Crescent City purge

3rd January 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

Have y’all seen the trio of Purge films on the silver screen, the films that tell the story of a government that allows its civilians to kill, maim, rape, rob or do anything imaginable to one another from dusk till dawn on a single day every year without being prosecuted? The logic is that it allows otherwise law-abiding people to exorcise the rage and violence from their hearts and minds in order to “promote the general welfare.” The most recent installment of the series goes on to suggest that the annual purge is also a good way to rid cities and the nation of some of those most in need of critical services like health care, food assistance and affordable housing and reduces the strain on public funds.

The problem is that those who are working-poor, working-class or middle-class are more likely to pay taxes than those at the top who can actually afford to pay taxes but choose not to.

These are the people the New Founding Fathers in the film represent — people who don’t want to pay taxes but want to control how public funds are spent.

To me, that sounds an awful lot like life in New Orleans not only these days but since the city was founded.

The City of New Orleans continues to raise taxes and fees, making it very difficult for the masses to live in the city but do as little as possible for those struggling taxpayers. No money for mental health care, No treatment for substance abuse until a greater number of whites begin to overdose on heroine. No affordable housing or livable wages.

Black and Brown contractors can’t even get a fair share of public contracts from City Hall in this majority-Black city and Black children get to attend new schools on toxic landfills (and for the record, finding Negroes to co-sign these racist policies and practices do not make them any less racist or unjust).

Essentially, no freedom, justice or democracy for the masses,

Think about that as you figure out how to best commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday in a couple of weeks,

By the way, I got some questions for y’all. Here we go:

• How concerned are you about a Black police chief hired by a white mayor in a majority-Black city referring to people accused of committing crimes as “those people”?

• Given the rise in homicides and gun violence in New Orleans and the scourge of armed robberies, car-jackings and home invasions, do you really believe that 64 percent of the city’s residents believe the NOPD is doing a good job?

• Given the rise in police shootings of unarmed Black and Brown men, women and children over the past five years, how much worse do you think things will get after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in and selects new federal judges, U.S. attorneys and leaders at the U.S. Department of Justice?
• Do you think Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro will ever publicly talk about whether he plans to indict former NOPD Officer David Warren for the murder of Henry Glover?

• Given the white business community’s control of public education in New Orleans, the severe underfunding and overcrowding of schools, the proliferation of low-wage, dead-end jobs and the criminal justice system’s commitment to mass incarceration of Black, Brown and poor people, is it any wonder that crime and violence have reached such pandemic levels in the city and that those criminal acts are no longer confined to low-income neighborhoods or communities of color?

• Why do residents allow the City of New Orleans to continue to get away with systematically excluding Black and Brown contractors from opportunities to secure public contracts in this majority-Black city?

• Why do the people of New Orleans allow those who routinely avoid paying property taxes — the local one percent — to get away with dictating how the property taxes paid by hard-working people are spent?

• How close to Mardi Gras — when the powers that be think very few people will be paying attention – do you think the federal court decision regarding the future of the Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard and Jefferson Davis monuments will be made public?

• Given what the entire world saw when video footage of the murder of Alton Sterling by two Baton Rouge police was made public, why do you think the U.S. Department of Justice is taking so long to release its findings and how will the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump affect those findings and potential remedies?

• When, if ever, is the public going to get an update on the U.S. Department of Justice’s probe of unconstitutional policing in Jefferson Parish?

• When Sen.-elect John Kennedy talks about “draining the swamp” in Washington, D.C., do you suppose that includes gun lobbyists?

• What if the American people got together one day and decided they would no longer vote to re-elect members of Congress who are beholden to lobbyists and are only motivated by the almighty dollar and their prospects for re-election?

• Instead of making ill-fated and ridiculous New Year’s resolutions, what if we all decided to read more and to take steps to begin to hold elected and appointed officials accountable for the many decisions they make that negatively impact communities of color?

• Does anyone think it was a coincidence that we didn’t hear about the Sewerage & Water Board employees who were stealing city property like it was going out of style until after the vote on whether to approve the S&WB millage to continue to improve the city’s water system?

• How closely do you suppose the U.S. Department of Justice is looking at exonerated Death Row inmate John Thompson’s complaint against the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office and the criminal justice system in New Orleans?

• Are you confident in the NOPD’s ability to keep you safe on Bourbon Street at night during a major event like the Sugar Bowl or Mardi Gras in New Orleans?

This article originally published in the January 2, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.