C.O.P.S.: A Democratic Homeland Security Program (by Anthony Weiner at HuffPost)

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Rep. Anthony Weiner


05.01.2007
C.O.P.S.: A Democratic Homeland Security Program (12 comments )

No candidate for office can get elected nowadays without having a plan to keep their community safe from terrorism. And, while the administration in Washington and many of their partisans have raised the politics of fear to new heights, it doesn't diminish the need for Democrats to have a well thought out response to the question: "How do you keep us as safe as possible?"

Democrats faced a similar challenge in 1993 when asked about the rise in drug-fueled street crime.

Then, like now, Democrats were looked at skeptically by the electorate as being weak on crime. The infamous "Willy Horton" ads, which George H.W. Bush had used to sink Michael Dukakis' campaign for president in 1988, left voters with the impression that Democrats were incapable of tamping crime down.

But one term later, Democrats, lead by Bill Clinton, answered with the most far reaching and innovative federal anti-crime initiative ever -- the C.O.P.S. program. It did the most intuitive thing -- it hired more than 100,000 beat cops. It worked. It put police in every neighborhood, town and city. It brought crime down. And it changed the electorate's perception of Democrats.

Now the C.O.P.S. program is again the solution to the substantive challenge our nation faces and the political hurdles we as Democrats face in the wake of 9/11. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-anthony-weiner/cops-a-democratic-ho_b_47389.html