Marilyn Mosby Goes Vogue

We have been watching, with a skeptical eye, the doings of Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore States Attorney. Young, inexperienced and politically ambitious, Mosby may have sown the seeds of an unsuccessful–or worse, unjust–criminal prosecution by overcharging six police officers who were involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray. On the other hand, Ms. Mosby is undeniably attractive, a quality that could take her far.

Mosby is the subject of an adoring profile in this month’s Vogue, a venue not usually associated with district attorneys. This photo is by Annie Leibowitz:

marilyn-mosby-baltimore-prosecutor

The relentlessly left-wing Vogue knows what it is doing, of course. Its endorsement of Mosby’s rise is political:

A stunned cheer rose from the crowd as 35-year-old Mosby made her statement. The six officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, who had died in April from spinal injuries sustained in custody, would face 28 counts, ranging from false imprisonment to second-degree murder. In forceful language, Mosby described her department’s investigation and how the state’s medical examiner had ruled Gray’s death a homicide. She acknowledged the unrest in Baltimore, coming on the heels of police killings in other cities of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice. “I have heard your calls for ‘No justice, no peace,’” she said. “However, your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of Freddie Gray.”

But it is camouflaged by the magazine’s usual chatter about fashion:

Dressed in a simple pantsuit, sleeveless blouse, and not a trace of makeup, Mosby is warm and willing to accept hugs from fellow diners who thank her “for giving us justice.” Otherwise, she is every inch the prosecutor: straight-backed, concise, a portrait of self-control. …

The day after our dinner is a busy one. Mosby is meeting with her external-affairs team to plan the announcement of a program that puts first-time, nonviolent offenders in a work-training program. Dressed in a beige pin-striped skirt suit and Tory Burch heels, she scrutinizes every detail of the presentation, down to how many minutes she wants to spend shaking hands and who will be standing behind her when she speaks.

Nowhere is Vogue’s upbeat profile is there any reference to Baltimore’s soaring crime rate following Mosby’s attack on the police department. Mosby’s own comments on crime betray a deep lack of understanding:

“There have been decades of failed policies: zero tolerance and harassment and people being locked up for small crimes,” she says, “policies that drive a divide between communities and law enforcement. So many people feel like they are voiceless, that they’ve been dehumanized. What we saw in the riots is a result of that.”

Those “failed policies” are the proactive, broken windows policing policies that caused crime rates to plummet across the United States. It the lax policing apparently favored by Mosby that gave rise to the unlivable, crime-ridden cities of the 1970s. Those who are ignorant of the past are doomed to repeat it, as Baltimore is now seeing.

Marilyn Mosby has risen above such mundane concerns. She is now a political star, as we can see from the final credits in Vogue’s panegyric:

Sittings Editor: Kathryn Neale.
Hair: Tomo Jidai; Makeup: Rebecca Restrepo for Elizabeth Arden

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