I found last week’s press conference from Mayor LaToya Cantrell to be one of the most incredulous press conferences I've ever heard. She tried to cloak herself with the men and women of the New Orleans Police Department. She basically said that if you criticize her, you're actually criticizing the NOPD. Well, I've talked to at least a dozen officers that participated in a number of those roll call meetings, and none of them heard anyone complaining about the media, the citizens, or otherwise. Former NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas told me that the things Cantrell is doing should’ve been done long ago - but her administration won’t bring about positive change.
Does Cantrell really believe she was going to go to the roll call meetings and expect officers to tell her exactly how they feel about her and NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson?
She’s a day late and a dollar short. If the Mayor was interested in leading the city and its police department, these meetings would happen routinely. The officials I served under as police chief fought publicly every single day to make our community safe. Cantrell has done none of that. There's no leadership here. It’s the Titanic and the deck chairs are being moved.
When the Mayor heard about the negative talk from officers, she said that is what caused her to cancel her galavanting trip to Singapore. Also, she said she was the first Mayor to attend police roll calls in years.
That’s absolutely not true. When Mayor Cantrell was on the City Council, she voted for every one of Mayor Landrieu’s police budget cuts. City Councilwoman Helena Moreno and City Councilman Joe Giarrusso were a part of the first council on Cantrell’s administration. They both did everything Cantrell wanted as it related to the police department. Where are they on this issue? In some way, Cantrell has kind of taken this beating on her own. These City Councils vote for that stuff. Isn't that the way it goes?
What’s your reaction to the neighborhood groups, the citizens, and the NOLA Coalition coming together? They brought a lot of struggles the NOPD is having to light. Now, these politicians realize they don’t control the dialogue anymore.
These people, primarily middle class and upper middle class of all races, are fighting to save the young, Black men of this city that are being killed by other Black men. They're the ones fighting for grandparents to be able to sit on their front porch in the Lower Ninth Ward. They're the ones fighting for people to be able to have a reasonable night out without being carjacked. Isn't it amazing? They're the ones who are the most concerned about this, as opposed to the people who seem to be elected to represent the very people who are being killed and robbed in their communities. You’ve got to think about it like that - see who’s stepping up.