Fans, Critics Vie to Be Heard Before Kilpatrick Speech

Jan 30, 06:28 PM

Jan. 30--A wide array of unions and other organizations are expected to participate in the rally to support Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick as he prepares to finally address the city about the text messaging scandal that has rocked his administration.

Pro-Kilpatrick forces will rally at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center at 3 p.m. A rally to call for Kilpatrick to resign will follow at 4:15 p.m.

The Rev. Horace Sheffield of New Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, a key organizer of the pro-Kilpatrick rally, said supporters of the mayor wanted to have an "alternative display" to contrast the protest rally, which was announced a week ago.

Among the unions lending their support to Kilpatrick are the Teamsters Joint Council 43, the Service Employees International Union, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Laborers International Union and the United Auto Workers.

"So far everything that's been said has been said in a vacuum," Sheffield said in an interview. "There's another voice out there and a certain segment of the population that has not been heard from in this crescendo of complaints. People that, number one, have compassion for this individual, compassion for the city and are not breathing an appetite for blood."

Still, Sheffield said Kilpatrick needs to make amends for the controversy. Text messages sent between him and resigned chief of staff Christine Beatty showed they lied under oath in a whistle-blower lawsuit against the city when they insisted they never had a romantic relationship and did not fire a former police officer.

"It may be helping to pay back some of the money," Sheffield said, adding it's for the mayor to decide. "I don't know what it is."

Sheffield said what he's been telling his parishioners is that, "What the mayor has done may well be inexcusable and unexplainable, but it's not unforgivable."

The key organizations behind the anti-Kilpatrick rally are AFSCME Local 207, the By Any Means Necessary coalition and the Call 'Em Out Coalition.

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