RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events the 2020 Democrat primary candidates

I’ve read up on Buttigieg and unemployment went down while he was in charge. He was also re-elected by a huge margin. He did not file for bankruptcy multiple times or have to dissolve any charities he ran. We don’t have to worry about him putting his son-in-law in charge of an Israeli & Palestine peace plan either. He hasn’t caught on with African Americans yet but I can remember Obama not winning them over right away either. It is something he will have to do to beat Trump though if he became the democratic nominee.

Pete Buttigieg is rising in the Democratic presidential polls on his rhetorical gifts, distinctive resumé and fund-raising prowess. But the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has so far largely received a pass on his government record from the press and even other Democrats. That isn’t likely to continue, and a good place to start is his trouble controlling violent crime.

Violence has dropped sharply throughout the U.S. over the past two decades as a result of improved policing, more incarceration and demographic changes. But crime rates have diverged among cities with similar demographics based on local policies. South Bend, with a population of 102,000 and poverty rate of 25%, has one of the poorer records.

Since Mr. Buttigieg became mayor in 2012, the city’s violent crime has surged 70% compared to about 10% Indiana-wide. Violent crime has declined 2% in the U.S. in the same period despite a transient uptick in 2015 and 2016 amid a backlash against police following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

South Bend police say a change in how data was reported to the FBI in 2016 caused aggravated assaults to spike that year. But violence has continued to increase in the city while declining in other mid-sized cities in Indiana. Last year the violent crime rate in South Bend was higher than in Chicago.

Mr. Buttigieg says violence in South Bend is comparable to cities with similar poverty.
But the poverty rate in Evansville, Indiana, is 2.1 percentage points lower than in South Bend, yet its violent crime is about half as high.
Gary, Indiana, has a poverty rate of 36%, though its violent crime rate is 50% lower than in South Bend.
Violent crime in South Bend dropped during the recession and hit a nadir in 2012. But it has climbed since Mr. Buttigieg became mayor. This raises questions about competence and priorities because a mayor’s foremost responsibility is to protect public safety.

The causes are hard to pinpoint. But one persistent problem is a longstanding lack of trust between police and the community that Mr. Buttigieg hasn’t improved. He demoted the city’s first black police chief in 2012 amid an FBI investigation into his taping phone calls of white officers. Maybe the demotion was justified, but many in the community weren’t convinced.

The millennial mayor then hired a white police chief from New Bedford, Massachusetts., who shared his technocratic tendencies but was opposed by rank-and-file officers and the City Council. Mr. Buttigieg wasn’t able to build consensus, which might have eased racial tension. The new chief resigned after three years without progress reducing crime.

Current chief Scott Ruszkowski is well-liked by officers and minorities, but he has also failed to stanch the bloodshed or improve police morale. One reason may be the mayor’s progressive law-enforcement policies such as body cameras and implicit-bias training that have made officers wary of confrontation.

After a white officer fatally shot a black man in June, Mayor Pete rebuked police recruits: “In our past and present, we have seen innumerable moments in which racial injustice came at the hands of those trusted with being instruments of justice.” He also sent an email to campaign supporters saying “All police work and all of American life takes place in the shadow of racism.”

That was a bow to the national social-justice left but it didn’t help morale among cops on the streets in South Bend. The city has struggled to recruit police officers and has 15 fewer than budgeted for next year. The shortage has made it harder to patrol communities and respond to calls.

Many potential recruits fail the required written exam, and they aren’t helped by South Bend’s schools. The city’s high school graduation rate has declined to 77%—about 11 points lower than statewide—from 83% in 2015. Failing schools may also be contributing to higher crime since most violence is perpetrated by young men who aren’t in school or employed.

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In Wednesday’s debate, Mr. Buttigieg contrasted his experience in what he called a “small” city with the “small” politics of Washington. It was a shrewd play to become the fresh outsider voice. But the issue isn’t that South Bend is small so much as what he did with the opportunity to lead.

Mayor Pete served for eight years as an intelligence officer in the Navy, including seven months in Afghanistan, and worked as a consultant at McKinsey. But his government experience is limited to running South Bend. Democratic voters will want to inspect that record before they anoint him as the great millennial hope to defeat Donald Trump.