(AllHipHopNews) In what is the end of a decade-long tale of scandal, sex, and extortion, former Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick has been sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.
The 43-year-old was elected Mayor of the city of Detroit at the age of 31, and his flashy attire, earring, and ever-present two-way pager garnered him the title, “The Hip-Hop Mayor.”
He brought new attractions to the city’s riverfront and much-needed business investment downtown, with a mayorship that to many was to be a symbol of youth and hope, but turned into one of corruption and scandal. Kilpatrick was sentenced today in federal court to the amount of time that prosecutors asked for, 28 years.
“He’s become the poster child of what went wrong with the city and why it went bankrupt,” said Adolph Mongo, a political consultant who worked for Mr. Kilpatrick’s re-election campaign, to the New York Times. Yet he said it was unfair to pin the city’s problems on any single elected leader. “It was a house of cards,” Mr. Mongo said of Detroit’s fiscal health. “Kilpatrick was the last card. He fell and it knocked everything down.”