Washington Post April 2023

Eric Johnson, is a 47 year-old Mayor of Dallas, Texas. The demographis for the city of Dallas read, 70% white and 30% black. He is the second black Mayor elected in the city’s history and one of two to win reelection. The first to win a reelection was by weird coincident, his name was—Eric Johsson.

According to the story in the Washington Post by columnist, Karen Tumlty, Eric Johnson was a precocious kid from a rough West Dallas neighborhood whose drive and intelligence was so impressive his first grade teacher helped him to get a scholarship to an elite private school, where he thrived.

Thanks to teachers like his, he went on to earn three Ivy League degrees. In 2023 teachers are still under appreciated and the most underpaid public servants in America. Thanks to politicians who are putting limitations on what they can teach (CRT) teachers are leaving the profession as if someone yelled, “FIRE.”

Proving again, how accurate the quote was from my friend, baseball great, Hank Aaron. He said, “A man is only limited by his lack of opportunities.”

Johnson, returned home to spend almost a decade serving in the State House of Representatives as a progressive Democrat known as a champion of civil rights. He, never forgot where he came from.

Johnson as a young man in the House of Representatives was the new kid on the block but still he led a successful campaign to remove an offensive and historically inaccurate plague asserting, “The Civil War was not a Rebellion nor its underlying cause was to substaine slavery.” The plague was found on the wall near his office in the State Capitol and was last seen in a trash can!

As we celebrate Juneteeth 2023 he has not forgotten, Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, January 6th and Donald Trump.

Johnson, always seem to be a step ahead of the other politicians. He was expected to run for Congress at some point, but he surprised pretty much everyone by making a late entry instead into a nine-candidate, nonopartisant mayoral race in 2019.

He found allies in the Dallas business community, one of his biggest supporters was Ray Hunt, a billionaire oilman. Hunt was dazzled by Johnson the first time they met and decideded he was the man to lead the city!–he beat a veteran city council member in a runoff.

In his early days as Mayor, few would have predicted he would be a sure bet to win reelection.

Johnson, took names and called out incompetent city leaders, black, white, Democrat and Republican. He clashed with city council members, he endorsed some of their opponents in the 2021 election.

Johnson was the city’s second black Mayor, he did not let that hold him back by tiptoing through the tuplips. No one was off limits, The city’s first black female police chief, U. Renee Hall who on her way out pronounced herself “Offended” and “Exhausted” by Johnson’s attacks on her job performance.

His battles with the City Manager, T. C. Broadax–whose office, under Dallas’s system of government, held more day-to-day governing power than the Mayor’s–many think it could have been made into a Tony Award winning Soap opera for daytime television. Their clases could have given “The Days of Our Lives and Victor Newman” a run for their money.

According to the Washington Post, Johnson had a secret weapon that leaders in other big cities had no clue how to attack–CRIME!

When he took office, violent crime was rising in Dallas to levels not seen since the 1990s. His tactics of reducing crime may need to be refined such as deployng “violent interrupters” to resolve street-level conflicts and guide those who need them to social services, and cleaning up bllighted areas, such as trash-filled vacant lots and dilapidated buildings, where crime can breed–he has taken the risk to implement the changes for a better Dallas.

The new Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia had a plan where he would work closely with criminologists at the University of Texas at San Antonia. The plan refocused policing in Dallas on “Hot Spots.” The chief would divide the city into 101,000 “micro-grids”–areas roughly the size of two-football fields!

He discovered that crime was heavily concentrated into a relatively few: an apartment complex or a nightclub parking lot. Just 50 of those hot spots accounted for 10%of violent street crime in the city of Dallas.

In these high risk areas the department will sent police to sit with their emergency lights or where 10-officer crime response teams were dispatched (he remembers Tyre Nichols in Memphis).

The approach could be polarizing, given that hot spots tend to be in communities of color. But statistics suggest it is working. My question, “At what cost relating to the lives of law-enforcement and innocent by standers?”

Of the nations largest cities, Dallas appears to be the only one to buck the trend of rising crime; in each of the past two years, statistics for murders, rapes, and aggravated assualts have gone down. Further more, the Dallas Morning News noted, the number of arrests last year dropped by 19%. The naysayerswill say, “Crime numbers are volatile and that different jurisdictions collect them differently, making comparisons across cities are imprecise. In the early months of this year, the surge in one category–homicide had increased again in Dallas.

Mayor Johnson is obsessed by data, says, “I am confident that the trend is real, and that it is holding. I am either the luckiest mayor in the United States or this stuff actually works.”

Ras J. Baraka is the 40th Mayor of the City of Newark.

MAKING COPS AND PEOPLE WORK IN NEWARK

Ras J. Baraka is a native of Newark, New Jersey, his family has lived in the City for more than 80 years, Mayor Baraka’s progressive approach to governing has won him accolades from grassroots organizations to the White House. With a forward-thinking agenda that reduced crime to its lowest levels in five decades, he addressed affordability while maintaining steady growth, lowered unemployment, returned local control of schools after more than two decades, and replaced all 23,000 known lead service lines in less than three years at no cost to residents, Baraka has defied expectations since taking office in 2014.

Mayor Baraka’s futurist agenda has included the implementation of a groundbreaking partnership called Hire. Buy. Live. Newark, a program that marks the first time that any US city has sought to transform its economy by combining employment, procurement, and residential strategies.

As part of his commitment to strengthen Newark’s position in the expanded technology space, the City launched LinkNWK (pronounced Link Newark). This communications network of sidewalk kiosks provides Newark residents and visitors with free, gigabit Wi-Fi, mobile device charging, phone calls to anywhere in the U.S., access to municipal services, maps and directions, and real-time local information on city streets at no cost to taxpayers or users. Additionally, broadband and Wi-Fi have been extended to city parks and recreation centers, and the City seeks to ensure that every resident has access to free or very low-cost broadband to bridge the digital divide.

Mayor Baraka is recognized nationally as a thought leader in the space of urban revitalization, and his commitment to reducing crime in Newark, reimagining public safety, tackling the city’s housing crisis, and developing innovative and community-driven approaches to eliminating income inequality has solidified his status as one of the country’s most progressive elected officials.

What is the secret to the success of Mayors Johnson and Baraka as black politicians? First, neither was born with Silver Spoons in their mouths.

Johnson was born and raised on the rough side of town in Dallas and Baraka is the apple that did not fall too far from the tree. His father Amiri and his mother Amina were activist and educators on the front lines in the Civil Rights struggle.

Mayor Baraka outlined a strategy he called “Occupy the Block” which is aimed at the crime in the city. A single city block is selected where he, others including law-enforcement will “hold court” — setting up tables and chairs for chess, cards, and open discussion on anything from the city’s youth to the violence they too often experience.

Officers Friendly: Montgomery County’s Finest Motorcycle Cops in “The Hood”

I remember there was one year during Mayor Baraka’s tenure, there was not a single shot fired by the Newark Police Department (unheard of in the inner-cities in this country).

The secret to their success according to INSIDERS–they listen to others! No such thing in the DMV.

The Mayor For Life–Marion Barry and I were friends/associates during his love affair with DC. I remember when he, Stokey Carmichael and H. Rap Brown all arrived in DC in 1965.

The legedary radio/TV personality Petey Greene and I were working for UPO aka United Planning Organization. UPO wa a self-help organization designed to reach back into the Black Community to help us to help ourselves. H. Rap would join me and Petey as a “Neighborhood Worker” for UPO in the Cardozo U Street corridor.

COMMUNITY FORUM

L-R Roland Harris- Congressman Walter Faultroy-Petey Greene–HBell-DC Police Chief Bertell Jefferson

HARD OF HEARING LEADERSHIP

Mayor Marion Barry was forwarned, but he still allowed “The Bitch to Set Him Up.”

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing was forewarned that being the Mayor of Detroit was “A Dead End Street!”

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser was forwarned Peter Newsome “Would not be a good chief for DC.” Mayor Bowser is now looking for her third chief and no one wants the job-not even the intrim!

Prince Georges County Executive Jack Johnson forwarned “Authories were closing in”

Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrooks forwarned “Made the switch to a new Police Chief.“

The late Congressman John Lewis defined TROUBLE MAKERS, Mayors, Johnson and Baraka in the best sense of the word–they make “GOOD TROUBLE“.

I was honored that Congressman Lewis was a member of my team when I campaigned successfully to have NFL great Willie Wood and NBA Pioneer Earl Lloyd inducted into their hall of fames after being denied entry. Curt Flood, Dick Allen, Maury Wills and Johnny Sample are still on the outside looking in!

Green Bay Packer and NFL Hall Fame great, Willie Wood says “Thank You” to legendary sports columnist Dick Heller.

NBA legend, Red Auerbach and I campaign for NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd.

If you are going to make TROUBLE make “GOOD TROUBLE!”