LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
truth: as a result of the ongoing financial crisis, we are not
investing nearly enough in our
children’s safety or in their future opportunities. As Brendan
O’Flaherty, a Columbia economics professor says, “Why would
you decide that the first thing you
want to cut is police and education? You’re eating the young.”
And while Newark’s problems
first and foremost affect those
who live and work in the city, John
puts the story in a national context. There’s nothing left-wing
or right-wing about wanting to
ensure that our children grow up
without the threat of gang violence and drive-by shootings, yet
there is complete partisan gridlock
around the quest for solutions
that involve government action.
Mayor Cory Booker, for his part,
has sought to discredit such a dismissive approach to government.
The idea “that government is destructive, that government hurts
communities and hurts people…
that’s patently not true,” he says.
And by exploring the mayor’s complicated relationship with Newark’s
police union, John provides an insightful glimpse into the workings
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of city government—a mix of individuals and groups navigating an
imperfect and ever-shifting landscape of competing interests and
limited budgets.
Most memorably, John introduces us to the police
officers who patrol
the 7.5 square miles
There’s
of burned-out buildnothing
ings and empty lots
left-wing or
where 80 percent of
right-wing
Newark’s shootings
about wanting
take place. There’s
to ensure that
Samuel DeMaio, who
our children
over three decades
grow up
rose from beat cop to
without gang
police director, takviolence.”
ing over just as the
city suffered its most
deadly summer in 20 years. And
Al Burroughs, the police lieutenant who sums up the department’s burden as if speaking not
only for the Newark PD, but for
the whole country: “The bottom
line is that we’ve got
to do more with less.”
ARIANNA