Sen. Virgil Smith
State Sen. Virgil Smith Jr. caused quite a stir when he and his ex-wife got into a confrontation at his house in Detroit over the past weekend, and he ended up taking a rifle and shooting up her car.
He was arrested and now faces criminal charges over that incident, an incident Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley writes is more than ample reason to resign.
She writes:
I have a question for Virgil Smith Jr.: Why didn't you submit a letter of resignation on the way to the police station?
What happened wasn't just, as you told police, the stupidest thing you've ever done; it was the stupidest thing any elected official has done lately. I'm not going to recite all those other stupid things because, well, I don't want to.
But your actions cannot be tolerated in the Detroit we're working so hard to rebuild. Not in a city where elected officials have let us down in recent history. Not in a Legislature that people distrust so much they KO'd a bill to FIX ROADS. Not in a state where actions like yours can spur a groundswell of unfair criticism of your colleagues of color, even though none of them fired a shot Sunday morning.
