Pressure had been building on the
Mount Vernon leader. Scrutiny had been mounting. Whispers about his demise had
risen to a crescendo. But Mayor Ernie Davis, recently heard crying about his
fate in a radio interview, is staying put. It is his police commissioner who is
leaving.
As staff reporters Ned Rauch and
Will David first reported on lohud.com on Tuesday, Carl Bell was
unceremoniously fired as police commissioner, effective Friday, let go by an
embattled mayor who decided “it wasn’t working out.” The departure of the
highest-ranking black law enforcement official in Westchester widens a gulf in
leadership in a city sorely needing a steady hand.
Well regarded in police circles,
Bell was a holdover from the Clinton Young administration, appointed in July
2010. That made him a target in Davis’ City Hall, notwithstanding a reported 7
percent drop in crime between 2011-12, when the city was just emerging from the
Great Recession. The commissioner told The Journal News that Davis said Bell
didn’t understand politics.
Maybe not these politics.
The ouster comes as Davis has
plenty else on his plate. Federal investigators, in an ever-expanding probe,
have been looking into Davis’ financial dealings, real estate holdings, and
nonprofits he established during his previous terms in office. Two of Davis’
former secretaries have been subpoenaed. Davis, mayor for 13 of the past 17
years, clearly has been feeling the heat.
Columnist Phil Reisman wrote
Sunday about Davis’ travails, as evidenced in a recent radio interview on WVOX:
“Then he [Davis] spoke of his enemies, the press and prosecutors from the U.S.
Attorney’s Office — people he perceives as evil and hellbent on smearing his
reputation.”
He quoted Davis, whom he said
broke down and wept during the interview: “There are so many evil people in
high places. Even when you show the truth, they’re not interested in the
truth.”
In another interview, Davis told
The Journal News: “All I’m guilty of is bad management. I should hire a
management company. Maybe I would do better.”
So it was a surprise to see Bell
go, at least now, even with the city’s continuing struggles with gun violence
and other crime.
“It’s unfortunate that the Mayor
has refused to focus on his own investigation and undermined the positive
direction that Commissioner Bell was taking the department,” Damon Jones, head
of the Westchester Chapter of Blacks in Law Enforcement of America, said in a
statement. He added that the move jeopardized public safety and “weakened the
already stressed relations between the community and its police department.”
One thing it will not do: make
anyone forget Mayor Davis’ troubles.
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