Michelle Wu wins at deflecting, dismissing critics

There’s being woke, and then there’s being woke to the point of insomnia.

Mayor Michelle Wu has reached that level of progressive nirvana with her latest masterful deflection of criticism.

Over the weekend, Wu endorsed former colleague City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo for Suffolk District Attorney. Arroyo, as the Herald reported, is a former public defender and has no law enforcement experience.

A mayor can endorse whoever he or she wants. They should, however, be willing to address substantive criticism of their move.

“In all the ways he has served this community, not only on the City Council, not only as Chair of one of the most powerful committees on the City Council, steering legislation in that government operations role, but as someone who has been the last line of defense in an unjust system as a public defender,” said Wu.

But the DA’s job is playing offense, not defense, a discrepancy pointed out by Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden, who is also running for the post.

“If Mayor Wu believes a novice attorney with zero public safety experience should be the top law enforcement officer in the county, that’s her choice,” Hayden spokesman Adam Webster said.

Asking about experience, it seems, is on the “does not fly” list for progressives. Wu, speaking on the radio Monday, said comments about “someone not being old enough or experienced enough… is code and signal for upholding the status quo.” If the status quo is choosing experienced people for the job, then yes. But “the status quo” itself is code for “a non-progressive system.”

Wu cited former DA Rachael Rollins as the role model for the job. “We want to see the types of reforms that former District Attorney Rollins had put into effect, which have been documented through research and data to bring about outcomes that, in fact, reduce crime and heal communities and stabilize and reduce recidivism,” Wu said.

No matter how one feels about her politics, Rollins, now U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, came to her DA job with impressive experience. She was a field attorney at the National Labor Relations Board, participated in a District Attorney rotation in Plymouth County at the Brockton District Court and joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts as an assistant United States Attorney, to name a few.

Rollins’ actions may have generated criticism and pushback, but they were informed by her experience in the field.

Experience matters. It seemed to when Wu was running for mayor. She noted on her web site “from working in City Hall for Mayor Tom Menino, and on my former law professor Senator Elizabeth Warren’s first campaign, I saw how government and politics can help solve problems, remove barriers, and empower people.” Experience teaches.

To dismiss the questioning of a candidate’s experience, or lack thereof, as a “code” for “upholding the status quo” is disingenuous at best.

This is not to malign Arroyo, and in defending her choice, all Wu had to do was to say that yes, Arroyo has no experience in law enforcement, but here is what he brings to the table and why that makes up for not having had his boots on prosecutorial ground.

It’s a legitimate line of inquiry. Mayor Wu owes it to Bostonians to respond to criticism, without disparaging critics as “trolls in the comment section” or those who hide behind “codes.”