Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown wants to be California’s next top cop.  Yet, after two terms in office, Brown has not done much to fundamentally change Oakland’s crime problems.  Today, he finally announced that he was putting 115 more cops on the streets after a rash of violent crime, which City Council President and mayoral candidate Ignacio de la Fuente calls a “crisis.”   (We have already had twice the number of  murders this year than we did this time last year.)

Brown has not been a failed mayor.  He took on the education establishment to get his military charter school established, has brought new economic development to the city and has generally not kowtowed to the factions that previously controlled Oakland’s government.  But he has failed to deal with the city’s crime problem.  If he hasn’t been effective with Oakland’s law enforcement, why should California voters put him in charge of statewide law enforcement?

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.