Kwame Kilpatrick's Corruption Is (Political) Business as Usual, Writes Cathy Reisenwitz

Dave Hogg

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been sentenced to serve 28 years in federal prison, after being convicted of 24 counts of public corruption, including racketeering, bribery, extortion, and mail fraud. By all accounts, Kilpatrick used his position to steer millions of Detroit citizens' tax dollars to his friends and family while the city languished in poverty. But, writes Cathy Reisenwitz, Kilpatrick's real crime was being less sophisticated than the big political players. And if there's anything to be gleaned from every scrap of recorded history ever it's this: A system which requires we trust individual actors to not act in their own self-interest is not a good system.