Organized Crime In Detroit: Forgotten But Not Gone By James Buccellato and Scott M. Burnstein DETROIT (WWJ) – The Detroit mafia lives in the shadows. It always has, now, more than ever. “They don’t chase the news cameras like in other cities and a lot of them have been very adept of veiling themselves in legitimacy,” said former federal prosecutor and organized crime task force member Keith Corbett, of the area’s ruling mob powers. “In relative terms, it’s been a recipe for success, in that most of them have avoided long, if any, prison sentences and, for the most part, very few people have any idea who they are.” That hasn’t exactly been the case for other organized crime families around the country. Notorious Boston Irish mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger was apprehended earlier this week in California, arrested for 19 gangland-related homicides after 16 years on the run from the law. The Philadelphia mob made headlines last month when federal investigators arrested reputed godfather Joseph “Uncle Joe” Ligambi. This proved hardly true.
Detroit files for bankruptcy July 19, 2013|Reuters Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history on Thursday, setting the stage for a costly court battle with creditors and opening a new chapter in the long struggle to revive the city that was the cradle of the American auto industry. The bankruptcy, if approved by a federal judge, would force Detroit's thousands of creditors into negotiations with the city's Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to resolve an estimated $18.5 billion in debt that has crippled Michigan's largest city. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said he saw no other options for Detroit and approved Orr's request to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. "Detroit simply cannot raise enough revenue to meet its current obligations, and that is a situation that is only projected to get worse absent a bankruptcy filing," wrote Snyder, a Republican, in a letter accompanying the filing. In some respects, Detroit's legacy as a model for American innovation is at stake as well.
In Detroit, racial rhetoric concealed corruption Living in the Detroit metro area most of the last decade, I have experienced many of the events leading to its bankruptcy. Take, for example, the 2008 State of the City address by then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. With Detroit facing a perilous fiscal future and him facing ethics complaints, Kirkpatrick highlighted race. He sparked controversy by using the “n-word” while referencing an insult he received from some random person. Kirkpatrick vowed to stand strong against this attack, and asked citizens to stand by him against a “lynch mob mentality.” He essentially used that slur to leverage racial tension, inciting and dividing the mostly-black city against mostly-white suburbs. The citizens of Detroit rallied behind their mayor. Five years later, Detroit is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, and Kilpatrick – who resigned six months after his controversial address — was convicted of a series of felonies that may put him in prison for the rest of his life. Why is this dangerous?
Detroit to stop paying some debt, putting it in default June 14, 2013|Bernie Woodall and Steve Neavling | Reuters DETROIT (Reuters) - Detroit said on Friday it would stop making payments on some of its about $18.5 billion debt, which would put it in default, and the "insolvent" city called on most of its creditors to accept pennies on the dollar to help it avoid the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. In a forceful opening salvo of negotiations with debt holders, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr announced a moratorium on some principal and interest payments, including one payment he said was due on Friday. Under his proposal, Orr said unsecured debt holders would be paid less than 10 cents on the dollar, but some creditors would get a bit more based on city revenue. Orr said secured creditors would get better treatment, although how much better was not specified. "We may try to get a discount from them, but the reality is they are secured," Orr said. Secured credit means an asset is pledged to back the debt.
Detroit Corruption Rooted Out As Felony Bribery Charges Filed Against 7 Building Inspectors When former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was found guilty in a major public corruption case this March, many hoped the decision meant a new day had arrived for the city facing bankruptcy -- one where corruption would no longer be tolerated at City Hall. And while new charges show Kilpatrick's conviction wasn't the last instance of breaches of the public trust, officials seem to have made rooting out corruption a priority. On Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced the filing of felony bribery charges leveled against seven current and former inspectors in Detroit's Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED). "The nod-and-a-wink justice days, those days are gone," Schuette said at Thursday's press conference. Six of the seven have turned themselves in and are set to be arraigned Friday at the city's 36th District Court. Schuette said the bribery charges go back to 2007, with the most recent instance occurring last year.
6 Cops Are Indicted In Latest Corruption Case To Rock Detroit August 15, 1999|By From Tribune News Services. DETROIT, MICHIGAN — Six police officers have been indicted on charges of robbing and beating people on the streets of their precinct and hoarding money, guns and drugs from illegal searches of suspected drug houses. The officers were charged Friday with federal civil rights conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Three of the officers--Rodney Rice, 40; Irvin Lamont Upshaw, 41; and Larone Cook, 31--are also charged with taking bribes for protecting drug traffickers and possessing drugs and the equipment to distribute them. Conspiracy to distribute controlled substances carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The six worked in Detroit's 5th Precinct, a hotbed of police corruption in a force rocked by scandal. In May, a former officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to rob a numbers operator.
Detroit Gangs, boppin gangs and clubs from Detroit Honoring All Greasers From Detroit Detroit Skyline 1960. (click Image) for an enlarged photo Greaser Gangs Who were part of the Bagley Boys I remember them, in my neighborhood, Southwest Detroit. who were part of the Stilleto's I knew a few of the members of the "Warrendale Gang" but was not one of their members. RH from the area had this to say: I lived on Inglis right at the end of Patton Park and remember the Highway Men well. I can tell you who you might want to contact for more info. I also remember the Bagley Boys and the Stilettos well. I remember one day going to school, having gotten off the bus at Vernor and Scotten and finding out that there was a deal body in the Gazebo in Clark Park across from the school. I hope you will express in your website the need for people to understand that those gang members were all sad, troubled kids that had no other way of expressing their frustrations and anger at the home lifes they had and were to trying to escape the reality of it.
Residents wary as Detroit faces uncertain future in bankruptcy July 18, 2013|Steve Neavling | Reuters DETROIT (Reuters) - Some Detroit residents voiced skepticism on Thursday that the former U.S. manufacturing powerhouse would emerge in better shape from its historic bankruptcy filing designed to fix the city's financial crisis. Hours after learning Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, residents spoke of the stark realities that come with living in a financially broken city. "It was like putting a thumb in a dam," said Jodie Holmes, 55, as he leaned against an abandoned restaurant marked with graffiti, waiting for a bus to take him to his temporary job. "I don't know if bankruptcy will help us or drop us to our knees," he added. Detroit filed Chapter 9 bankruptcy in federal court on Thursday. Detroit was once synonymous with U.S. manufacturing prowess. Now a third of Detroit's 700,000 residents live in poverty and about a fifth are unemployed. "Maybe bankruptcy will help. "Nothing else has worked, so why not try it?"
freep Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was a spender, a schemer and a liar. And taxpayers paid for it, by the millions. Over seven years, Kilpatrick’s public corruption schemes, lavish lifestyle and ethical missteps cost taxpayers at least $20 million, a tab the financially strapped city was in no position to pick up but did anyway — usually without knowing. ■ Full coverage:Kwame Kilpatrick public corruption scandal ■ Interactive timeline:Kilpatrick public corruption scandal, 2001-2013 On Thursday, Kilpatrick will be sentenced for 24 corruption convictions. “Kilpatrick is not the main culprit of the city’s historic bankruptcy, which is the result of larger social and economic forces at work for decades,” federal prosecutors said in court documents. ■ How Detroit went broke:The answers may surprise you - and don't blame Coleman Young ■ Video: The rise and fall of former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick ■ Full coverage:Detroit’s financial crisis ■ Related:How other corrupt officials were sentenced
Ex-Detroit mayor gets 28 years in prison for corruption October 10, 2013|Steve Neavling | Reuters (Jeff Kowalsky Reuters, ) DETROIT (Reuters) - A U.S. judge sentenced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to 28 years in prison for corruption on Thursday, one of the longest such sentences ever handed to a major U.S. politician, in a case that further battered the reputation of a beleaguered and insolvent city. U.S. The sentence was intended to send a message that corruption would not be tolerated and "that way of business is over," Edmunds said. "He chose to waste his talents on personal aggrandizement and enrichment," the judge added. Kilpatrick, 43, was a rising star in the Democratic Party after his election as mayor in 2001, and he held the office of mayor from 2002 to 2008 before his spectacular fall from grace. Kilpatrick, in custody since his conviction in March, rested his chin on his palm and closed his eyes after Edmunds pronounced the sentence. "I'm ready to go, so the city can move on," Kilpatrick said. Assistant U.S.
Cliff Russell: Where African Americans Are To Blame For Detroit's Problems – Deadline Detroit By CLIFF RUSSELL One of the more infuriating aspects of the takeover of Detroit by the state of Michigan has been the various attempts to blame the city’s demise on African Americans and on the city’s governance since black Detroiters assumed control. I’ve heard and read more than a few recent comments, from both whites and blacks, proclaiming that Detroit’s problems were 40 years in the making or that Detroit has suffered from 40 years of mismanagement. "The city’s problems have much more to do with its lack of money and jobs than its lack of management," Cliff Russell writes. Coincidentally it was exactly 40 years ago that Detroiters elected their first black mayor, Coleman A. Most experts and observers, including Gov. Shortly after Mike Duggan, a viable white candidate, filed his signatures to be placed on the mayoral ballot, the major local news outlets began advancing the idea of a white mayor for Detroit. Beware of Shallow Thinking Timid Black Leadership
How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you — and don't blame Coleman Young Detroit is broke, but it didn’t have to be. An in-depth Free Press analysis of the city’s financial history back to the 1950s shows that its elected officials and others charged with managing its finances repeatedly failed — or refused — to make the tough economic and political decisions that might have saved the city from financial ruin. Instead, amid a huge exodus of residents, plummeting tax revenues and skyrocketing home abandonment, Detroit’s leaders engaged in a billion-dollar borrowing binge, created new taxes and failed to cut expenses when they needed to. Simultaneously, they gifted workers and retirees with generous bonuses. The numbers, most from records deeply buried in the public library, lay waste to misconceptions about the roots of Detroit’s economic crisis. The State of Michigan also bears some blame. Decades of mismanagement added to Detroit’s fiscal woes. When all the numbers are crunched, one fact is crystal clear: Yes, a disaster was looming for Detroit.
List of mayors of Detroit This is a list of mayors of Detroit, Michigan. See History of Detroit, Michigan, for more information about the history of the incorporation of the city. The current mayor is Mike Duggan, who was officially sworn into office on January 1, 2014. History[edit] During the early part of Detroit's existence, local authority was vested in a series of military commandants or other representatives of the French or English crown.[1] The first local rule of Detroit was established in 1802, when Detroit was incorporated as a town.[1] The original incorporation provided for a Board of Trustees to govern the town, the chairman of which was the highest governmental position.[2] The first chairman of the Board, appointed on February 9, 1802, was James Henry. However, the fire of 1805 destroyed the town and effectively eliminated the government. In 1824, John R. Since 1915 all Detroit mayoral elections have been held on a non-partisan basis. First incorporation[edit] Reincorporation[edit] References[edit]