Charles in charge?

Not surprisingly, I got a lot of reaction to my piece last week about Tony Williams and his remarkably rapid and not especially convincing odyssey from establishment pol to the drumbeat of #BlacksLivesMatter. The objection was largely one of hypocrisy -- most of the positions that Williams has adopted in the waning days of the race, such as ending unchecked use of stop-and-frisk, are good ideas, actually. But what about the flippity floppity centerpiece -- Williams' new stance that he'd replace police commissioner Charles Ramsey?

As a history freak, it's funny to see the past repeat, sort of. In the city's epic mayoral race of 1967 (No, I wasn't there... I was probably at the drug store buying Mad Magazine), the key issue became whether to keep the city's law-and-order icon, Frank Rizzo, as commissioner; the largely uninspiring incumbent Mayor James Tate rode that to victory over a future U.S. senator, Arlen Specter. Now 2015 is 1967 through the looking glass, as the goal becomes to be seen as the strongest on civil liberties, not on locking folks up.

That said, it seems like the Ramsey issue is a giant red herring. Why would Ramsey want to stick around for long, when after a long career here and in D.C. and as chief of President Obama's task force on "21st Century Policing" (the politically correct term for not killing so many unarmed black youths), he could write his own ticket in the private sector? Or retire (he's 65-ish). Either way, I'd have to think the last thing he wants is four more years of this (bleep), with a new boss no less.

But should he at least be asked to stay on the job? I voiced considerable concern about Ramsey when Mayor Nutter hired him after his election in 2007, largely because his legacy in dealing with protesters in D.C. during the Bush era had been abysmal. But his record here has been quite the opposite; during Ramsey's tenure the city has -- for the most part -- been a role model for the rest of America on how to allow 1st-Amendment protests and avoid confrontation.

Murder rates have fallen sharply in the last couple of years, in line with the national average. One of the worst festering problems has been police corruption -- a scenario that's now playing out with six allegedly dirty cops on trial in a Philly courtroom. Ramsey has been tougher than any of his predecessors in acting on bad-apple cops, only to see his actions routinely tossed by a joke of an arbitration system.

All this makes Tony Williams' blatantly political pronouncement more laughable. Police reform in the city isn't much a function of the commissioner...because it's the system that's rotten. And that system gets changed on a higher level, by a mayor and City Council willing to stand up to the FOP and enact wiser laws and policies that will curb mass incarceration and find the balance between keeping communities safe and making them feel like occupation zones.

If you want better police, elect a better mayor. The Ramsey thing will take care of itself.