San Diego, CALIF- "He poses a great threat to the community as there are over 200 individuals, citizens in the community of Little Italy who cannot go home; they have essentially lost everything." -Deputy District Attorney Nereida Melgarejo 

Deputy District Attorney Nereida Melgarejo didn't mince words regarding 37-year-old Francisco Morales and his danger to the community.

Morales is accused flooding 1810 State street, a luxurious eight story apartment building in Little Italy. He has pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges.

The following piece was co-written by Independent Voting President Jacqueline Salit and Independent Voter Project Attorney Chad Peace, in remembrance of the late Patrick Cadell. Caddell was a broadly-respected political pollster and pundit. He served as a consultant for President Jimmy Carter and other presidential candidates, including drafting a strategy memo for independent Ross Perot in 1992, and appeared regularly as an on-air commentator for Fox News. Caddell passed away on February 16 after suffering a stroke.

The lead story in Wednesday’s Washington Post, was written by two reporters telling us what might happen to Democratic candidates running for president, in a race that doesn’t end until November 3, 2020 — a mere 615 days away.

You might say I’m a political junkie, but I’m not reading speculative junk by two reporters about a subject I may know more about than they — if being in and around politics for 53 years counts for anything.

“The establishment of democracy on the American continent was scarcely as radical a break with the (European) past as was the necessity, which Americans faced, of broadening the concept to include black men.”-  James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son"

From the founding onward, race has been the American fulcrum, the nexus by which the country is united or divided, with the African American community pivotal in the long struggle for a broad-based inclusive American democracy. Race and place perpetually intertwine here.