NEWARK – Born and raised in the East Ward of the city, retired Police Detective Louis Weber – now executive secretary of the city’s Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Unit – wants the seat currently occupied by retiring Councilman Augusto Amador, and feels uniquely equipped to build a new coalition of under-represented citizens in the Ironbound. A graduate of Oliver Street School and St. Benedicts Prep on MLK Blvd. who became a policeman at 18, Weber possesses deep Down Neck roots. His family ran Dolly and Art’s Luncheonette on Wilson Avenue for nearly 50 years. He can appeal to old school voters, he said, and intends to as part of his developing 2022 campaign. But the ward has changed, too, and Weber wants to inspire new blood in the Ironbound.

“This has been my home forever,” said the candidate. “I’m getting involved so I can make a change for the better down here, toward greater togetherness. As much as its changed, some things haven’t. The Ironbound, the East Ward or Down Neck – whatever one chooses to call it  – has always been the pipeline of the city, and I intend to keep it that way. We’re a melting pot of culture down here, and our demographics are changing. What was once very strong Italian, Polish and German then Portuguese, is becoming infused with the Brazilian and Ecuadorian communities. We still have something of every one who has been here. That’s what makes the Ironbound so special. We have all come together from all over the world and made this our home.”

Three policemen are running for the job and when asked if this is a coincidence, Weber said he suspects it is, although perhaps it underscores the residents’ insistence on the priority of public safety. “I intend to keep our home safe and progressive, along with the rest of the city, which has been divided for too long. From our transient population to our elderly, we’re all of us craving togetherness.”

That said, the ward won’t be sufficiently together to avoid a contest next year.

For one, Amador doesn’t want Weber to succeed him, citing numerous excessive force reports in the 11-

year service record of the retired policeman. But Weber has another ally in high places, someone who consistently takes hard stands against police abuses, and who advocates statewide for the enabling of local civilian complaint review boards with subpoena power to oversee police departments. That ally is none other than Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who backs Weber as his team’s candidate to succeed Amador.

If it seems like an odd pairing, given the activist mayor’s public positions on police and the fact that he cited a statue of George Floyd outside City Hall, Weber says the backing of Baraka – of all people – should reassure those who may nurse doubts about him. “Mr. Amador is entitled to his own opinion,” Weber told InsiderNJ. “I’m not worried about his quote in an article. I’m dedicated to the ward. I feel it is misrepresented a little – I gave my heart and soul to this community [as a police officer].” Baraka’s  support gives him confidence.

“I have 100% belief the mayor is confident in me, as I am win him,” Weber said.

He didn’t court Amador. He kicked off his candidacy for the East Ward seat in April, long before the councilman expressed his intention not to run for reelection. “I had no idea what Mr. Amador’s plans were,” said Weber. “I’m the best person to catapult us into the next four years.

“The people are thirsty for something different,” he added. “I want to bring us together. For far too long we’ve been divided. Now is the time to stand up together, to show we have a voice that will allow us to show what we can do.  There’s a generational shift going on in the Ironbound, I think. I’m not even talking about demographics. Our elderly community were trailblazers 30 years ago. Now it’s our time. We need to get that younger vote out and get people to care. New blood is going to be very good down here. That’s what people are craving. The elderly base put us on their shoulders. They come out and vote. The younger generation doesn’t come out and that’s a problem. We need to care. I teach my kids about our right to vote. We have to push that and educate each other. People tell me all the time, ‘I’m only one vote, it doesn’t really matter.’ It does matter. It matters. That attitude about elections is part of the splintering in the community that takes place.”

He acknowledges a climate of cynicism about politics that goes beyond the East Ward,

“Especially nowadays,” said Weber, “politics is a touchy subject. But our work ethic will speak for itself. You will see a big change in the East Ward.”

A WEBER DIRECTION

The last election featured Amador in his last election, fending off former Police Chief Anthony Campos (again a candidate for the ward seat next year), in a contest that at its worst could be described as Portugal versus the rest of the East Ward world. Weber said he wants to lead the East away from that tired old dynamic. The adopted Portuguese-Italian son of German-Italian parents said he never coalesced around friends from the same ethnic background. He’s proud of his ethnic roots, he said. “But my friends and I were always even more proud to be from the Ironbound and Down Neck,” Weber insisted. “We’re just all from the Ironbound .”

Baraka’s vision fits his own, and won’t detract from his own, he said. “When there’s a time to stand up for the ward, I will voice our opinion. Our opinion, not my opinion, because I represent everyone. I think it can only benefit the East Ward to have someone on Mayor Baraka’s ticket and to have a pipeline to the administration. I say as an elected official you do what’s best for your community. Yes, I feel that this mayor wants unity and wants progression, and if you look around you see it’s happening. I think that by sharing a vision together you get to move a community forward.”

Like Baraka and his citywide sense of Newark, Weber celebrates the parochial details of his neighborhood, while contemplating greater ranges of opportunity for the Ironbound. He acknowledges that the councilman will have to strike a delicate balance in the years ahead. “People want the ward to grow but they also want to keep the ward’s character,” said the candidate. “Without development you can’t progress. There has to be that happy median.” An elected official must prioritize the needs of those old School Ironbound residents, while also backing development where it is appropriate. “There is more than enough room to develop high-rise buildings,  but parts of the East Ward should be considered an historic district. There are places that shouldn’t be touched.” He cites, for example, residential homes appointed with Portuguese tiles, as vital to the Ironbound’s mystique.

THE ROOTS OF A PUBLIC CAREER

Other than becoming father to his children, the 35-year-old Weber described assuming the oath of a Newark Police Officer as the proudest moment of his life. He turned down a baseball scholarship to become a cop, and over the course of 11 years worked a radio car in every district in the city. He worked specialized units. SWAT. Narcotics. Gang enforcement. He retired a decorated detective with two medal of valor awards. “One of the saddest days of my life was when I retired,” the candidate told InsiderNJ. “I loved it. It’s all I ever wanted to do.”

After leaving the force in 2015, he reemerged to head the ABC Board. “I have a running joke and that is no one wanted to be the ABC director during prohibition and COVID-19.” He got the latter assignment. “We closed people down but no one lost their licenses or livelihood,” Weber said. “In the City of Newark, not one business went under. It was one of the hardest tasks of my life. No one has faced anything like that. People have to remember, it was the whole world going through COVID-19, not just the Ironbound.”

His work in the ABC unit gives him another perspective on Newark, and the community he hopes to again serve, this time as councilman of the East Ward. “I am a candidate, yes, but at the end of the day I see myself as a resident first,” said Weber. “In some ways I don’t really see myself as a candidate. What could we do better? It could always get better. We need more schools in the East Ward. We want our streets plowed. Our message is simple: revive the East Ward. What that means is to bring it back to life so our light can shine so much brighter. We have to come out and vote on May 10th. The more people come out, the more people will have a say in their community. For far too long, the East Ward has been complacent. We’ve been quiet. It is time not to be quiet anymore. I connect with a lot of different demographics. I became a cop at 18. I connect with the elderly and the younger generation. My family was down here for years and years. The Weber name rings true and hard in the East Ward.”

The climate of ugly contemporary politics will no doubt saturate the contest, along with the Old World moods and mores, as will those specific issues in the ward, while the pandemic persists in different forms, and the crosscurrents of the police department inevitably underscore diverges inherent in the candidacies here, of Weber and his fellow former officers vying to lead the East, and will test, perhaps, those team ties of Weber with the mayor, or so say those with intensifying interest in this contest.  “I can’t speak to anyone else’s reason for running; maybe it’s a coincidence that we all worked for the police department, but at the end of the day a voter’s number one priority is going to be safety,” Weber said. “The fact that I know how to combat crime – it’s a plus.”