by Adam McCullochLewis is someone who wants to make a difference. He founded Eastside Young Leaders' Academy, a charity and after-school scheme that seeks to turn troubled youngsters from the path to exclusion and has experience working in young offender institutions.
Some don't like his methods, particularly the adherence to discipline. As he tells The Guardian: "We can't afford liberalism." But by all accounts his methods have had some success.
What I'm trying to say is that Lewis might have achieved something. But we now know that he appeared to claim he had been a magistrate when he hadn't been - a strange claim as it is so easy to disprove (which causes me to wonder whether there was a 'misunderstanding').
Obviously his misdemeanours cast doubt over his fitness for his office but must all senior officials in local government have unblemished records? Lewis wasn't setting out to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury or Chancellor of the Exchequer. He wanted to do something for disadvanged black kids and he wanted to do something effective about knife and other youth crimes.
How many community or youth workers are totally 'clean'? Often, we seem to applaud those who know, for example, what it is like to go to prison or be a part of a violent gang and then seek to reverse that behaviour in others. We call them 'experts' don't we?
Good interview with Lewis on his views on improving the achievements of disadvantaged black boys
The New Statesmen's account of Lewis's resignation
The Independent's account of Ray Lewis's demise