Let me find out

14th July 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

It’s mad hectic out here in the Big Easy with a former mayor being carted off to prison like Eastern European dissidents and brazen shootouts in the streets like we’re living in Tombstone, Arizona. What is up with that, and what is up with all of the cops defecting from the Notorious N.O.P.D. this year? What’s that all about?

First off, anybody who has paid attention to the rise of Ray Nagin saw last week’s sentencing coming. Ray Nagin wasn’t recruited and supported by the powers that be because they thought he was an astute businessman or eloquent statesman. He was tapped to go from dark horse to the city’s top executive because he was green to the ways of political skulduggery, gullible and, well, easy to manage. (Don’t feel too bad for Ray-Ray — the same could be and was said of former Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan).

Police union leaders said reform of the NOPD detail system may be a major reason the department is having a hard time retaining and recruiting officers. Apparently. fighting crime isn’t as sexy and glamourous a job as it appears to be on prime-time television and the silver screen and losing control of the lucrative detail system has proven to be a major blow to the pockets and psyches of New Orleans’ finest. Imagine that.

Meanwhile, all kinds of backroom political deals are being made in an effort to control the masses and influence future political races in New Orleans. Some of those who look like us are privy to these clandestine plans but routinely say nothing about them to the unsuspecting public.

Finally, in the spirit of 5th Ward Weebie, let me find out you been handpicking leaders, let me find out you been rigging water meters. Let me find out you been playing with freedom, let me find out you told the cops, “Just beat ‘em.” Let me find out you been plotting and scheming, let me find out and you gon’ wish that you was dreaming.

Yeah, let me find out. Streets are watching.

Oh, I almost forgot that I had a few questions for you. Stay safe and free out there in New Johannesburg, y’all.

• Don’t U.S. voters who refuse to use the ballot judiciously deserve Piyush Jindal?

• How many people who voted for Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal are now angry with him for refusing to support Common Core after initially endorsing it, blocking Medicaid expansion, refusing to run a transparent, accountable administration and slashing funding for higher education in Louisiana?

• Who, besides the Recovery School District, thinks that exposure to toxic metals like lead, zinc, mercury, copper and arsenic are good for Black children and poor people in New Orleans?

• How hard would it be to find a cab driver in this city who isn’t ecstatic about the city finally getting around to firing Taxicab Bureau director Malachi Hull?

• Has anyone noticed that the Orleans Parish district attorney isn’t as adamant about seeking the death penalty for those responsible for the death of Brittany Thomas in the French Quarter as he was about making those responsible for last year’s Mother’s Day shooting pay the ultimate price?

• Even though former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ticked off a lot of white residents with his infamous “Chocolate City” remarks after Hurricane Katrina, where and what would New Orleans be without African-inspired food, music and culture?

• How would the city’s social, economic and political landscape change if someone found a way to turn Black ingenuity, creativity, culture, audacity and style into cold, hard cash for Black investors and entrepreneurs?

• Why does there seem to be so few Black elected officials and businesspeople committed to the betterment, enlightenment, empowerment and liberation of the Black masses in New Orleans?

• What would New Orleans look like if honest, hard-working Black contractors started getting their fair share of public contracts with the City of New Orleans and Orleans Parish Public Schools instead of continuing to give those contracts to families that have been politically and socially connected for, in some cases, centuries?

• Wouldn’t it be great if courageous, principled elected officials stood up and committed themselves to securing democracy, racial, social and economic justice, immigration reform. decentralized government, true educational reform, constitutional policing in time for the city’s fast-approaching tricentennial?

• How many Black institutions can you name that are not controlled by the long, parsimonious arm of the powers that be?

• How many local elected officials who have repeatedly broken the law and violated the constitutional rights of New Orleans taxpayers will never spend a single day in jail”

• How does anyone expect to get a handle on the city’s scourge of violence or improve the academic performances of the city’s most at-risk children while allowing entities like the Recovery School District to get away with building new schools for kids who are already at-risk on toxic landfills that contain deadly toxins like lead, mercury, arsenic and zinc?

• Instead of promoting city charter changes that make it appear as though he is a fair, just and open-mended mayor running a decentralized administration, why can’t the mayor simply be fair, just, transparent, open-minded and mature when dealing with political opponents and critics?

• With the state AG, Orleans Parish D.A. and Orleans Parish Coroner all refusing to stand up for justice for Henry Glover, what elected official is going to stand up and step forward demanding answers and justice in this case?

• After all the heated debates about reforming public education, establishing new education standards and guidelines and improving the overall quality of public education in Louisiana, hasn’t it become crystal clear that it all comes down to the money and lucrative public contracts?

• With the U.S. Secretary of Educa­tion, La. Education Superintendent, the state Board of Elementary & Secondary Education, teachers and administrators all lining up and preparing to run Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal out of town on a rail, is anybody feeling sorry for the myopic, ox-headed and self-absorbed governor?

• When is the U.S. Department of Justice going to investigate Gov. Jindal the way it is taking a close look at St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Walter Reed?

This article originally published in the July 14, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.