I've Got Some Comments to Take Back

Over in the comments at Matthew Yglesias' blog about a month ago, I was very critical of Newark (NJ) mayor Cory Booker for falling into the same trap that officials in high crime areas tend to fall into - by escalating the war on drugs and lashing out about the lack of cooperation in the community. I may have been premature on my criticisms. Booker appears to be getting it in a big way:

For Booker, it has been a sobering first year as mayor. When he swore his oath last summer he was the whiz kid, the fast-talking Rhodes scholar with a million strategies to make the city safe. He pinned everything on that.

Now he is staring into this abyss, and it's leaving a mark on him. He is an angrier man now. And the focus of that anger is a public policy that he believes is ruining his city and threatening his hopes to change it.

The problem, he says, is New Jersey's tough tactics in the drug war. We are heavy on jail time and unforgiving even when prisoners finish their terms. At a time when even states like Texas are changing course, we are sticking with our failed strategy.

The result is to turn thousands of young men into economic cripples and to give the crime wave in Newark a flood of fresh recruits. Booker describes it as almost an economic genocide against African-American men in his city.

Mayors like Booker really don't have a lot of options. The article describes how for many in the state legislature, funneling large amounts of black people into prison is still a way to win votes. But Booker and others can be more open about what they're discovering. Some of us are listening.