Very sad and shameful news out of my beloved Detroit, Michigan today. The current mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, has been sentenced to serve one night in jail after it was revealed that Kilpatrick defied the terms of his bond after being charged with perjury and obstruction of justice (the latest in a long list of crimes and misdemeanors). Even tho I have been away from the Detroit Metro area for a couple of years now, I am well aware of Kilpatrick’s shady biz and have never been a fan of his tactics or his leadership of the city. As embarrassingly shameful as it is, I am very glad to know that the judge in this case deemed it appropriate to lock up the sitting mayor and force him to endure a night in jail as part of his punishment. Here are a couple pics from court today, the second shows Kwame Kilpatrick being led away to a holding area before being transferred to his awaiting jail cell:

Judge Ronald Giles just sent Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail moments after the mayor pleaded for forgiveness and admitted he made an unauthorized trip to Windsor on city business. As of noon Kilpatrick was still at 36th District Court being processed for transfer to Wayne County Jail. “The first day you were before me, I thought I made it clear to you that this court comes first in everything,” Giles said. “I do understand that you’re under…pressure…but I have to look at how the system should be run and perceived by the public. At the beginning of this case you were given every privilege that could be given to you with regard to travel,” Giles said, adding that he later imposed restrictions after learning Kilpatrick had been abusing his privileges. “At that time I made it perfectly clear … don’t come back … ,” he said. Giles revoked Kilpatrick’s $75,000 10% bond and ordered him jailed … Giles’ jailing of Kilpatrick leaves no clear line of authority in who is running the city because there currently is no deputy mayor. Anthony Adams has temporarily relinquished his deputy mayor duties to be the interim director of the Water and Sewerage Department, and Kilpatrick said at the time of that announcement that chief of staff Kandia Milton and chief operating officer Cathy Square would divide up Adams’ deputy mayor duties. The charter provides that in the “absence or temporary disability” of the mayor that the deputy mayor is the acting mayor. Giles’ comments came after Kilpatrick told the judge he had been living under incredible pressure for the past 7 months. “I don’t believe that there is a person that’s ever been through this process that respects it more than I do,” Kilpatrick said, referring to the legal proceedings stemming from the eight felonies ranging from conspiracy to perjury to misconduct in office to obstruction of justice filed against him in March. “Last week was a tremendous wake-up call to me,” he said, referring to Giles’ rebuke last month after he allegedly assaulted law enforcement officials trying to serve a subpoena … Kilpatrick admitted violating the terms of his bond by traveling to Windsor without notifying the court. He said he was sorry. “My life has been revolutionarily transformed and it’s transforming in front of the eye of these media people who don’t know me at all,” he said, referring to what he called intense scrutiny. “Your honor, I ask for your forgiveness…it will never happen again.” He said his sons were watching these proceedings because he asked them to. “I told them that I did something wrong,” he said. Kilpatrick further said he was not “frolicking” in Windsor but trying to make a deal that would let him avoid laying off more than a thousand city workers. “I apologize to the citizens as well, but mostly to you. It was never an affront to you,” he said of the trip. Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Moran said the mayor’s pleas rung hollow. “Now that he’s caught, he’s taking responsibility…he thought he got away with it,” Moran said.

I have always contended that Kwame Kilpatrick is a criminal and now we have the bona fide proof … a sitting mayor has been sent to jail! I really hope this serves as the FINAL WAKE UP CALL to the people of Detroit that Kilpatrick is not fit to serve as mayor of the city I love so much. I will be very surprised if he isn’t impeached and removed from office, it should’ve happened a long time ago. His laundry list of crimes and malfeasance is too long to list here … as sad as I am for the way this makes Detroit look I am very happy that someone finally held Kilpatrick accountable for something. He is an embarrassment and I hope this will be the final end of him. After the jump, watch video of Kilpatrick’s pitiful apology to the court …

Beware y’all, this rambling exposition is long and meandering, it’ll take some time to watch it all: