You didn’t have to watch much of Kwame Kilpatrick’s sentencing to see that, despite the fact that he remained verbally silent in court (a wise move), he has obviously not learned a thing—at the very least how to demonstrate and communicate remorse, contrition and humility.
His non-verbal cues, which included frowns, smirks and head shakes, spoke volumes instead about how he really feels about his current situation. He knew the masses would be watching his every move, closely, and yet his demeanor was akin to a teenager that had been scolded by a too strict adult. This from a 38-year old man who cost his city millions and is now going to jail in disgrace?
His father also chimed in with a few “soundbites” which once again brought in race and that his son had been “railroaded.” This is the same man who previously compared the media’s investigation into his son’s actions to Hitler’s persecution of the Jews. It would all be high comedy if it were not so sad.
When it comes to rehabilitating an image, one must take every opportunity to accept responsibility for one’s actions and show, in every way possible, that you are sorry. If you or I had disgraced ourselves, our family, our city, state and region as severely and completely as did Kwame Kilpatrick, can you imagine how you would appear in public? I can pretty much guarantee it would not be smiling and smirking.
Hopefully the next four months will provide some time for Kilpatrick to do some very serious introspection and truly understand the gravity of what he has done through sheer arrogance and abuse of power. When he reemerges in late February, one would hope that he will have changed (or at least adjusted) his attitude, mindset and modus operandi for his future years.