Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
5
Mayor's aide gets hostile
A member of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's entourage slammed a WXYZ-TV reporter into a door Tuesday after the newsman repeatedly questioned Kilpatrick about a city car lease.
Reporter Steve Wilson asked the mayor about a red 2005 Lincoln Navigator the city leased last month and about which the mayor has declined to answer questions.
After repeatedly telling Wilson that he'd answer only on live television, the mayor did not stop a man walking with Kilpatrick, whom WXYZ identified as a member of the mayor's security detail, from shoving the newsman.
"It was completely out of line," sa
id Channel 7 News Director Andrea Parquet-Taylor. "Steve posed no threat to no one. The only thing we have ever asked
is for the mayor to please answer a simple question. Tell us why you entered a lease. Because the mayor's name is on the lease documents, we thought it only fair to ask the mayor."
Wilson was shoved into a door at the Capital Hilton Hotel Tuesday afternoon when he tried to ask Kilpatrick about the leased vehicle.
"This character was not only trying to keep me away from the mayor, he was clearly trying to hurt me," Wilson said. Wilson said he has never been attacked before during his 30-year career.
I've ... never had anybody go after me like that before," he said.
The incident was the latest surrounding the city's lease of a $57,000 Navigator at the height of a budget crisis in which Kilpatrick plans to lay off almost 700 city workers to help erase a $230 million deficit next year.
It occur
red
where Kilpatrick is attending a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. Parquet-Taylor said the station will seek a formal complaint against the o
fficer. Wilson was bruised, she said.
In recent days, Wilson has been dogging Kilpatrick about the Navigator, which WXYZ reported was leased by the mayor's office for $24,995. The station has suggested that the vehicle was leased for Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita, but hasn't offered any evidence that the car was for her.
Howard Hughey, the mayor's spokesman, could not be reached for comment.
Detroit police said last week that the car was part of its fleet.
"I was told that the department had leased a 2005 Lincoln to be used for undercover operations, however, since the news broadcast, the vehicle has been compromised," said 2nd Deputy Chief James Tate, the department spokesman.
Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings declined to comment on any aspect of the vehicle or the
allege
d incident in Washington.
But Detroit City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail, who is running for mayor, said "something has to be done" to stop such behavior by the mayor and his staff.
"The pre
ss can't be assaulted by a public official," she said.
Tate wouldn't comment on the incident but said the mayor's security officers "are charged with using any type of force necessary to protect the mayor from potential bodily harm."
But McPhail's political ally, former Detroit Police Chief Benny Napoleon, said such action would be "improper" unless the officer can "clearly articulate why this person was a threat to the mayor."
*************
Wake up America and smell the nigger.
T.N.B.
Mayor's aide gets hostile
A member of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's entourage slammed a WXYZ-TV reporter into a door Tuesday after the newsman repeatedly questioned Kilpatrick about a city car lease.
Reporter Steve Wilson asked the mayor about a red 2005 Lincoln Navigator the city leased last month and about which the mayor has declined to answer questions.
After repeatedly telling Wilson that he'd answer only on live television, the mayor did not stop a man walking with Kilpatrick, whom WXYZ identified as a member of the mayor's security detail, from shoving the newsman.
"It was completely out of line," sa
id Channel 7 News Director Andrea Parquet-Taylor. "Steve posed no threat to no one. The only thing we have ever asked
is for the mayor to please answer a simple question. Tell us why you entered a lease. Because the mayor's name is on the lease documents, we thought it only fair to ask the mayor."
Wilson was shoved into a door at the Capital Hilton Hotel Tuesday afternoon when he tried to ask Kilpatrick about the leased vehicle.
"This character was not only trying to keep me away from the mayor, he was clearly trying to hurt me," Wilson said. Wilson said he has never been attacked before during his 30-year career.
I've ... never had anybody go after me like that before," he said.
The incident was the latest surrounding the city's lease of a $57,000 Navigator at the height of a budget crisis in which Kilpatrick plans to lay off almost 700 city workers to help erase a $230 million deficit next year.
It occur
red
where Kilpatrick is attending a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. Parquet-Taylor said the station will seek a formal complaint against the o
fficer. Wilson was bruised, she said.
In recent days, Wilson has been dogging Kilpatrick about the Navigator, which WXYZ reported was leased by the mayor's office for $24,995. The station has suggested that the vehicle was leased for Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita, but hasn't offered any evidence that the car was for her.
Howard Hughey, the mayor's spokesman, could not be reached for comment.
Detroit police said last week that the car was part of its fleet.
"I was told that the department had leased a 2005 Lincoln to be used for undercover operations, however, since the news broadcast, the vehicle has been compromised," said 2nd Deputy Chief James Tate, the department spokesman.
Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings declined to comment on any aspect of the vehicle or the
allege
d incident in Washington.
But Detroit City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail, who is running for mayor, said "something has to be done" to stop such behavior by the mayor and his staff.
"The pre
ss can't be assaulted by a public official," she said.
Tate wouldn't comment on the incident but said the mayor's security officers "are charged with using any type of force necessary to protect the mayor from potential bodily harm."
But McPhail's political ally, former Detroit Police Chief Benny Napoleon, said such action would be "improper" unless the officer can "clearly articulate why this person was a threat to the mayor."
*************
Wake up America and smell the nigger.
T.N.B.
