N.O. police chief’s critics take to the streets to advocate his removal

14th June 2011   ·   0 Comments

Hundreds of New Orleans residents braved the heat and humidity of summer in the Crescent City on June 4 to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the job performance of New Orleans police chief Ronal Serpas.

The Walk Against Corruption, spearheaded by WBOK AM officials, began Saturday morning, June 4, at the foot of Canal Street and culminated on the steps of City Hall, where residents were joined by members of Community United for Change, Silence Is Violence, the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, the New Orleans chapter of the National Action Network, victims of police brutality and community activists in calling for the removal of embattled NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas. Serpas came under fire last month after stories aired about his son-in-law, driver and a good friend benefiting from an NOPD off-duty detail involving traffic-camera tickets.

Serpas denied having any knowledge of the detail involving members of his inner circle.

The traffic-camera detail was one of several questionable scandals involving NOPD officers being compensated for business dealings connected to the NOPD detail system.

Serpas and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu were bombarded with questions from residents and community activists last month during a crime summit at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. During that heated exchange, residents and leaders demanded answers to questions about when the mayor and police chief learned of the off-duty detail scandal and what the Landrieu administration planned to do the resolve the matter.

Participants at the June 4 Walk Against Corruption, which included children, young adults and the elders, carried signs with messages like “Serpas Must Go!,” “Justice For Henry Glover” and “End Police Terror.”

Among those who joined the protest was an unidentified woman who shared photos with reporters of her 13-year-old son being wrestled to the ground during this past Carnival season. Her son, she says, was arrested for assaulting a police officer, a charge she found difficult to believe.

“If you look at the photos, you can clearly see who the aggressor was,” she told reporters. “The police were either trying to kill him or do him serious bodily harm.”

W.C. Johnson, a member of Community United for Change (CUC), said last week that he was encouraged by large turnout for the June 4 Walk Against Corruption and the fact that men outnumbered the women who participated in the protest. He said that for too long women have had to carry the weight of the Black community and that he was encouraged by the willingness of Black men to step up and play an active role in the campaign to reform the New Orleans Police Department.

On his Cox Cable access show, “Our Story,” Johnson also said that he was encouraged to see that the struggle to remove Serpas from the NOPD has grown from the 15 original protesters who gathered the day Serpas was sworn in at Gallier Hall to more than 400 on June 4.

Asked by WWL-TV to comment on the protest during an anti-blight campaign the same day, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, “When I took office I said we had to reform the police department. We called the Department of Justice in and we all stood together months ago and talked about all of the dramatic changes that have to be made in the (NOPD) detail process, etc, etc.

“The reason I called the Department of Justice in is because there was a high level of distrust in the police department, so that’s not a surprise,” Landrieu added. “But I think that the public knows that we have been working every day to make the city safe.”

W.C. Johnson says he is offended by Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s claim that he invited the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a probe of the New Orleans Police Department when it was clear after a series of public meetings with members of the community that the DOJ was going to probe the troubled NOPD — with or without an invitation from the newly elected mayor.

Members of Silence Is Violence criticized the NOPD for reducing the staff handling the Victim Service Department to one detective, which they say negatively impacts victim participation in fighting crime.

Protesters said that in addition to problems with the New Orleans Police Department, they were also concerned about fairness and equity in the awarding of city contracts, scripted meetings held by the New Orleans Recreation Department Commission, a lack of Black officials in positions of authority at City Hall and the overall lack of transparency at City Hall. Others who attended the protest said they were fed up with the slow pace of post-Katrina recovery in predominantly Black areas of the city like the Ninth Ward and eastern New Orleans.

“The sheer number of people who showed up to voice their disapproval of the police chief and urge him to step down make it clear that a growing number of residents are not at all happy with the mayor’s decision to hire Ronald Serpas,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a former congressional candidate, told The Louisiana Weekly. “The mayor needs to take heed and do the right thing — the political career he saves may be his own.”

“We said from the very beginning that Ronald Serpas was a bad choice to lead the NOPD,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, president of the New Orleans chapter of the National Action Network, told The Louisiana Weekly Thursday.

“Since he was sworn in, it seems like with every passing day we find more reasons why he is unfit to lead the police department. “Mayor Mitch Landrieu needs to swallow his pride, man-up and admit that he made a bad choice in Serpas to lead the NOPD. Sticking to his guns and refusing to listen to the people of New Orleans will only ensure that he becomes a one-term mayor.”

This article originally published in the June 13, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper. Additional reporting by Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.