New Orleans City Councilmembers Joe Giarrusso and Jay Banks joined Newell on the air Monday morning to talk about an op-ed they co authored about fighting violent crime in the city.
“Gentlemen, this is an issue that I've talked about a lot,” Newell began. “I know that you guys have the power of the City Council meetings and committee meetings and so forth, so what was the driving force behind y'all deciding to coauthor this op-ed?”
“We do have that platform and that format, but everybody does not have access, and not everybody listens,” Banks said. “Putting the idea into the newspaper gets more people aware that this is not falling on deaf ears. One of the disconnects that we're having is that people are feeling like nothing is happening and nobody cares. And we certainly don't want that to be the case. We are very understanding of what's happening, and we want to get something done. And there are all kinds of different variations to what's happening, but we need to let the public know, we are very aware of this. We intend to get something done, understanding that this problem is big and large and complicated. And we can't just decide that we're only going to take one path to address it.
“Violent crime is unacceptable, period,” Banks continued. “There is no qualifying that. But at the end of the day, reforming the criminal justice system is necessary. We have a system that has been unfairly discriminatory to certain segments of the community. That part is indisputable, but we've also got to acknowledge the fact that we've got people out there that need to be dealt with who are harming society. Those are two very distinct things. And this idea that all of the talk and all the conversations about reform may give some people the impression that it's the wild wild west, and it's a free for all, everything goes - that's not the way it ought to be. We need to let folks know that. We do understand that there need to be changes, but we also need to keep the rest of us safe. We've got to be able to go to the grocery store, go to the gas station. My next door neighbor is so terrified she doesn’t even go to the gas station anymore. She has gas brought to her house. Nobody should have to live like that. We've got a problem that we've got to address, and we've got to let the public know that we're addressing it.”
“I think Jay is right,” Giarrusso said. “The issue is we go to our neighborhood meetings and we see people there - but when you get stopped at the store, or on social media, people are saying ‘nobody's talking about crime, and there's been this problem, and we have to call a meeting on the Bayou so we can get attention about the carjackings that are happening here.’ So it felt like it was necessary to have not only the voices Jay talked about in neighborhood meetings and at committee meetings, but also something that has broader reach. That really encapsulates the way that we're thinking about this. I feel like we're really getting into “or” discussion right now, it's jail, or let everybody out. It’s defund the police or arm them to the hilt. The discussions that are really happening and starting to evolve are “and” discussions. How do you make sure the police have what they need that they're equipped enough and at the same time, make sure you're providing other things that the police really just aren't in the business of doing.”
“There was an article in the New York Times yesterday about LA, which took away about 8% of their police budget, totaling $150 million, and then crime shot up,” Giarrusso continued. “And now the leaders are saying, well, we need to reverse this trend, it's demoralizing the department. We have to spend money on the police so we have better results with violent crime. But at the same time, the things that we know that also worked in the past were early gang intervention, and some of the programs that we've had here in New Orleans. So it was just interesting to me, we're having the exact same conversations.”
“I feel like this is a messaging issue,” Newell said. “And from my perspective, it seems as though we’re trying to create the balance between what the social justice warriors are demanding, and what will actually happen operationally within the police departments across this country. This is not the only jurisdiction that's fighting to get the messaging out in a more balanced way, but it's those very same social justice warriors that are characterizing it as an “either/or,” and you're having to beat that back each and every day.”
Hear the entire conversation in the audio player below.
