Legal Commentary

A Mayor Breaks the 'Tough on Crime' Mold

By TChris

Most mayors go out of their way to be publicly supportive of the police because they think it's the politically smart course of action. Not Richmond, California's Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. When the Richmond Police Department was patting itself on the back for the role it played in a coordinated effort to execute search and arrest warrants that targeted gang members in the San Francisco Bay area, McLaughlin questioned the department's celebratory tone.

"While I understand that this action was addressing criminal activity, I do have concerns about the collateral damage and how this will be mitigated," McLaughlin wrote in an e-mail to the Times. "For example, oftentimes grandparents let their grandkids stay with them and they themselves are not involved in any criminal activity, yet they had their homes descended upon by hundreds of police. That can be traumatizing for innocent people."

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Unless they are too dramatic to ignore, public officials almost never acknowledge the collateral damage of aggressive warrant executions. Kudos to McLaughlin for questioning the blind assumption that violent law enforcement tactics are the best response to gang violence.

In a city where violent crime perennially ranks among issues most on voters' minds, the Police Department often can't work in a word after a flashy enforcement operation, with elected officials clamoring for credit and competing to appear toughest on crime in the public eye. But McLaughlin, a Green Party member elected in 2006 to the nonpartisan mayor's seat, breaks the mold in many ways.

McLaughlin recognizes that law enforcement has a role to play in curbing gang violence, but understands that it should be "part of a larger, layered approach to fighting crime that includes enforcement, intervention and prevention." And she's not afraid of the inevitable criticism that she's "soft on crime."

Richmond voters appreciate McLaughlin's willingness to stand up to the police department. Her opposition to the department's purchase of tasers and to its "driver's license checkpoints" (believed by many residents to target Latino drivers) is popular with much of the community.

Let's hope that voters everywhere are finally willing to reward politicians who think being smart on crime is more sensible than being mindlessly tough on crime.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 23, 2008 (boomark / email).