Powered by Real Times Media
Volume 76 – Number 27
Frank Blount dies Frank Blount, first executive deputy chief of the Detroit Police Department, and a founding member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), died March 10 at age 87. He was born September 25, 1925 and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. He attended Lincoln School, class of 1939, and graduated from Cass Technical High School. He earned bachelor and master’s degrees in criminal justice from Wayne State University.
March 13-19, 2013
michiganchronicle.com
e h t g n i s o l C
a g a s k c i r t a Kilp A promising political career destroyed
Frank Blount He was also a Harvard Fellow (1971-72) and attended Michigan State University’s School of Labor and Industrial Relation in 1975. He served in the Navy from 1942 to1946, and rose to the rank of motor machinist mate 3rd class. In 1950, Blount joined the Detroit Police Department. He became executive deputy chief in 1975, making him the highest ranking Black officer on the force. He also established the first scooter patrol and was appointed commanding officer of Community Oriented Patrol Section (COPS). He co-founded NOBLE in 1976, the same year he retired from the DPD and became chief of security for Detroit Public Schools (DPS). In 1988, he retired from DPS to become chief of security for the Detroit Housing Department. He also co-founded the Jim Dandy Ski Club in 1958, the first African American ski club in the United States. Frank Blount is survived by his son, Michael; grandsons, Steven and Christopher; great- granddaughter, Ariana; and many others.
Andre Smith photo
By Bankole Thompson
W
CHRONICLE SENIOR EDITOR
hat the world witnessed in federal court in downtown Detroit on Monday in the sweeping corruption conviction of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his longtime friend and city contractor, Bobby Ferguson, and his father, Bernard Kilpatrick, was the bitter and painful ending of political power who once had the potential to not only make Detroit a Bankole game changer in the state Thompson but across the country. It was the sad ending to a political story that carried with it the riveting campaign mantra “Right Here, Right Now,” the refrain that defined the rise of Kwame Kilpatrick as chief executive officer of the 11th floor of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building. Kilpatrick, once embodied an emerging political leadership that represented a class of brilliant Black men who could be pleading Black America’s cause before the nation’s conscience,
the same path that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is on now with his frequent appearances on “Meet the Press,” on NBC, making the case for urban America while being a no-nonsense surrogate for the Obama administration. He once symbolized a new generation of bold Democratic leaders who had the propensity to expand their base beyond their own traditional lines of operation with the ability to build crossover relationships with various constituencies and communities. To put it bluntly, Kwame Malik Kilpatrick could have been a United States senator from Michigan because he was on that path to national political stardom. It was in 2004 that he was made a guest speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, the same year that then Sen. Barack Obama was introduced to the nation and the world when he keynoted that same convention. It is worth noting that very few in the political class ever, in a lifetime, get the opportunity to address a national political convention, the hallmark of political power, and a speaking slot reserved only for those whose life stories or real promises of political leadership have the potency to affect the course of the nation. These are two skillful men
who chose a different destiny for themselves. Years later, one man headed to the White House to change the course of history for generations to come by entering into the pantheon of American history as a major political force, and to put America on the map as a leader on the ever evolving question of a multiracial democracy fighting to expand itself and to continue to give full meaning to the notion that “all men are created equal,” because a competent Black man is now the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The other man wallowing and wiggling in hubris and intoxicated with political power began to sink into the pool of political and legal troubles that would arrest his future. Kilpatrick, blinded by his own follies and youthful exuberance coupled with some opportunists masking as trusted advisors whose only response to a new and exciting leadership abounding with untold opportunities for success, was “Yes sir,” instead of protesting and resigning to send a signal when the ship, by all accounts, was headed for a Titanic-type calamity.
Instead of trying to change course
See KILPATRICK page A-4
Legal battle over Haiti mission continues
Funeral arrangements are being handled by O.H. Pye Funeral Home, 17600 Plymouth Road. Services will be at St. Paul A.M.E. Church, 2260 Hunt Street. Viewing will be at O.H. Pye, Sunday, March 17, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.. Family hour will be at St. Paul A.M.E., March 18, at 10 a.m., and the funeral will be at 11 a.m.
By Patrick Keating
WHAT’S INSIDE
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Foundation helps youth (Page A-2) Since 2006, the nonprofit Park West Foundation has helped more than 350 young women and men in the foster care system.
McQuade applauded
(Page B-1)
ARISE Detroit! will be part of the new Detroit One anti-crime campaign, soon to be launched by Barbara McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
$1.00
michiganchronicle.com
MAYOR DAVE BING speaks with Bankole Thompson, editor of the Michigan Chronicle, during an interview in his office last week. — Andre Smith photos
Mayor Bing: State Treasurer sent mixed messages to Detroit Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, in an exclusive interview with Bankole Thompson last week in his office, charged that State Treasurer Andy Dillon sent mixed messages to different Detroit civic groups, lamenting that he wished Dillon had been straightforward in his meetings with various government and civic organs in the city. Bing also said he is ready to work with the emergency manager whenever he is named and won’t sit at city hall without the power to effect change. Following are excerpts from that interview.
honest, you are not going to fix our problems in 18 months. But I think because of the emergency manager coming in with the support of Lansing, it means Lansing is going to have to come to the table more so than they have. Because it’s on his (the governor’s) watch as well as mine.
MICHIGAN CHRONICLE: From your vantage point, what is Detroit going to be under an emergency manager?
MC: Like what?
DAVE BING: I think the emergency manager, because it is an 18-months time frame, let’s be
If we don’t fix some of the problems or at least start moving in the right direction, then we are all failures and I don’t think anybody wants that title. So the emergency manager from my vantage point is going to help us do some things that we couldn’t do. DB: I think the City Charter is a major impediment. There was a rewrite of the Charter based on
See Bing page A-4
In the ongoing legal battle between People’s Community Hope for Homes (aka the Caring and Sharing Mission) and Mitch Albom and A Hole in the Roof Foundation (AHIR), an Oakland County Circuit Court judge has ruled against the former, the plaintiffs/counter-defendants in the case. However, their attorney says they are not giving up. “We feel very comfortable that it’s going to be reversed,” said attorney Ivie Shelton. In a 16-page opinion and order, Judge Leo Bowman denied the plaintiffs’ requests for attorneys fees and costs, and granted the defendants’ motion for summary disposition. According to court documents, on Sept. 8, 2012, the plaintiffs filed a complaint for legal and equitable relief, citing fraud, misrepresentation, negligence, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, interference with a business relationship, slander, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Eric Scheible, the attorney representing AHIR, said he was pleased with the judge’s ruling. He said it supports what AHIR has claimed all along, that the claims of the Caring and Sharing Mission do not have any merit.
Rev. John Hearn, now 85, found-
See haiti page A-4