About 20 years ago right now it was looking like getting out of Detroit might be a wise idea. The wheels were starting to come off the honorable Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's very corrupt political machine in the Big D. Even by Detroit city government standards Kwame was one slick hustler and thug. Some fellow agents and I, collectively known as 'The Rat Pack', had made a fine living skirting the law under Kwame's free for all raping of the city's housing program coffers. Our broker even had his lawyers draw up different real estate contracts for us so he would be in the clear if the shit hit the fan. We were all getting a little nervous as Kwame's luck started to run out south of 8 Mile.

Kwame came from the Kilpatrick dynasty in Detroit politics. His mother and father were both career politicians in the mean streets of the Big D, and Kwame learned the ropes early on. Detroit had a long history of winning the state for the Democrats, even though the rest of the state tended to be conservative and Republican. Hence, the Democrats always poured millions of dollars into the City of Detroit's government to buy and secure those votes. That money tended to disappear before any of those programs were ever carried out. The first thing Kwame did as mayor was to buy a brand-new Lincoln Navigator with city money, followed by massages, fine dining, expensive wines, etc., all under the pretense he needed those things to perform as mayor. Kwame racked up a huge personal debt on his city credit card right off the bat. That was soon followed by endless scandals and Kwame having the honor of TIME magazine naming him the worst mayor in the USA.

We assumed Kwame would lose the 2005 Mayoral race, but he surprised us and eked out a win. Detroit loves a gangster. This made him even more emboldened, and he really started getting cocky and in deeper shit. The widespread graft was being uncovered daily and culminated in a wild party at the mayoral mansion complete with strippers from the Big D's finest gentlemen's establishments. One of them got into a fight with Kwame's wife and ended up dead a short time later. She was shot sitting in her car with a 40 caliber Glock pistol, which was the standard issue of the Detroit Police at that time. No one was ever arrested. I rented out several apartments to strippers, and they all believed it was a hit ordered by Kwame and that was the word on the street. They were all running a little scared, and these women did not scare easily.

It eventually all came to a head with all of Kwame's scandals culminating at once and he was forced to resign and got a 28-year prison sentence. They threw his dad in prison for 15 months for good measure. Ironically, one of the very last things Trump did in office was to pardon Kwame, a case of 'honor among thieves' no doubt. I am sure Trump admired Kwame's style of criminality. When Kwame got out, he immediately became an ordained minister, motivational speaker, and 'certified character coach', whatever that is.

Detroit always had a pretty face at night reflecting off the water, kind of like a shop-worn hooker with a lot of make-up under bar light at closing time. At any rate, 2004 was the year I bought my Florida property, did a lot of paper shredding, and planned my exit from Motown. Those years were an amazing experience for a middle-class white kid from coastal California. I got an education one can only learn on those streets.