Hoo boy. Not even a week into service, and brand-new Detroit City Councilman George Cushingberry, Jr. — feel free to use any "Cush/kush" jokes you'd like — was pulled over for suspicion of drunken driving, and found riding with alcohol and marijuana. But the officer who pulled him and another passenger over let them go.
We just talked about Cushingberry yesterday after he or someone else posted on his blog that revamped GPS-tracking services were coming to the Detroit Department of Transportation. One would think that an advocate for public transportation wouldn't be caught doing misdeeds in a car? Maybe not.
Per reports, 61-year-old Cushingberry and his assistant were leaving the Penthouse Lounge on the city's west side on Wednesday night. Some earlier reports said he was leaving a strip club, but Cushingberry took time to clear that up on his Facebook page: "We never saw a tit; there were no tits involved."
Detroit Police pulled Cushingberry over in his 1993 Buick Park Avenue, a fine old-man car that's thankfully not city-owned. Cushingberry reportedly tried to flee and then refused to get out of the car even though the officer smelled liquor and weed.
The councilman, however, was issued a traffic citation and let go, prompting a still-ongoing internal investigation from Detroit Police Chief James Craig.
After news of the incident surfaced, Cushingberry took to social media and actual media to clear some things up. He believes he was profiled because he was driving while black in an older car; there was an old bottle of rum in his car from weeks ago; and his assistant has a valid medical marijuana card. As to why the car smelled of marijuana, Cushingberry wrote on Facebook that "my assistant likes pot, a lot."
He added that The Detroit News can remain in hell.