3:36 pm Jun. 26, 2012
Leval McLean told me he was incarcerated when he first met Charles Barron.
This was 20 years ago, and Barron had volunteered to come to his prison, the now-shuttered Arthur Kill Correctional Facility on Staten Island, to educate the prisoners about African history.
McLean is now the manager of Lenora's Salon on Bedford Avenue, where there is currently a Barron for Congress sign in the window.
McLean said he was familiar with both Barron and Hakeem Jeffries' policies, and that actually he liked them both. When I asked him to compare the two candidates, McLean first used a military analogy.
"Charles Barron would be recon or special forces" and "Hakeem Jeffries would be like a sniper."
Later, McLean told me, "They said Jesus was a rabble rouser, you ever heard of that? Well, I believe Charles Barron is a rabble rouser."
He said, "Sometime you can wipe a stain away. But sometime the stain is so deep, that you got to bang it. And that makes a noise."
