position. South Bend is too small for isolated bad things to get lost in the daily tornado (as it would in NYC or Los Angeles etc) and yet too big for bad shit to NOT happen. Plus, unlike a Representative or a Senator, (and especially because SB has a strong mayor system), Pete is on the line for basically EVERYTHING that happens there.
He perhaps should have resigned this spring when he announced for POTUS. I have read extensively on the SB PD problems. That transparency hub website they have shows the absolute nightmare they have trying to hire and retain qualified minorities for their police force. The wash-out rate is insane. South bend is also small enough that it is like a giant high school in terms of grudges, axes to grind, and old rivalries and hatreds that just sit there and fester. All his enemies from the last 8 years have been empowered by a national press (especially the Bernie/Young Turks prog disruptor crowd who have just CAMPED down there digging up dirt, they are still at it too) to kneecap any national hopes he had. They make is seem like Buttigieg took a paradise and turned it into Iraq, ffs.
South Bend is RADICALLY better off for all races, all cultures at basically all large systemic levels than it was right before he took over. Obviously there are some lagging indicators, especially amongst my fellow PoC, and some tragedies have occurred but overall they too, are much better off as well. Boykins, that demoted chief was NOT a tragedy, and the only mistake Pete made was to call it the biggest mistake he made, as looking at the case in depth, there is no way that is the case. That bloke was also doing dodgy and illegal (so far every court has said so) shit, he was no angel at all, and he chose to stay on for years and retired with a full pension in 2017.
There is still a lot of work to be done in South Bend, but it is utterly ridiculous to say he did not make a massively positive impact on the city.
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