The cost of injustice
14th September 2015 · 0 Comments
Every time an elected official, administrator or agency of this city decides to violate the constitutional or Civil rights of a group of people because they feel like it, we the people end up footing the bill.
We’ve seen that repeatedly.
We’ve seen it with the New Orleans Police Department, which has violated the constitutional and human rights of this city’s residents for decades and now finds itself under a federally mandated consent decree aimed at overhauling the department that local taxpayers must foot the bill for. Likewise, we’ve seen it with Orleans Parish Prison, which has been underfunded for as long as anyone can remember and now must be renovated and brought up to federal standards with the help of local taxpayers while the wealthiest among us avoid paying taxes altogether. We’ve seen Black residents get framed, railroaded and sent to death row by unethical district attorneys and prosecutors, only to later have their cases overturned and be told that the City of New Orleans does not have any money to make amends. So the criminal INJUSTICE system keeps going around and around, continuing to violate others’ constitutional rights without any fear of reprisal or financial ruin. Score another one for the powers that be.
Now we’re forced to watch as the Landrieu administration continues to defy Judge Kern Reese’s orders to pay the men and women of the New Orleans Fire Department what the City of New Orleans owes them.
As one of those taxpayers routinely left holding the bag, I say it’s time for a real change in the way this city’s elected officials and appointees conduct business.
There are certainly places where fat can be trimmed from the budget, like a reduction in the number of six figure-earning deputy mayors, assistants and faithful underlings, the elimination of the recently created assistant to the police chief, a reduction in the budgets for Essence Fest kickoff parties and inaugural shindigs, fewer dollars spent on additional streetcar lines, the upkeep of dog parks and studies about the demolition of the Claiborne Ave. overpass now that the neighborhood has been so thoroughly gentrified.
The City of New Orleans could also get a handle on all of the wasteful use of overtime pay at the Sewerage & Water Board outlined in a recent Inspector General report. The S&WB could also stop hiring engineering firms from surrounding parishes to do work that its in-house engineers are more than capable of doing. Perhaps a pay cut or furlough for the top earners at City Hall…
You get the idea.
There are definitely many ways to skin a fat cat.
The mayor needs to stop taking stands and making decisions based on his personal agenda and the wants and needs of his upperclass contributors.
He needs to take into consideration the needs, concerns and desires of “we the people” and honor the promises he made to SERVE the people of this city and put their needs first.
How can he do that?
By not crying “poor mouth” whenever he is required to loosen the purse strings to pay for something that is not only needed but is required by law. Like paying for the NOPD consent decree, the Orleans Parish Prison consent decree and the debt the judicial system says must be paid to the men and women of the New Orleans Fire Department who risk their lives every day to keep the people of New Orleans safe.
It is both petty and myopic for the mayor to even attempt to sully the reputation of the New Orleans Fire Department and try to justify his law-breaking behavior to the people of New Orleans, the same people that firefighters wake up every morning to protect and keep safe.
Shame on the Landrieu administration for trying to shortchange the men and women of the New Orleans Fire Department. And shame on the Landrieu administration for thinking it has the right to break the law and defy court rulings without suffering any repercussions.
If the city’s chief executive has the courage of his convictions, let him endure a few days in Orleans Parish Prison rather than weekend house arrest. Then, perhaps he might begin to appreciate the mandates of the OPP consent decree and stop trying to impede the completion of the new jail facility according to federal standards for constitutional jailing.
Let hizzoner find out for himself why orange is the new black and why mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow.
To be completely honest and fair, Mayor Landrieu was not the first mayor of this city to deprive firefighters of what they justly deserve. But he should be the last.
The first thing that should have been torn down in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is the old, paternalistic way of doing things, the system that favors the haves over the have-littles and have-nothings and doesn’t even acknowledge the needs and concerns of the masses.
The people of this city are tired of getting nothing in return for the ever-rising taxes they pay and being threatened with even greater cuts to nonexistent city services. There has never been a greater example of nothing from nothing leaving nothing.
City workers are tired of being undervalued and terminated because the Landrieu administration doesn’t think they are needed, cab drivers are tired of being treated like indentured servants with no rights and residents of this city are tired of being taxed, fined and harassed because of every parking space they lease or praline or hucklebuck they sell.
I’m very sad to report that after five years at the helm of City Hall, the emperor still has no clue.
The Landrieu administration should be very proud of its role as a unifier. It has brought residents of this city from all walks of life together like never before — in opposition to the system of government it represents and its unwavering loyalty to the ruling white minority who have called the shots in this little kingdom by the sea since 1718.
This article originally published in the September 14, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
