Questioning authority
14th November 2011 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
Despite efforts to clean up local politics and the criminal justice system, almost every day citizens see undeniable proof that conditions in City Hall and in the criminal justice system are far from perfect. We have local elected officials and members of the administration who still see nothing wrong with playing footsies with powerful groups and individuals and pandering to certain segments of the population.
Even worse, we are noticing that the number of elected officials who are willing to speak out against injustice or stand up for principles, regardless of how it affects their political futures, is dwindling at a dizzying rate. Nobody seems to care that the city continues to ignore and neglect the needs and concerns of those the powers that be have marginalized and that a number of elected officials are getting bolder and even less apologetic about trampling upon the constitutional rights of those who are not politically connected or chronic voters.
None of that will stop us from asking the kinds of questions that shed light on the political chicanery and skulduggery that is killing the soul of this city and making it impossible for truth, justice and democracy to gain a foothold here.
Let’s get it in:
• What’s up with BESE candidate Kira Orange Jones, who critics accuse of being less than truthful in her claim that she cast a ballot for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 and Orleans Parish Civil District Judge Sidney Cates IV ordered last week to “cease and desist from misrepresenting her voting record or registration”?
• Did a member of Kira Orange Jones’ election staff really tell Cox Cable TV access show “OurStory,” as was reported Wednesday night, that the BESE candidate will not be available for interviews with the Black media, and if so, what was that all about?
• Which is sadder, Herman Cain’s condescending attitude toward anyone who questions his legitimacy and qualifications as a serious presidential candidate, or those so desperate to find someone — anyone — to defeat President Barack Obama next fall that they are willing to throw their unconditional support behind a candidate or candidates who are clearly not up to the challenge of leading this nation?
• Should NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas be sitting on his high horse looking down on New Orleans families with individuals with multiple arrest records when as police chief he heads up one of the city’s most notorious “crime families” that includes nearly two dozen cops under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and even more officers fired or arrested in recent years for everything from writing bogus tickets, lying, stealing, pimping, rape, sexual assault, police brutality and robbery?
• Why is NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas so quick to criticize Orleans Parish Criminal Court judges for mistakes they made but so slow to accept responsibility for his own shortcomings as leader of the New Orleans Police Department?
• If the friend of a murdered Slidell optometrist thinks the man accused of murdering him is “subhuman,” what word or words would he and others who agree with him use to describe the NOPD officers who slaughtered two unarmed Black men and shot four others on the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans and the officers who murdered Henry Glover on the West Bank, burned his remains in a car on a Mississippi River levee and stole his skull six years ago?
• Why is the mayor up in arms about the possible closing of the main branch of the New Orleans Post Office while doing everything in his power to take away the jobs of many longtime City Hall employees?
• When it comes to stacking the deck on boards and commissions so that they can get what they want in terms of changes to public policy without having to consider divergent viewpoints and concerns, is there really that much difference between New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal?
• If money’s too tight to mention at City Hall and the mayor wants to halt or delay some of the city’s public works projects and lay off City Hall employees, where is the mayor finding all this money to pay those who are part of his inner circle six-figure salaries?
• How many more times will the United States Supreme Court let the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office get away with withholding evidence in murder cases and railroading defendants in the name of criminal justice?
• Why should anyone in New Orleans respect a criminal justice system and district attorney’s office where those sworn to uphold and enforce the law have a long history of doing whatever it takes to win in the courtroom and goes to great lengths to make sure that those who are finally exonerated after languishing for decades on Death Row are NOT fairly compensated for the wrongs and atrocities committed against them?
• What would the larger society and the U.S. Supreme Court have said about the John Thompson case if Thompson were white and the District Attorney’s Office had tried to avoid compensating him fairly for the years he spent on Death Row after being framed for murder and sentenced to die?
• Given what has been said and done by the New Orleans Police Department since a report this past spring highlighting abuse and corruption, doesn’t it seem like the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to clean up the NOPD are far from complete?
This article was originally published in the November 14, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
