[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]I heard a talk this morning from the most impressive, soundest thinking woman I have encountered since meeting my wife.
She wielded a rhetorical bat with sufficient seriousness and authority to shut the mouths of a room full of defensive-minded people primed to howl “We are victims.”
The setup was classic.
[img]1563|left|Jackie Lacey||no_popup[/img]You want red meat? We pledge to serve it.
For the second time in four months, the very successful 13-year-old Urban Issues Breakfast Forum returned to a popular theme in non-white communities – too many persons who look like them are behind bars.
Or as the unsubtle publicity read:
Please join us as we discuss the potential impact of prison realignment on the African American and Latino communities, as well as possible solutions to jail overcrowding due to incarceration being used as a form of social control. The discussion will focus on what alternatives to incarceration can be implemented by the County of Los Angeles to ease overcrowding and the continued disproportionate incarceration of black and Latino youth.
At the risk of being picayune:
The last nine of those 68 noisy words were written to bring in the yahoo crowd – “The continued disproportionate incarceration of black and Latino youth.”
Given the agenda, I believe many in the audience of two hundred glossed over the critical phrase and focused on those nine distracting horn-honking words in the message.
Whoa, Guys. Wrong Direction.
Except she never talked about that.
Eschewing the fire engine nonsense, she delineated creative, road-ready solutions intended to put a cap on the runaway rate of recidivism – which does not sound nearly as sexy as the message that was marquee’d.
Unaware of that, the crowd hungrily dashed to the breakfast event at Regency West in Leimert Park Village and hunkered down, eager to pounce on anyone who denied they were victims of the justice system.
Instead of raw meat, though, she served them classy caviar – in a soothing voice, cerebrally underpinned by sophisticated thinking, presenting deeply reasoned-tested-proven alternatives intended to stem the frightening numbers of first-crime ex-cons who inevitably make a u-turn to prison or jail.
And Then Just for Yucks
It is a vast loss for the governing structure of Los Angeles, and residents, that Jackie Lacey only is running for Mrs. District Attorney of Los Angeles County rather than Mayor of Los Angeles.
A black woman liberal who stimulates the souls of her audience rather than appealing to their baser instincts – the typical agenda at a Democrat event – is more rare than dinosaurs in North America than dinosaurs.
Fifty-five years old, Ms. Lacey is the Chief Deputy District Attorney running against a colleague, Alan Jackson, for the job of top prosecutor, now held by Steve Cooley.
Half an hour after her instructive 22-minute talk – which soon should be YouTubed – Ms. Lacey sprinted over to City Hall.
What followed was ripped from the pages of Saturday Night Live, endorsements from a gaggle of guys who could have tumbled out of the nearest beer bar:
Mayor I Love Me, or as he is more correctly known, Obama West, and four Me-Too’s from the City Council, President Herb Wesson, Dennis Zine, Mayoralty candidate Jan Perry and Paul Koretz.
Five times zero still adds up to nothing.
Once again America’s worst but most harmless mayor brought the imagination of a dandelion to the press conference:
“What's clear about Jackie is she knows how to get the job done. She's got the experience, the leadership to continue the good work, the fine work, of the district attorney's office.”
No hint that she is special. The same old dribble he drooled down the chin of his latest girlfriend.
He copied the dreary words from a Wheaties box.
The intellectual difference between Obama West and Ms. Lacey is that he eats the Wheaties and she owns the company.
(To be continued)