Detroit thread. Post Kwame, Monica, and $1 houses here.

[Savonarola]

Reform  Detroit style:

Bills mounting as Detroit police reforms crawling along
BY JOE SWICKARD and DAVID ASHENFELTER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 13, 2009

Through years of broken promises, foot-dragging, millions of dollars in oversight fees and payouts in police misconduct lawsuits, U.S. District Judge Julian Cook has been patient as three Detroit police chiefs -- James Barren, Ella Bully-Cummings and Jerry Oliver -- failed to comply with most federally mandated reforms.

Cook has extended deadlines and modified requirements since 2003, when the city signed agreements pledging to clean up the police department. But he may have reached the end of his tolerance.

In an extraordinary step, Cook has sent out a news release inviting the media to a hearing Friday to talk about the city's progress in correcting massive problems uncovered by a 2000 Free Press probe of shootings by police, dragnet arrests and mistreatment of prisoners.

Cook wouldn't discuss the invitation, but officials and citizen groups said it appears that Cook is ready to demand action.

"He hasn't wielded the big stick as we had expected him to," said Ron Scott of the Coalition Against Police Brutality, whose protests help bring about the decrees.

In 6 years, 36% of goals met
Detroit cops promised to clean up their department years ago.


But the legal agreements city officials signed in 2003 with the U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division over questionable shootings of civilians, illegal dragnet arrests and inhumane treatment of prisoners, have remained unfulfilled for six years with no end in sight.


"Where we are is unsatisfactory," Detroit Deputy Mayor Saul Green said last week. "Mayor Bing recognizes that and we're not going to accept it."


A court hearing is set for this Friday before Cook to discuss the city's progress -- or lack of it -- in enacting reforms. Cook specifically invited the news media to attend the hearing, which is typically held behind closed doors.


Since signing the so-called consent decrees in 2003, only 73 of the 203 provisions -- 36% -- have been met, according to the last review, released in February. The next report is due this week and little improvement is expected.

"It's time, it's past time" for reforms, said City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, one of several council members to complain about the pace of reform.

Watson wants Cook to make the City Council a party to the agreement and have a say in the reforms, something Cook refused to do in 2003. Cook also previously rejected efforts by a community group, the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, to join the case.

Cook's apparent frustration is matched by Mayor Dave Bing and his top aide Green, a former U.S. attorney who once pushed through similar federally ordered reforms in Cincinnati.

Last week's sudden firing of Barren, who held the post less than a year, by Bing was tied in part to the troubled and slow-paced reform efforts.

Within hours of taking charge of the department, incoming Chief Warren Evans, the former Wayne County sheriff, met with the top brass and told them complying with the decrees is a top priority.


Evans "has assured us this is an area of clear focus and attention," Green said.

Minuses, pluses
According to past reports on the department's progress, federal monitors are especially troubled that the police still don't have a functioning computerized early warning system to monitor, track and evaluate officers' performance. The current system, promised for decades, has too little memory, has trouble cross-referencing and analyzing data and is hard to use.

In addition, only a handful of patrol cars have functioning video cameras, a concern to Wayne County prosecutors and judges. They said the cameras seem prone to malfunction at critical times.

Detroit paid out $13.3 million in lawsuit settlements and claims paid without legal cases being filed in the 2007-08 fiscal year for police misconduct. That figure -- the most recent available -- includes the $9.1 million paid in the whistle-blower case that launched the text message scandal. The city also paid $1.6 million for constitutional violations and $1.2 million for a fatal shooting.

Because the city is self-insured, the money comes out of municipal accounts.

On the plus-side, illegal dragnets -- the practice of detaining potential homicide witnesses and holding them without a court order -- have been curbed, and police holding cells have been fitted with smoke detectors, fire alarm systems and sprinklers.

News probe revealed problems
A Free Press investigation in 2000 found Detroit police led major cities in the rate of fatal shootings of civilians, with the incidents often given cursory investigations that were often tilted toward the officers.


The newspaper also found the department had stalled previous reform efforts and that city officials had once hid a critical outside evaluation. That evaluation, uncovered by the Free Press, laid out a road map for reform.

Watson said Green, with his experience as a federal monitor in Cincinnati, "is our secret weapon, our ace in the deck" to get the police in line. In that city, community group involvement was considered key to implementing the reforms.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Levy, the Justice Department's point person for the decree, declined to comment.

Cook didn't return calls.

It's hard to get anyone from the suburbs to care about this, since there are still a lot of people in Detroit who need to be fatally shot; but in the city this is a hot button issue.  When my brother worked as a uniformed agricultural inspector for customs some crazy woman harassed him at a Burger King about police brutality ("What do you think about police brutality?  Do you think that it's right?  What if it was someone you knew? And so on.)   He said the experience traumatized him so that he was especially brutal on the mangoes he seized for the rest of the day.

[Savonarola]

"...if they're going to lie on me, I don't want to help people."

Bitch.  At least give me a reach around if I'm gonna lie on ya.

I'm guessing that University of District of Columbia recognized Ebonics as a second language; otherwise I can't imagine how Monica got her JD from there.

[Savonarola]

Should have asked for a bigger bribe, William:

Southfield official Lattimore avoids getting on ballot
BY GINA DAMRON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • July 13, 2009

Southfield City Councilman William Lattimore — who is facing a federal bribery charge — won't be on the ballot for the city's September primary because he hasn't paid up more than $600 in debts to the city, including hundreds in parking tickets, the city clerk said today.

Lattimore, charged in Detroit's U.S. District Court earlier this month, faces a felony charge that he took $7,500 in 2007 as a councilman, "intending to be rewarded and influenced in connection with his official duties," according to court documents.

In an interview with the Free Press today, Lattimore said he's not sure when he'll appear in court.

He also said that, because of the charge, he wanted to withdraw from the election, but had already missed the deadline to do so. Lattimore — who was first elected to the council in 2005 — said he intentionally neglected to pay debts he owes to the city so he wouldn't be eligible. A letter he sent to Southfield City Clerk Nancy Banks on July 8 gave the same explanation for the debts.

"Once I got charged, I felt I needed to concentrate everything, concentrate my attention solely on my deal, on my case," Lattimore said. "I couldn't do both. I couldn't campaign and do that."

Banks said Lattimore owed about $576 in parking tickets and $48.54 on a past-due water bill.

Lattimore did, however, pass a FBI background check — required of all potential candidates — according to a July 7 letter from Southfield Police Chief Joseph Thomas Jr. to Banks.

Officials with the police department could not be reached for comment this afternoon.

In his letter, Lattimore wrote to Banks that he needs to concentrate on trying to "vindicate" himself from the charges.

Lattimore has said Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle and former state Rep. Mary Waters are also under scrutiny in the Southfield federal probe. All three have been investigated as part of a probe linked to Zeidman's Jewelry & Loan, a pawnshop that relocated and expanded in Southfield.

"I so wish that things were different for me than what they are now," Lattimore wrote in his letter, "but I have to do whatever I can do to try to safe my life, and my livelihood."

[Savonarola]

Surprise!  Police Brutality in Detroit is still all whitey's fault:

Detroit Police Department
The election the first black mayor of the city of Detroit was all about police brutality. Detroit leaders had recruited white men from the southern United States that were (according to court records) big stuff Klansman. These men were recruited to help keep the "Negro" in place.

Many blacks moved from the brutal South to the promising North after World War II in hopes for a better life. The numbers were frightening to some whites, who felt blacks in large numbers would take over control of the city. So, the police department leaders implemented the "Big Four," where they had four big stuff Klansman riding in one squad car.

Blacks were subject to beatings by the Big Four on any occasion, at any time. Wherever blacks gathered, they had to be on the lookout for the Big Four. The Big Four beat many good and well-meaning black citizens and created bad feelings between black citizens and Detroit's police.

By 1973, many whites had moved to the suburbs and blacks had been encouraged to participate in city political systems by the passage of the 1965 Voters Right Act and the election of Mayor Richard Hatcher in Gary, Ind. Coleman Young ran for Detroit's mayor on a platform of changing the city's police department and won big time. Throughout his terms as mayor, Young won without an endorsement from the police department's political organization.


It is heartbreaking to think that after 40 years of black officials holding offices, from the City Council to the official dogcatcher, that there are still so many problems between the citizens and its police department.

To see what the federal government is charging the police department with is beyond imagination:

1. No computers to track officer performance

2. No video cameras on squad cars

3. Illegal dragnet arrests

4. Mistreatment of prisoners

The results include $13 million paid out in lawsuits for 2007, $1.6 million for Constitutional violations and $1.2 million for fatal shootings.

How can this be with all the blacks in power in a mostly black city? What is missing or what is not being told? Why didn't Police Chiefs Ella Bully-Cummings or Jerry Oliver do anything about these problems? Did nonresident officers that came in under the Dennis Archer administration to turn Detroit around cause these problems?

Something is not being revealed to the public and responsible journalists need to find out and tell the whole story.

From Robert Smith Jr.'s blog in the Detroit News.

"Nonresident officers" means white officers; the white devil hides in Detroit's suburbs and comes to the city to steal all the good jobs. 

[Savonarola]

Like a free ride, when you've already paid:

DPS board seeks to halt Bobb
It wants answer on roles in school reform
Mark Hicks And Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The Detroit Public Schools' board voted unanimously Tuesday to seek a court order to halt the emergency financial manager's plan to turn 17 of the district's 22 high schools over to four professional management firms to help boost student achievement and graduation rates.

They'll also ask a judge to more clearly define the board's role in setting academic policies while emergency financial manager Robert Bobb works to overhaul the district's finances. Attorney David Olmstead is working for free on the issue, board members said.

Bobb announced the plan Friday, a day after the board adopted its own master plan for academics. Board members said he made the plans without their knowledge and didn't consult them. They say he overstepped his authority and was interfering with their role in setting the district's educational policy.

"We hope this forces him to say what he's going to do, which is consult with us," board President Carla Scott said, adding the court order would allow a judge to further outline the board's authority.

"We have no problem working with him, but we have a problem with him working around us. You can't do something without discussing it with us. You don't have a right to set the policy."

Last week, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's spokeswoman said Bobb, whom the governor appointed earlier this year, is not overstepping his role with the district. Granholm gave him a very difficult job of turning around the district, and he doesn't need to be micromanaged, Liz Boyd said.

Scott said the board's legal counsel still is determining whether the action will be filed in federal or circuit court.

District spokesman Steve Wasko said schools would remain DPS schools, and that Bobb's plan did not mean the schools would be privatized.

"Mr. Bobb continues to be focused on the children's issues, not the adult ones," he said. "Dwelling on the adult ones for far too long has led a district to seven consecutive years of deficit spending and, even worse, more years of academic deficits."

Bobb's plan involves some of the districts' worst-performing high schools and is part of a wider restructuring of 40 schools. Bobb is considering management companies for six alternative schools and 10 elementary schools.

Despite the closure of 29 schools, nearly 2,500 layoffs and elimination of general funding to the Children's Museum, the district is facing a $259.5 million deficit. And last week, Bobb also met with retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ray Reynolds Graves to discuss Chapter 9 bankruptcy for the district.

During Tuesday's meeting, board members expressed concern about whether Bobb's plan would cause greater financial hardship to the district. They also hoped to obtain contracts for the management firms to learn about their pay.

"This money should be explained in how it's being spent and where," said board member Ida Short.

Board member Anthony Adams agreed.

"We're talking about process and procedure," Adams said. "It's about transparency and spending millions of dollars."

Scott said the board was not interested in fighting Bobb but wanted to make sure board members had their say in how they reshaped the district. That's what the board is assigned to do, she said.

"Our intention is to set the standards that our children deserve," Scott said. "We're not afraid of reform, but we do draw the line at giving a substandard education to our students."

Gee, maybe those are the sorts of thing the school board should have paid attention to before the State of Michigan had to take control of the system.

[Neil]

Maybe Detroit should just disband the police.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Better to disband Detroit.  Its a national disgrace to allow a major American city to make Zimbabwe look well governed.

[Neil]

Better to disband Detroit.  Its a national disgrace to allow a major American city to make Zimbabwe look well governed.

Just wall it off and declare it a no man's land?  That has potential.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Worked in Batman

[Savonarola]

Better to disband Detroit.  Its a national disgrace to allow a major American city to make Zimbabwe look well governed.

Just wall it off and declare it a no man's land?  That has potential.

But what if the President's plane crash lands there?  Kirk Russel is getting old.

[Darth Wagtaros]

That's what Ryan Reynolds is for.

[Neil]

Better to disband Detroit.  Its a national disgrace to allow a major American city to make Zimbabwe look well governed.

Just wall it off and declare it a no man's land?  That has potential.

But what if the President's plane crash lands there?  Kirk Russel is getting old.

Obama would be better amongst his own kind.

[Savonarola]

Sam Riddle indicted on corruption charges
Ex-state legislator Mary Waters also indicted
BY JOE SWICKARD AND BEN SCHMITT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 15, 2009

Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle was indicted today on a host of federal charges ranging from bribery to extortion, mail fraud and making false statements.

Also charged was former state legislator Mary Waters, who lives with Riddle. The pair were charged with conspiracy to bribe and two counts of bribery stemming from their alleged roles in helping a Southfield pawnshop relocate and expand in that city.

Riddle alone was charged with multiple offenses in connection with the tainted 2007 Synagro sludge-treatment contract. He was charged with extortion, making false statements, mail fraud and bribery relating to Synagro.

Neither Riddle nor his lawyer David Steingold was available for immediate comment.

Todd Flood, Waters' lawyer, declined to comment.

Riddle has been a "Political Consultant" in the city of Detroit for a very long time.  It will be interesting to see if he rats everyone out or if he takes his secrets to the grave.  Knowing how much he loves media attention I'm guessing the former.

[Savonarola]

Conyers, Riddle teamed up to extort thousands, indictment alleges
Ex-state legislator Mary Waters also indicted
BY JOE SWICKARD, BEN SCHMITT, DAVID ASHENFELTER AND GINA DAMRON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 15, 2009

Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle was indicted today on a host of federal charges ranging from bribery to extortion, mail fraud and making false statements and court documents contend that former City Councilwoman Monica Conyers participated at every turn of the conspiracy.

Also charged was former state legislator Mary Waters, who lives with Riddle. The pair were charged with conspiracy to bribe and two counts of bribery stemming from their alleged roles in helping a Southfield pawnshop relocate and expand in that city.

Riddle alone was charged with multiple offenses in connection with the tainted 2007 Synagro sludge-treatment contract. He was charged with extortion, making false statements, mail fraud and bribery relating to Synagro.

Riddle also was indicted on various corruption charges involving then-Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, who recently pleaded guilty to bribery in the Synagro deal. Riddle was an aide to Conyers.

Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said Riddle and Waters will not appear in court today.

The indictment involving Detroit corruption cites four deals in which the feds say that Riddle and Conyers extorted money from people or companies seeking city business. Among the allegations:

• That Riddle and Conyers extorted $20,000 from the owner of a technology company seeking a multimillion dollar investment from the General Retirement System.

• That the pair extorted $20,000 from a Detroit restaurant owner who had business before the City Council.

• Riddle and Conyers extorted another $25,000 from a company operating strip clubs that was seeking a change in licenses from the City Council.

• In addition, Riddle and Conyers allegedly conspired to extort money from a Detroit real estate developer who had business before council and was seeking a multimillion dollar investment from Detroit's General Retirement System.

In addition, Riddle is charged with conspiring to extort money in connection with the city sludge contract with Synagro Technologies, for allegedly accepting cash payments on Conyers' behalf to influence her vote on the Synagro contract.

The indictment says Conyers told Riddle, "You better get my loot, that's all I know," in November 2007 as they pair put pressure on a Detroit restaurant owner to hire Riddle for consulting work. The indictment points out "the restaurant owner told Conyers he did not need a consultant."

Conyers recently pleaded guilty to a single felony bribery charge in the Synagro deal, admitting that she took bribes to cast the deciding vote in the November 2007 Synagro deal, a $1.2-billion contract that has since been rescinded because of serial corruption.

According to the Southfield indictment, between April 2007 and May 2008, defendants Riddle and Waters conspired with each other to bribe City Councilman William Lattimore with $12,500 in order to influence and reward Lattimore for his support for the relocation and expansion of the Zeidman's jewelry and pawn shop in Southfield.

Riddle received three payments totaling $45,000 for his help in the Zeidman's project; the indictment does not specify who paid him. He also received a $5,500 Breitling watch, the feds say. Waters received a $6,000 Rolex, the indictment says.


The Indictment charges that Riddle and Waters paid Lattimore $7,500 in cash on about August 1, 2007. Riddle and Waters made a second payment of $5,000 to Lattimore that October. In May of last year, Lattimore advocated and voted for the relocation of the pawn shop at a city council meeting. The indictment said Lattimore had issued letters on City of Southfield letterhead supporting the relocation soon after each of the two bribes were paid by Riddle and Waters.

In an earlier interview with the Free Press, Lattimore had specifically denied writing such a letter of support.

Lattimore was charged with a single count of bribery in the pawnshop deal. He has previously denied wrongdoing and declined comment today.

Andrew Arena, FBI Special Agent in Charge in Detroit said: "The City of Detroit has a right to expect honest services from its public officials, however, that trust has been abused. The indictment speaks for itself by outlining an arrangement of extortion and bribery between Sam Riddle and Monica Conyers."

Neither Riddle nor his lawyer David Steingold was available for immediate comment.

Todd Flood, Waters' lawyer, declined to comment.

U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said the corruption probes are not over.

"The indictments today are an additional step of investigations into corruption in the metropolitan area," Berg said. "The investigation is continuing."

Come back to freep.com for more on this breaking story.

This should be a rating bonanza for Monica Conyers' television show.   

[Savonarola]

A few more details added from yesterdays article:

Feds paint Conyers as bold shakedown artist
BY BILL McGRAW • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • July 15, 2009

The federal grand jury indictment might say "United States of America vs. Samuel L. Riddle Jr."

But the name of Monica Conyers surfaces everywhere in the 27-page document, which contends that the former city councilwoman played Bonnie to Riddle's Clyde as they prowled Detroit, boldly shaking down businesspeople and stuffing their pockets and bank accounts with cash.

The indictment is only the government's version of events, and Conyers' attorney, Steve Fishman, cautioned that it should be read with skepticism.

Fishman said: "What was it that Gladys Knight said? 'Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear.'"

Conyers wore the pants in this dysfunctional family.

"You'd better get my loot, that's all I know," Conyers is quoted as telling Riddle regarding a payment from a restaurant owner.

Riddle passed her $10,000 in that caper, the indictment says.

Conyers pleaded guilty last month to one count of bribery conspiracy in the $1.2 billion Synagro sludge-hauling deal. If even some of the new allegations are true, you don't need a Harvard law degree to realize Conyers got a great deal.

She also resigned from the council, putting an end to one of the loudest, weirdest, shortest, most polarizing and corrupt political careers in memory.


While Conyers' plea agreement precludes any additional charges, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn can consider the information contained in the indictment when he decides her sentence. Under the plea deal, the maximum Conyers can do is five years.

Conyers first took office in January 2006. Just 15 month months later, according to the indictment, Conyers and Riddle began their extortion racket.

The indictment charges:

• Conyers conspired with Riddle to hit up the owner of a technology company for $20,000 to make Riddle a bogus "consultant."

• Conyers and Riddle pressured a Detroit restaurant owner to pay Riddle $20,000 for another "consulting job" that didn't exist.

• Conyers and Riddle received $25,000 from the owner of a strip club with an issue before the city council.

• Conyers and Riddle attempted to receive money in another faux "consulting contract" for Riddle, this time with a real estate developer.

Conyers, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Detroit Democrat, became notorious for her bad temper in public. In private, she appears to be equally difficult. The indictment portrays her as nagging Riddle and ordering him to carry out her orders in their various schemes.

"This bitch is a trip," Riddle told an owner of the technology company, explaining Conyers was eager to receive the owner's final $5,000 payment.

"Work on the, uh, five thing," Riddle advised, "so I can keep her chilled out and stuff."

They should make "Gimme the Loot" Monica's theme song on her television show.