A picture of James Davis, the man, emerged immediately; he seems by all accounts to have been a wonderful visionary with all of the best intentions. A victim of police brutality early in life, he became a police officer, an indication of how this man approached the challenges in his life.
Another thing that speaks volumes about this man is his relationship with the man who would eventually assassinate him. When Othniel Askew approached him recently as a potential political rival, Councilman Davis seems to have taken him under his wing and befriended him. On that Wednesday , when Askew came to Davis' office to join him at City Hall, Davis welcomed him and brought him along, apparently vouching for him as they bypassed security. This was a man he believed he could trust. People of honor sometimes make the mistake of assuming others are honorable too.
Councilman Davis was reported to be a man of strong convictions and fierce determination. He was a crusader who wasn't afraid to speak his mind. It appears that he was the victim of Mayor Bloomberg as well, having lost his seat on the Cultural Affairs Committee after voting against the recent property tax hike. Davis claimed at the time that this was a direct reaction to his vote and that the Mayor had threatened retribution to anyone who voted against the hike. In addition, while the Mayor's claim to fame seems to be his ability to hassle smokers and those who sell cigarettes, his time in office will go down in history as having hosted the first murder in City Hall.
With James Davis' death, however, an image emerges of the life of a gentle, intelligent man with real vision for what the future could be. Here was a man committed to ending inner city violence, a man who devoted his life to making this city a better place to live. How ironic it is that he would wind up martyred by the very sort violence he was working to prevent, a huge, blinking neon sign pointing us to the real problems facing us. For just that last fillip of tragic absurdity, it seems that Davis was known to have carried a weapon himself, and had one on his person the day of the murder. He had no time to use it, however, for his own protection that day. What a loss for this city.
The past couple of years have been terribly hard on us. We New Yorkers have had a lot to deal with and there is probably more to come. No one can ever say we are quitters, though. In a city that is always on the move, and with a future yet to be laid out, I look forward to learning the lessons left on my doorstep by the tragic events of September 11th, the antics of Mayor Bloomberg and the senseless death of James Davis, one of so many other things that make no sense. And becoming a better person in spite of - or, perhaps, because of - them.
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