David Barry Cohen (born September 2, 1947) is an American politician who served as a

Massachusetts state Representative The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 countie ...

for the 11th Middlesex district and as the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

. Cohen was a member of the Newton Board of Aldermen from 1972–1979 and a state representative from 1979–1998. In 1997, Cohen defeated incumbent Mayor Thomas Concannon Jr. to win his first of three terms as mayor. Based on statistics reported to the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

, Newton under Mayor Cohen's leadership was the nation's safest city during 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the fourth-safest city in the nation in 2006. The designation is based on crime statistics in six categories:

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

aggravated assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

burglary Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...

, and auto theft. Cohen did not run for re-election in 2009.

Later career

Cohen decided not to run for another term in 2009 and left office on Jan. 1, 2010, replaced by political newcomer

Setti Warren Setti David Warren (born August 25, 1970) is an American politician. He served as List of mayors of Newton, Massachusetts, Mayor of Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, and is a former Democratic Party (United States), Democratic candidate f ...

, who won a close race against State Representative Ruth Balser. Cohen's final term ended with controversy over the city's new Newton North High School. With a price tag of nearly $200 million, the school is the most expensive in Massachusetts. He said he chose not to run for a fourth term because he did not want to harm efforts to override Proposition 2½.

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, David B. Living people 1947 births Mayors of Newton, Massachusetts Harvard College alumni Boston University School of Law alumni Politicians from Boston Massachusetts Democrats

Later career

See also

References

External links