Newark Mayor Helps Bust Drug Deal

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is famous for his dedication, his drive and his general lack of sleep (the guy frequently whispers sweet nothings to his coffee via Twitter). He's always on. He's a pragmatist's reformer, not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. And he's making a significant dent in Newark's crime rates... a significant and personal dent.

There's that time in 2006 when he and his security detail chased down a mugger outside city hall. And today, as Mayor Booker was traveling from block party to block party, he helped bust a drug deal. Booker wrote on his Twitter page:

On bbq circuit & observed a drug transaction. Officers I'm with stopped vehicle. Arrested some1 from White House Station for heroin purchase

White House Station is a wealthy suburb about half an hour to the west on Route 78. The Mayor continued:

Folks buy drugs in Nwk & have no idea how much violence & distruction they contribute 2.This purchase was right in front of bout 12 children

From the New York State Senate to Mark Sanford and beyond, so many of our public officials have been disappointing us with their selfishness in the last few weeks. And while there are a lot of good, hardworking politicians who don't go chasing down criminals, Mayor Booker's selfless devotion to Newark still ought to be recognized. The man is three years into his first term, and only recently did he take an extended trip away from the city (and much of it was spent attending meetings for the benefit of Newark).

So, thank you, Cory Booker. On behalf of everybody.

Follow John R. Bohrer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JRBwrites

Comments

[weatherwaxx]

Good grief, a genuine public servant.

[modwiz]

I am somewhat ambivalent about this story. If the puchaser or even perhaps a street level non-violent provider of heroin goes to jail it makes me want to puke. Now if the pusher has past arrest for truly sociopathic behavior like robbery,rape,burglary,car theft,assault,extortion.OK point made? Then get that creep off the streets with my taxes paying for it and it's all good. But the poor bastard trying to kill whatever pain is eating them? Please, enough with wasting my tax dollars. Kids saw it? Let them know how ill advised a path the purchaser was pursuing. The nightly news regularly shows disturbing footage. For chrissakes watching whoever it is that MSNBC shows getting waterboarded is something I continually have to avert my eyes from to save me from imprinting that image in my neurons. I like the Mayor of Newark but still am not applauding this story. It just make our current draconian drug laws seem just fine.

[weatherwaxx]

If the money from the street-level sales were not going to enrich the sociopathic organizations that make millions off illegal drugs, it would be one thing. But there's no level of drug dealing that is not involved with violence, and the violent, drug-related crime in Mexico is on the increase.. and it's crossing over into California and other SWestern states.

Waterboarding is hideous, but that doesn't make drug dealing okay.

Personally, I'm for making marijuana legal -- it's a wonderfully useful herb for glaucoma and dealing with chemotherapy, and only the pharmaceutical companies benefit from its continuing illegality. No study I know of has ever shown it to be any worse than alcohol. Coca leaves - another good herb, used for centuries in Peru. Refining it into cocaine was a bad move.

Either way, I'd rather see a mayor doing something useful instead of just showing off.

[progressiveinga]

Dedicated and smart, too. Graduated from Stanford, Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law. We need more politicians like him running our cities. Thanks Mayor Booker.