Good Ol' Brooksie Never Disappoints

[Johnnny5]

At least he will be dead soon. When his death is announced, I will celebrate one more small step towards healing this region.

Kwame is gone, LBP will soon be gone and hopefully Ficano will be swept out of the office in the next election.

The question above about him wanting to retire to spend time with his family. My gut tells me his family doesn't care to spend that much time with him.

Now, let's hope is death is something exceptionally ironic like him getting killed during a car jacking in Oakland County or killed by crumbling infrastructure in Oakland County.

And to be clear: yes, I truly want him to die. It will help this region heal. Perhaps he and Manny Maroun can drive head on into each other and we can be without both of them [[Perhaps Cushingberry can be involved somehow as well)

You have issues.

[mwilbert]

No.

This thread is about a recent article with the New Yorker. That thread was about an article with BusinessWeek.

I know. The territory I was referring to was the career, wit, and wisdom of LBP, not the respective articles.

As are the comments, for the most part.

[Khorasaurus]

One thing that jumped out to me in the Deadline Detroit post.

Brooks apparently took the New Yorker writer to Grosse Pointe to show him Lake St. Clair.

Uh, Brooks, you know that's not Oakland County, right?

[EastsideAl]

I've read the New Yorker article, which is now posted on their website for subscribers. The reporter apparently spent a few days riding around with L. Brooks, who was every bit as vile as we've come to know him.

"What we're going to do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, an then throw in the blankets and corn."

[iheartthed]

Some people wonder why Dennis Rodman went to North Korea and said all those crazy things he said. Well, nobody was talking about Dennis Rodman BEFORE he did those things, and now lots of people are talking about Dennis Rodman.

If L Brooks wasn't the caricature of person that he was, nobody would even know his name. Seriously, who would know the name of the Oakland County Commissioner if not for the fact that it's L Brooks Patterson and he says/does outlandish and controversial things?

There's method to his madness, and one of the big reasons why his schtick is so successful is because of the magnitude of the response he gets from thin-skinned people like many who post here in this forum.

On one hand, I agree with you about him being a troll. OTOH, I just don't understand how this is tolerated by the media or his constituents. The local Detroit media made more fuss when Bloomberg made unflattering comparisons of New York against Detroit than it does about Paterson opening his big fat mouth.

I live in New York and I just can't imagine any elected official making such a comment about any place in this region. I don't think it would have been cool for a suburban official to talk about New York 20 years ago when the city was registering 2,500 murders a year. It's not cool today for New York officials to talk about it's neighbor Newark, which also has a disturbingly high murder rate. But in Oakland County trashing Detroit essentially encouraged.

Then again, it's obviously just the lady protesting too much. If Oakland County were really that attractive in its own right then it would speak for itself.

[EastsideAl]

He is Michigan's own George Wallace

One of the things that's only briefly mentioned in the article, but certainly well-remembered by many Detroiters of my age, is the repulsive Wallace-like crusade that first brought "showman" Patterson to wider public attention around here.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

George Wallace [[at his worst) was infinitely worse than L. Brooks. L. Brooks doesn't seek to keep black people out of public facilities in Oakland County or away from polling places. I am not an apologist for Patterson. He is not someone I would ever vote for for dog catcher. But he's a name caller, not an oppressor. No need to make a jerk into Hitler. Wallace, of course, ultimately did an about face, changed his views, and apologized for his terrible behavior. If only all Democrats would do that!

[jt1]

His spokesperson is already starting the damage control: http://www.freep.com/article/20140120/NEWS05/301200109/

I'd really like to hear his explanations how some of the quotes were taken out of context or part of a larger attempt to portray good ole Brooksie in a poor light.

At least they don't have to worry about the local media taking him to task. They just kiss his drunk ass and laugh it off as him just being himself [[which should be no reason for a pass)

[EastsideAl]

L. Brooks doesn't seek to keep black people out of public facilities in Oakland County or away from polling places.

Just to keep them out of public schools with white kids. Or are you too young to remember that?

[aj3647]

I never understood why everyone gets butthurt when Kwame does something Kwame-like and it's okay to flip out [[rightfully so) yet when Brooks goes on one of his alcohol and Alzheimers-induced tirades the reaction is "nothing to see here, just Brooks being Brooks." Hypocrisy at its finest. It's good for decent people to get outraged at thugs like Kwame and Brooks.

It's not hypocrisy, because you're comparing apples to oranges. Kwame committed FELONIES, whereas L Brooks is a blowhard but I'm not aware of him engaging in criminal corruption and felony offenses. Do you understand the difference between being a loudmouthed asshole and being an unrepentant criminal who steals from the taxpayer?

And yes, he is a salesman. All politicians are salesmen. THEY are the product. They have to sell themselves to the public in order to get elected and then get re-elected. L Brooks' "us versus them" trash talk and race-baiting is just playing to the bigotries of the nouveau riche white trash of Oakland County in the same way that black Detroit politicians engage in race-baiting and "us versus them" politics to pander to a black electorate. Same shit, different color, that's all it is.

Hey, I'm all for criticizing L Brooks Patterson, I just think it's a little bit ridiculous that every time the guy cuts a fart, there's a DYES thread with 300 replies about it. And there's a person in this thread actively wishing death upon him. You don't think that's a bit extreme about a guy who says unkind things about Detroit, to want him to die? Take him to task when he says stupid stuff, but it seems a tad bit ridiculous to see posters here popping blood vessels over the guy. He's really not worth the amount of hate that some people here feel the need to pour into him.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Just to keep them out of public schools with white kids. Or are you too young to remember that?

Do you support school choice for black Detroit parents to send their kids to good, mostly white schools? I sure do. Or is busing only positive at the directive of a federal judge? And yes, thankfully I am too young to remember busing.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Aj3647, you are spot on.

[drpoundsign]

Boy, HE is getting worse than the late Orville Hubbard! It's a Native American reservation, not "Indian." A few curry shops would Help Detroit. And I don't want to think about the racial name he must use for those currently living in the D. I'm surprised he didn't tell his children to "pack heat" going to the Joe [[privately, he probably Did.) He started out as a prosecutor, and doesn't even have the sense to wear a seatbelt.

[EastsideAl]

Do you support school choice for black Detroit parents to send their kids to good, mostly white schools? I sure do. Or is busing only positive at the directive of a federal judge? And yes, thankfully I am too young to remember busing.

It bears remembering that the directives of federal judges was the only way that school desegregation happened at all. The other thing you're talking about, school choice for black parents, is an idea that can exist only in a post-segregation world. A world that L. Brooks made every effort to resist.

[TTime]

Here we go again with this Detroit vs Oakland County debate. It's like watching the little person under card match from a WWF event at Joe Louis back in 84.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Opposing busing isn't the same thing as supporting segregation. But, Eastside Al, do you support school choice to help inner city kids [[of all races, but mostly black) get into private schools or suburban schools? I think it's just as awful to deny those kids a chance as it is to deny them a chance because they're black. If you end up dropping out or get a diploma that you can't read, you are just as f*****d as if you were black in the era of segregation, at least in terms of economic possibility. Or even worse, considering that today's economy has far fewer manual labor jobs. Sorry, I think we're getting off the topic of L. Brooks' big mouth. I am just very passionate about getting kids out of crappy schools.

[GP For Life]

Opposing busing isn't the same thing as supporting segregation. But, Eastside Al, do you support school choice to help inner city kids [[of all races, but mostly black) get into private schools or suburban schools? I think it's just as awful to deny those kids a chance as it is to deny them a chance because they're black. If you end up dropping out or get a diploma that you can't read, you are just as f*****d as if you were black in the era of segregation, at least in terms of economic possibility. Or even worse, considering that today's economy has far fewer manual labor jobs. Sorry, I think we're getting off the topic of L. Brooks' big mouth. I am just very passionate about getting kids out of crappy schools.

I don't want them in my schools. I want their schools to get better. The sad part is that it's a cultural problem and not a resource problem.

To tie this back into the thread, Paterson is an asshole. Fuck him and his sprawlville.

[iheartthed]

Do you support school choice for black Detroit parents to send their kids to good, mostly white schools? I sure do. Or is busing only positive at the directive of a federal judge? And yes, thankfully I am too young to remember busing.

You do realize that the opposition to vouchers isn't the distance a kid would travel to school, but the diversion of publics funds from public school districts to private schools, right?

[EastsideAl]

Opposing busing isn't the same thing as supporting segregation.

It was when L. Brooks and his allies did it. I'm sure it's hard to understand this now, but the crux of their argument was that little white kids needed to be kept "safe" from the "danger" of going to school with little black kids. And the Klan and the American Nazis were openly among their allies.

Sorry, I think we're getting off the topic of L. Brooks' big mouth. I am just very passionate about getting kids out of crappy schools.

Agreed. The discussion about "school choice" is off topic and better left to another place and time.

But you did mention George Wallace and the changes of his later years. One of the things that's amazing to me about L. Brooks, and is made starkly apparent again in the New Yorker article, is just how openly unreconstructed and unrepentant he is about his racism.

Attitudes like his, even when couched in the little snickering "jokes" recounted in the article, have held this entire region back for 40+ years.

[GUSHI]

There is alot more shitty places in Detroit that Oakland county, I may not agree with some of the stuff L brook, says, but look how nice oc is compared to Wayne or MAcomb. And yes Detroit was under AA mayors since the 70's. And yes Detroit for the most part is a dump. I grew up on the east side my old hood is basically no more, the last good mayor we had was Archer. Take a drive down middle belt or orchard lake,

[GUSHI]

Busing just speeded up white flight,

[jt1]

Just more of the , "oc is better than Detroit" stuff from gushi and others. That still doesn't address that the region continues to fall further behind other regions. But good for oc for being the skinniest kid at fat camp

[jt1]

There is alot more shitty places in Detroit that Oakland county, I may not agree with some of the stuff L brook, says, but look how nice oc is compared to Wayne or MAcomb. And yes Detroit was under AA mayors since the 70's. And yes Detroit for the most part is a dump. I grew up on the east side my old hood is basically no more, the last good mayor we had was Archer. Take a drive down middle belt or orchard lake,

Are you implying the race of Detroit mayors was the primary factor in its decline? Simplify much

[GUSHI]

It was one of the factors---population in 1980 1.2 million plus. Coleman was a racist.

[GUSHI]

like I said the only good mayor we had in that time span was Dennis Archer, but to alot of Detroiters he was to white to be black, or that what alot of AA in my old hood use to say.