Quite a few of Detroit’s dysfunctional city government leaders have been making the national news for months now because of their crazy actions. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is in a class by himself, embroiled in numerous scandals involving bid rigging, police misconduct, perjury, adultery and the suspicious murders of not one but TWO strippers.
Criminal behavior aside, City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, the wife of esteemed Congressman and House Judiciary Chair John Conyers may be one of the most disrespectful, egotistical, and inappropriately behaved elected officials we’ve seen around here in a long time and that’s really saying something. She has gotten into at least one bar fight with a woman after demanding the woman’s boyfriend buy her a drink. She's had public altercations with other City Council members and even threatened a member of the city's Pension Board with her gun.
With the city posting record rates in unemployment, home foreclosures, crime, and high school drop-outs, Detroit Councilwoman Conyers got into a heated debate during a council session a few weeks ago with the City Council President Ken Cockrel about what seems to be her #1 preoccupation in life – the amount of respect or disrespect shown to her. The video has been widely broadcast on national news outlets, showing Ms. Conyers’ outburst against Mr. Cockrel which ends with this tirade before Mr. Cockrel abruptly adjourns the meeting:
Cockrel: Stop interrupting.
Conyers: Grow up! Control your house and you’ll know how to treat other women better.
Cockrel: You’re the last one to talk
Conyers: I’m the first one to talk, Shrek! Shrek!
Recently, a group of Courtis Elementary School students visited the City Council chambers with Ms. Conyers. The visit was arranged by Sam Riddle, Ms. Conyers' former chief of staff, and seemed to be designed to give Conyers an opportunity to redeem her reputation by addressing her outburst with children instead of the news media. However, Councilwoman Conyers didn't realize that the children were ready to speak truth to power.
During their visit, sixth grader Samaiyah Mills asked the Councilwoman if Ms. Conyers thought it was wrong to call the City Council President "Shrek". Councilwoman Conyers said, "That depends." As the children sat through an uncomfortable silence, Conyers said, "I’m thinking of my answer." She then went on to draw an analogy between her behavior and the student's hypothetical behavior with a teacher who may frustrate her. These students, who were clearly uncomfortable with the thought of an adult justifying such behavior to a teacher weren’t too satisfied with this explanation.
A second student, eighth grader Kierra Bell, followed up with her own calm (and irrefutable) logic which included this golden exchange:
Kierra Bell: You don’t think she [the hypothetical student] should have done it? Because you said we’re in school and how we feel like that, but you’re an adult. We have to look up to you.
Conyers: Mmmhmmm, absolutely.
Kierra Bell: We’re looking on TV and like, this is an adult calling another adult ‘Shrek’? That’s something a second grader would do.
Conyers: And so at school you’ve never done that, you’ve never said anything that was inappropriate?
Kierra Bell: We are kids, we’re children.
Conyers continues to try to convince the eighth grader that elementary school behavior is justifiable in the Detroit City Council chambers, but Ms. Kierra Bell is having none of it. You really must watch the whole video, which includes Councilwoman Conyers’ original outburst. It’s priceless.