Respect the certificate

The Mayor's Cousin Ken will not face charges for impersonating an officer after all.

Landrieu, 54, said he felt vindicated by the decision, after contending for more than 18 months that his OPSO commission was authentic. One of his defense attorneys, Justin Zitler, said, "I am pleased that the district attorney properly exercised his prosecutorial discretion in dropping the false impersonation charge. I am saddened only that it took 18 months to do so."

Spokesmen for Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and for Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman provided no explanation for the lengthy delay in verifying the legitimacy of Landrieu's reservist commission. Zitler said a letter from Gusman confirming that his client's credential was authentic had been given to prosecutors and the court in June 2016.

"Kenneth Landrieu had a valid reserve deputy credential from 2007 post-Katrina through the end of the year 2015," Gusman wrote in the letter.

The remaining charge is an aggravated assault which happened when Cousin Ken brandished a gun and threatened to arrest a fellow motorist one evening.  Of course none of this would have happened if the victim had respected the authority of Ken's badge in the first place. We still don't know exactly what that authority actually is but at least now we know it's real.