Benny Napoleon lashes out at Metro Times

[Cliffy]

I think the black community is tired of people like Napoleon who come in an exploit the black community by using tired old racist bait and doing nothing to improve the city.

[antongast]

I think the black community is tired of people like Napoleon who come in an exploit the black community by using tired old racist bait and doing nothing to improve the city.

It's a well-known fact that "the black community" is a monolithic hive mind and Cliffy is its spokesman. When "the black community" gets tired of you, you're finished. You'll never work in this town again. Hordes of black people will stream to the polls and mindlessly vote you out of office at Cliffy's say-so.

White people, on the other hand, are a diverse group of individuals with nothing particularly in common besides a lack of melanin, and they formulate political opinions based on their own idiosyncratic thought processes and life experiences. White people always vote for whoever they feel is best for the job, and if that person also happens to be white, well! Pure coincidence. Why would you even notice such a thing, you racist, you?

[Cliffy]

Antongast, you sound like a Benny Napolean voter. Wake up and realize that he doesn't have your best interest. He just wants to continue receiving his $110k a year pension. I think the black community will awaken. They have fallen for the racist stuff for far too long.

[compn]

benny napoleon is against marijuana decriminalization, because he wants to see more black and latino kids arrested for posession.

i'm not for duggan or anyone who was part of wayne county / detroit politics.

[antongast]

Antongast, you sound like a Benny Napolean voter. Wake up and realize that he doesn't have your best interest. He just wants to continue receiving his $110k a year pension. I think the black community will awaken. They have fallen for the racist stuff for far too long.

Did you even read my post? I was strictly mocking you, not endorsing Napoleon or anyone else.

[313WX]

While I agree that the question seems silly the reason it is asked is because the interviewer is hoping to find some red flags in the responses. If a person is stupid enough to say one of my biggest weakness is getting up in the morning this should set off some flags even with a candidate who is otherwise qualified to do the job. Now most people are savvy enough not to get caught like that but you would be surprise at the people who get tripped up. But back to Benny the reason that question set him off so was because he was so evasive about his record and he didn't appreciate it, so as a result he came off like a jerk at the tail end of the interview.

It's pretty clear that the Metro Times was trying to trip him up with that question. It's not the fact that he could or couldn't answer it, but rather the fact that the intent of the question was for the Metro Times to pull a "gotcha" stunt on him. He rightfully called them out on it. I've never seen any of the newspaper ask this question to Mike Duggan.

Same goes for job interviews. Not everyone is like Dr. Frasier Crane who can provide witty, articulate retorts to even the dumbest crap at the blink of an eye, nor should anyone have to be like him to land a job. What's funny is, I bet if the tables were turned on the people who ask that silly question, they would struggle mightily answering it themselves.

[firstandten]

It's pretty clear that the Metro Times was trying to trip him up with that question. It's not the fact that he could or couldn't answer it, but rather the fact that the intent of the question was for the Metro Times to pull a "gotcha" stunt on him. He rightfully called them out on it. I've never seen any of the newspaper ask this question to Mike Duggan.

Same goes for job interviews. Not everyone is like Dr. Frasier Crane who can provide witty, articulate retorts to even the dumbest crap at the blink of an eye, nor should anyone have to be like him to land a job. What's funny is, I bet if the tables were turned on the people who ask that silly question, they would struggle mightily answering it themselves.

The Metro Times asked that same question to Barrow and Crittendon at least [[I didn't finish all of the interviews) and they didn't seem to have a problem with it. From reading Curt Guyette interview with Benny it seemed that he was perturbed with the follow up questions about when he was chief and that put him in a combative mood by the time the greatest weakness question came up. In other words I don't think it was that question so much as the questions that led up to it. Also to be fair the interviews were split between Cuyette and Bryan Gottlieb and I don't think Bryan asked that question in his interviews one of which included Duggan.

[Wesley Mouch]

Did you know that Lisa Howze CPA, is a Certified Public Accountant? And she looked over Detroit's finances and everything is A-OK! And its just "Rick Snyder" manufacturing this crisis to take away your vote! The pensions are fine, the city could easily pay for more services except things and stuff Lisa Howze, Certified Public Accountant, for Mayor!

Its very easy now to be against EM and bankruptcy, since they are as certain as the wind. The financial crisis is over for fools.

[Detroitnerd]

According to David Ashenfelter, Napoleon was being less than forthright...

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/5813

[downtownguy]

According to David Ashenfelter, Napoleon was being less than forthright...

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...d#.UfaYPI6f8uo

That link didn't work for me, and I tried posting a link, but it didn't work either. Try googling on "David Ashenfelter, Napoleon" and it came up.

[Detroitnerd]

Sorry, seems to add some junk on the end of the URL. It's the top story right now at DD, and this seems to work.

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/5813

[Meddle]

Just coming here for that. Too long to post it all, but ......

Though police cleared Brown in all of the shootings — and he received a top citation for bravery in one of them — department critics and some cops were shocked that Brown had managed to compile such a record before Napoleon’s staff took him off the streets. At the time, he was in line for promotion to sergeant.

“Something’s wrong with this picture,” Detroit attorney Juan Mateo said at the time. Mateo sued Brown over the fatal shooting of a 33-year-old machinist at a motorcycle club in 1999. “This is way beyond normal… This is a guy with a lot of notches on his gun.”

Napoleon and his staff weren’t aware of the extent of Brown’s record until the Free Press, with the help of Robinson and Mateo, brought it to their attention. Their lawsuits over two of the fatal shootings cost the cash-strapped city nearly $10 million.

Although a top-level review of Brown’s nine shootings concluded that four were unjustified, Napoleon signed off on yet another report that cleared Brown, who insisted that he had done nothing wrong. He was never prosecuted.

[firstandten]

Benny has been dancing around that issue. This is something his people are going to need to deal with especially if Duggan is running against him in the general election. He danced around it in that Metro Times interview that's why he got pissed and acted like a jerk at the end of the interview

[Meddle]

Personally, I don't support law enforcement for Mayor. There's too much conflict of interest.

Especially when you're talking about a department with the history of corruption and violence DPD has.

[Meddle]

And even at WCSO he's doing the Warrior Cop bit. Why does WCSO need an armored personnel carrier? Detroit has one and so do some other departments in the area.

WCSO is basically the jail and some road patrol. If they go on a raid, it's in support of other agencies. Let one of them bring their army toys if needed. Most of them sit parked most of the time anyways.