linkWikipedia wrote:The murder of Tamara Greene
Tamara Greene was a 27-year-old exotic dancer who went by the name "Strawberry" and who claimed to have performed at the Manoogian Mansion party. While sitting in her car with her boyfriend, Greene was shot multiple times with a .40 caliber Glock handgun. Although official statement by Detroit Police Department claims that Ms. Greene was shot three times, sources from Homicide Division of DPD have claimed that she was shot 18 times. Her boyfriend was wounded, but he was not shot after the white Chevrolet TrailBlazer driven by the shooter(s) turned around and drove by a second time. This fact led Bowman to conclude that Greene was the intended target and not her 32-year-old boyfriend.[31] She was murdered on April 30, 2003, at around 3:40 am, near the intersection of Roselawn and West Outer Drive.[31][32] Her murder came after a first attempt on her life failed. This led to the theory that this was a "deliberate hit" by a member of the Detroit Police Department,[32] a theory that Bowman would investigate. He alleges his investigation was the reason that he was taken off of the case and transferred out of homicide.[31]
Greene's family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Detroit for $150 million based on their belief her murder was a deliberate attack to keep her from talking to officers who were investigating the rumored party at the mayoral Manoogian Mansion.[32] A judge ruled that Norman Yatooma, the attorney representing Greene's 14-year-old son, can have access to text messages of Kilpatrick, police chief Ella Bully-Cummings and dozens of other city employees to ascertain if city officials blocked the investigation into Greene's murder.[33] Yatooma also wants the text messages and GPS positions of every city employee exchanged between 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on April 30, 2003.[33][34] The city's communications provider Skytel has indicated it is prepared to release the text messages if the court rules accordingly.[33]
The lawyers for the city paid a retainer of $24,950 to the lawyers it hired to represent the city. City policy mandates that contracts $25,000 or more be approved by the city council.[35] Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel asserts that the amount paid "is small for a retainer" and "I think this is probably somebody's effort to get a deposit to a lawyer on an expedited basis in a case that's got a lot of scrutiny."[35] This is at least the second time the Kilpatrick administration has avoided council approval by entering into contracts just below the $25,000 threshold. The Lincoln Navigator SUV leased for the Kilpatrick family in 2005 with city funds costs $24,995.[35]
On March 1st, 2008, a ten-page sworn affidavit by former Detroit police lieutenant Alvin Bowman was filed by Yatooma in the U.S. District Court in Detroit. In that affidavit, Bowman states that "I suspected that the shooter was a law enforcement officer, and more specifically, a Detroit Police Department officer."[31] Bowman contends that the high number of .40 caliber bullets that hit Greene but not her boyfriend would indicate that the shooter had firearms training. In the document, Bowman explained how the highest levels of the police department, including then-police chief Jerry Oliver and his successor, Ella Bully-Cummings, deliberately sabotaged his investigation. He claims that files were deleted from homicide computers, reports were removed from the homicide file, and the Greene murder file itself was locked up so Bowman could not access it. Bowman states that eventually he was transferred out of homicide because he had asked too many questions about the Greene murder and the Manoogian Mansion party.[31] In the affidavit, Bowman says that Greene was employed with an associate of Kilpatrick, but did not name the associate. Bowman also stated that Greene's telephone records linked her to a high-ranking city employee not long before her April 2003 death. Mayer Morganroth, the lawyer representing the city said, "The Bowman affidavit is a little less than idiotic and more than absurd."[31]
In another sworn affidavit, Joyce Carolyn Rogers, a former employee for the Detroit Police Department stated that she read a police report that came across her desk in the fall 2002 which involved the mayor's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick assaulting Greene during the alleged Manoogian Mansion party. Rogers stated in the affidavit that Carlita had witnessed Greene touching the mayor "in a manner that upset the mayor's wife."[36]
Rogers' affidavit said that in the report Carlita Kilpatrick left the room and came back with a wooden object and began assaulting Greene. Two other men stepped in and tried to restrain the mayor's wife.[36]
Norman Yatooma attorney for the Greene family said that this new sworn affidavit shows that the Manoogian party was not "urban legend."[36]
Doug wrote:The problems of Detroit are eerily similar to that of St. Louis. To say "At Least We're Not Detroit" is rather ironic. Sociologically we are not unlike Detroit in many aspects.
DeBaliviere wrote:Doug wrote:The problems of Detroit are eerily similar to that of St. Louis. To say "At Least We're Not Detroit" is rather ironic. Sociologically we are not unlike Detroit in many aspects.
Very true. Their economy is not as diversified as ours, but they've experienced the same urban disinvestment that we have, albeit on a much grander scale.
njenney wrote:DTW puts STL to shame as far as airports go.
Doug wrote:If anything, we should look at Detroit, and other Rustbelt cities, in order to decide collective solutions as we have common themes: erosion of manufacturing base and the struggle to compete in the New Economy, suburban sprawl, failing schools, housing conflict along racial lines, urban renewal and public housing (related directly to racial conflict), etc.
