Kierra you go girl!

That councillor was putting on such an act at the council meeting. It looked and sounded like a bad rap song.

Wow, that women is so full of herself! She's so ghetto I can't believe it.

Ouch.

Awesome.

Connyers exhibits new heights of arrogance. Seriously, this video is shot (presumably) days or weeks after the incident, giving her an easy outlet to apologize and she still can't acknowledge her bad behavior. In front of children!

She needs some PR help.

I think, to make this right, Ms. Connyers needs to look directly at the camera and say, "I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader."

"I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader."

Is Budapest in Paris? Wait, is Paris a country?

I agree with what the young lady was trying to say - adults, in a position like Ms. Conyers's, are held to a higher standard.

Certainly we're all human and subject to acting out of sorts when we're frustrated we must rise above and not act childish. Such childish behavior creates hostility between people who should be working in unison.

Maybe the council president was acting rudely, but playing a game of "top that" isn't going to get him to stop. It's going to add fuel to his fire. I was very impressed with that young woman.

I agree with what the young lady was trying to say - adults, in a position like Ms. Conyers's, are held to a higher standard.

So do I - and she called Ms. Conyers right out on the "do as I say, not as I do" aspect. Keira told her "you're an adult". That does not excuse her behavior. Does anyone know if she's apoligized yet to the council president? I'm betting not.

I read a transcript of this, but the live video does it even better. Between people like Conyers and the mayor, is anyone shocked at how poorly things are going in Detroit. Well done by the young woman.

I have to say, though, that the Detroit News reporter seems like a tool.

Gretchen, I'm not so sure that the council president was being rude. He was obviously getting peeved because he had the floor and he was trying to speak and was essentially being disregarded and talked over by someone who would not shut up. There is a reason for rules such as having the floor in such bodies because if you didn't have them, everyone would just be shouting over each other all the time. But I really couldn't hear exactly what he said so he might have said something rude.

Toubrouk used exactly the right word here, "Ghetto". That could be Detroits theme word. Detroit used to be one of the most industrious, populated, thriving cities in the midwest. I grew up there in the sixties during the heyday of Motown. It was awesome. Now, they hardly have any rush hour traffic at all, because not that many people work anymore. It has all changed because of the peoples embrace of ghettoism. They like it. Race politics rules in Detroit. Michigan itself is a petri dish expriment of what happens when one party takes over and the other party has little or no power whatsover. It is descending further and further into economic misery and higher unemployment under socialist Democrat Governor Granholm. Most of the Michigan legislature is much like the arrogant ignorant ass, Mrs Conyers who really have the intelligence of a potato but run on being the most ghetto in the ghetto and succeed in getting elected like that. I weep for Michigan.

By the way, I would bet that if you were to meet Kierra's family, you would find two very good, conciencious parents. She showed far more maturity and sense of decorum than the coucilwoman. Kids learn that kind of respect for others from great parenting, they don't get it from the ghetto.

She showed far more maturity and sense of decorum than the coucilwoman. Kids learn that kind of respect for others from great parenting

Agree. Behind every well-behaved kid is at least one (and usually two) parents who love 'em enough to teach them about how respect is given and earned.

That kid really called it. The council woman is an adult, and should understand the rules of behaviour in a council meeting. Just another example of people not taking any responsibility for their actions. Very sad.

Damn. Couldn't watch it at work and now I come home to find they've pulled the video.

You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TvgtGlcdTE

It is very appropriate that this episode occurred in my home State of Michigan. When I was in my mid- to late twenties the infamous Michigan Militia - the anti-Federal Government, psycho conspiracy group - was a big issue (I knew several of these whack-nuts). As everyone knows, these nut jobs were all convinced that the Federal Government was the ultimate threat to freedom (well, actually, the penultimate threat, second only to the UN). It is perfect that this incident occurred in Michigan because maybe it will demonstrate to whatever is left of these Michigan Militia jerks the truth of what has been obvious to me for years: Local government is a much, much bigger threat to your civil liberties than the Federal Government ever has been or will be. For all the faults of the U.S. Government, the ineptitude, corruption, and pompous arrogance present in politics at the local level makes the Feds look like superheroes by comparison. And, consider this: Aside from payroll tax withholding, how much direct contact with the Feds do you have anyway? It's not the FBI that pulls you over and gives you a traffic ticket, it is the local PD; it's not the Feds that are going to use eminent domain to push you out of your house to make room for a bigger and better ACE Hardware, it will be your own city council - and on and on. For all the hoopla over FEMA's failure after Katrina, the real story is the colossal failure of Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin.

It is at the local level where people like Ms. Conyers are most likely to be found, and where they are most likely to have the power to directly affect your life. Often, the Federal Government is a bulwark of freedom against the likes of her. More often than the other way, I'd say.

Ghettoism is only one half of the coin. Detroit is reportedly one of the most segregated cities in the United States for its size and that tends to impair the economy of a city both through the attitude of disadvantaged people, that the game is rigged, and through failure, as a city or a society in general, to act for the common good as is done in a prosperous city: Not a few suburbs were founded partially for escaping the daily interactions with "undesirables" to be found in the city, for example by Racial Covenants, and I doubt people who would be sold on that would find it easy to consider them fellow citizens; obviously though, such practices have to be dead by now, just like job discrimination.