We find that there are some very big cities in which black police officers were duly elected mayor, of which two of those cities, Los Angeles and New York City, are two of the biggest and most important cities in America, where Tom Brady was mayor of Los Angeles, and Eric Adams was mayor of New York City. Similarly, there are other black police officers who have become mayors, such as Nathaniel Trives of Santa Monica, as well as Reginald Burgess of North Charleston.
The thing about policing is that policing is built around law and order, so that those that were formerly police officers, typically, are the very same that were part and parcel of imposing that law and order, which to a large extent, is something that those that are prominent within cities in the sense of not only power and influence, but also businesses and the like, are prone to favor those that implement policies that serve to protect well their assets and property, which signifies that they don’t care for a whole lot of protest, nonsense, or anything that will cause havoc within the city.
This signifies that because optics counts, it makes sense, therefore, to be seen as being a progressive city by having the major of such, be a person of color, which seems to suggest that prejudices and racism within that city are not a real issue, mainly because the person so democratically elected is a person of color. However, just because a person of color is the mayor of a given city, it needs to be acknowledged that to get to that position, or even be considered for that position, often necessitates that the nominee be in harmony with those that are the true power brokers of that city, which means, that the most salient reason why some cities elect black mayors that come from a policing background, has a lot to do with those mayors previously proving in action that they are able to toe the law and order line, as their sworn duty, which dovetails well with those that are the elites of cities, because their objective is to not only maintain what they already have, but also to enhance such, and riots, chaos, protests, and the like are typically not good for business or the image of a city.
While former black police officers who have subsequently been elected mayor are probably for the most part good and decent people, it needs to be acknowledged that as a former police officer, they understand authority and further to the point, they understand the supposed need for the citizenry of that community to adhere to that authority and because that is so, those in the know, are going to support such for mayor, because the optics look good, as in the perception that the community is progressive and fair, while also understanding well that where order needs to be imposed, that these former police officers will likely impose that order, all for the supposed good of the community and community safety.