Israel Cason, president of “I Can?t We Can,” welcomed Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to his neighborhood on Wednesday with a bit of street slang:
“His word is bond,” said Cason, who runs a nonprofit organization dedicated to rehabilitating addicts.
Surrounded by graffitied buildings and boarded-up row homes, Steele spoke to a crowd of about 85 people as he announced his crime-fighting platform in Park Heights.
“We?ve got to protect this community,” he said. “We?ve got to protect the future.”
Steele announced a plan to fight gangs, drug trafficking, sex offenders and terrorists.
He drew applause from the crowd when he talked about compassion for drug criminals.
“Let?s not criminalize the addict; let?s help uplift the addict,” he said. “It is not enough to lock them up, you got to love them too.”
But as Steele talked about crime, he was also venturing politically onto Democrats? home turf: Baltimore City.
As part of Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s ticket in 2002, Steele received about 24 percent of the vote in Baltimore City.
After the event, Steele said in an interview with The Examiner that he expected a strong showing in Baltimore City.
He said Park Heights had withered from a “flourishing middle-class neighborhood” because of “neglect and blight” but didn?t want to point fingers at any particular politicians.
Park Heights resident Edward Williams, 45, said he liked what he heard from Steele?s speech and intended to vote for him.
“I?ve lived here for 40 years and [Steele] is right, our community does need help,” Williams said. “It?s about the person, not the party.”
Akilah Muhammed, 33, a Steele supporter, said she also believed that fellow city residents would vote for Steele.
Steele, a Republican, is running against U.S. Rep. Ben Cardin and former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, both Democrats, to succeed retiring Senator Paul Sarbanes.
Mfume?s campaign said the former congressman had been “talking about” homeland security in Maryland for more than a year.
“[Mfume] has consistently said that President Bush should have funded homeland security instead of funding the war in Iraq,” said campaign spokesman Steve Marinoff. “… We?re glad to hear that Maryland?s politicians are starting to echo our sentiments.”
The Cardin campaign pointed out that the congressman has received the endorsements of several of the state?s largest Fraternal Order of Police lodges, representing more than 4,000 police officers.
Ben Cardin “has a real record of partnering with community leaders and law enforcement officials to make our streets safer and our nation more secure,” said Oren Shur, Cardin?s spokesman.
