Hey what is Scurlock's position on "Blue Lives Matter" laws?

Because, while the video here clearly shows Scurlock being an annoying dickhead, it does not show anything like an "assault" against a police officer.

City prosecutors on Wednesday raised the ante in their case against businessman and mayoral candidate Frank Scurlock over an incident involving a New Orleans police officer.

Scurlock — who has not yet filed his official paperwork to run for mayor — was charged in a bill of information with assault and crossing a police cordon. Police accused him of bumping Officer Clinton Lawrence, who was trying to maintain order amid protests over the planned removal of the Jefferson Davis monument in Mid-City on May 6.

The municipal assault charge represents an escalation by the City Attorney’s Office, given that Scurlock was initially booked by police on a single municipal count of obstructing a public place.

Since Scurlock's mayoral campaign (should such a thing actually materialize this week) isn't going anywhere, it's probably okay to enjoy the show he and his lawyer (who happens to be Thomas Robichaux, amusingly enough)  are providing now that the City Attorney has taken the bait. 

On a Wednesday conference call with his attorney and a reporter, Scurlock said the new charges against him were an example of "typical Louisiana politics at its finest" before Robichaux interrupted him to say a written statement would be coming soon.

Robichaux added to those allegations in a statement he sent by email.

“This new bill of information amounts to perjury on the part of the city attorney, and a blatant and willful disregard for the truth and the basic constitutional rights of the citizens of New Orleans,” Robichaux said. “Mitch Landrieu is drunk on his own ego and will do anything to discredit my client. It's time for City Hall to focus on real crimes instead of abusing their power.”

As absurd as the entire situation is, this is actually a legit point. Police and city officials have no right to bully anybody like this... no matter how ridiculous that person happens to be.  

Communitites of interest

Peppi Bruneau's terminology is interesting here. For whatever reason he figures "conservative" is synonymous with "white" in New Orleans. Some of us might beg to differ.

A number of supporters came out to argue for a map that Bonin favors. At one point he even asked them all to stand and had Morris, the board attorney, count them. They came to about 50.

Among them was Bonin's Republican ally and longtime former state lawmaker Emile "Peppi" Bruneau, who argued that the plan favored by Bonin would preserve certain "communities of interest," a more "conservative" one centered in Bonin's Lakeview district and a "minority" one toward the eastern portion of the city.

Of course he probably means only to say that a Lakeview district is probably a conservative voting bloc about which he gets no argument from anyone.

The article doesn't make clear specifically which of these alternative maps Brett Bonin and Thomas Robichaux are disagreeing over but the description suggests that Bonin is arguing for something that looks like this while Robichaux favors one more like this.

Deciding exactly how to draw the new lines has divided the board starkly. At issue is the line between the 3rd District, represented by Brett Bonin, and the 7th District, represented by Robichaux.

Bonin is essentially accusing Robichaux of trying to water down minority voting strength in the 7th District, an area that encompasses some of the city's historically black neighborhoods, by taking more heavily white precincts in the Bayou St. John neighborhood from the 3rd District.

My read on this, though, is that it's actually Bonin who is trying to preserve a gerrymandered "conservative community of interest" in the Lakeview district. At least that's what my best guess at the maps under discussion indicates. Which is why I don't quite get why Sandra Hester agrees with Bonin here. Either way, it is thanks to Ms. Hester's habit of peskily throwing herself upon the wheels of the machine that this story even made the front page this morning. So congratulations to her once again.