"Fassism"

Maybe this isn't the most Discourse-friendly observation to offer but Jeff Landry don't talk so good.

“It’s offensive to me that Bank of America and Citigroup think they can engage in public policy decisions. Is it American to just decide arbitrarily who we sell guns to and who we don’t? Why isn’t this ‘fassism’ at its best?” Attorney General Jeff Landry began his screed (and we presume he meant “fascism”).“’Fassism’ is when you take the industries of a country and you turn it into oppressive policies, and that’s what this is! Who made Bank of America and Citigroup the social police?

As we all know, Landry has been hard at work over the past few years trying to find ever brighter political spotlights to perform under.  His chops haven't quite caught up to his ambitions.  Watch this video of his baffling announcement last month of the decision not to prosecute the police officers who shot and killed Alton Sterling.  His statement is rambling and difficult to follow. Also he pronounces the word, voluminous "volume-us."

Maybe it's rude to say a man in charge of the state law enforcement apparatus who has just sanctioned murder for his own race-baiting political purposes is a sub-lingual buffoon. That is a question for our civility gatekeepers to resolve.  But I have to believe it is fair to say the office of Attorney General would do well to better hone its rhetorical skills.  Maybe there is an online course available.

Anyway, Landry should definitely work on this. Especially if he wants to be Governor, which most everybody says he does.  Although, Grace points out in this blurb that the work he is doing to consolidate power in the state GOP, "suggests he may be focused elsewhere."

In case it wasn’t obvious who his role model is, Landry has taken over the political action committee that Vitter once used to help give the Legislature a long-sought GOP Republican majority — and, not coincidentally, to position himself as the party’s leading power broker in the process. Landry’s also changing the group’s name, Hilburn wrote, from the Louisiana Committee for a Republican Majority to Louisiana Committee for a Conservative Majority. Just in case anyone missed the point.

On the other hand, Vitter did that and also ran for governor. So it's possible to walk and chew gum at the same time. Though, maybe Landry shouldn't chew anything while he's trying to talk. He's having enough trouble with just the words.

"He was no angel"

James Gill thinks it's very important that we acknowledge a man who was summarily executed by police was not "a respected man." He's careful to write, "This does not make his death any less regrettable, or vindicate the officers responsible for it." And that is the truth of the matter. But if we agree on that, what is Gill's point, exactly?

Well done

Clearly the best way to inform the families and principals involved in these sensitive matters is to let them read about it through leaks to the press.

The Justice Department has decided not to bring charges against the officers involved in the death of Alton Sterling, whose videotaped shooting by police in Baton Rouge last summer prompted unrest across the city, and is planning to reveal in the next 24 hours that it has closed the probe, according to four people familiar with the matter.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Sterling family had yet to be informed by the Justice Department of the decision, and it is unclear how and when the department will announce its findings.

“We have not heard nor received an update and are unaware of any charges that may or may not be filed,“ said Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the Sterling family’s attorneys. “We have not received word, nor has the family been given any notice of upcoming updates regarding this case.”

Who does and doesn't trust our criminal justice system

Of all the things that one could say about Orleans and Jefferson Parish District Attorneys and their fake subpoena tactics this week, City Councilwoman Susan Guidry got to the point most directly.

The Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office acknowledged Thursday that it, too, has sent fake subpoenas to reluctant witnesses to get them to talk to prosecutors. The practice will stop immediately, the office said in a written statement.

The admission comes a day after the Orleans Parish DA’s office abruptly announced it would end the practice after The Lens informed the office that it was about to publish a story reporting that legal experts said the practice is unethical, if not illegal.

Criticism of the practice in New Orleans mounted Thursday. Two City Council members said the fake subpoenas, as well as other aggressive tactics by the DA’s office, probably have eroded the public’s faith in the criminal justice system.

“No wonder people in our community don’t trust our criminal justice system,” Councilwoman Susan Guidry said at a meeting.

The fake subpoenas are bad. But they're really just the tip of the iceberg as The Lens also pointed out this week with regard to Cannizzaro's activities. 

Cannizzaro’s office has been accused of overly aggressive tactics. Prosecutors frequently use the state’s habitual offender law to secure long sentences, even for nonviolent crimes. They have charged witnesses with perjury if they recant their testimony.

And earlier this month, the watchdog group Court Watch NOLA found several cases in which the DA’s office obtained arrest warrants for victims of crimes because they did not cooperate with prosecutors.

New Orleans City Councilman and defense attorney Jason Williams said the use of fake witness subpoenas fits into a pattern of overzealous prosecution.

“I can only imagine how dangerous this could potentially be,” he said. “If older assistant district attorneys are encouraging younger, less experienced [assistant district attorneys] to do this, it creates a culture.”

That "culture" of prosecutorial licentiousness runs deep in Louisiana. And it is enabled by a political culture too often content to look the other way. The DAs and Sheriffs are powerful people. They're currently in Baton Rouge lobbying against a set of modest, humane, and broadly supported sentencing and parole reforms meant to reduce the state's obscenely bloated prison population.  They haven't succeeded quite yet but give it time. DAs and Sheriffs are dangerous people.

We mean that literally. Some recent high profile examples include these Iberia Parish beatings, the  as yet unsolved murders in Jennings. Here, also from The Lens is an op-ed by William Barnwell about the prisoner abuse in Louisiana via the practice of solitary confinement. Notice who he singles out.

Popular support for the lock-’em-up-and-throw-away-the-key approach to sentencing has begun to lose ground nationally among both conservatives and liberals. Even Louisiana, appalled  by both the inequity (close to 80 percent of the people we incarcerate are African American) and ineffectiveness of mass incarceration — not to mention spiraling costs — has begun to inch toward reform. But the problem is compounded by hardened district attorneys who seek maximum punishments and by parish sheriffs who lobby to keep their jails full because their budgets depend on the income from the state for each jailed person.

"It's no wonder people in our community don't trust our criminal justice system." The power to protect and serve the public is habitually abused to terrorize the defenseless while the power to prosecute or just as importantly not to prosecute is abused in ways that protect the establishment. Next week sometime we're expecting an announcement that there will be no civil rights prosecutions in the murder of Alton Sterling by Baton Rouge police. But officials are being extra careful about how and when they make that announcement because they are worried about the tension that arises in a community when nobody trusts the criminal justice system.

The proposed reforms in the legislature are a nice start should they pass. And, despite its problems and imperfections, the NOPD consent decree has probably been of at least some help. But if we're serious about addressing this head on, we should recognize that the abuses which lead to a lack of trust in the criminal justice system are bound to repeat as long as the classes who benefit from it maintain political power.  Which means, once again, in order to fix the policies, we have to first go out and do the politics.

Today there is an election for Civil District Court.  That may seem disconnected from the criminal justice stuff above but it really isn't. Politics is always about more than just the one office at stake in any election.  Instead it is about building and testing the strength of coalitions.  Every election is an opportunity to see which side can maintain power and influence. This race in particular is a fairly strong litmus test in that regard. It's a citywide race coming just a few months ahead of a major municipal election. And it could provide an early read on some of the dynamics that will be in play then.

Saturday's runoff for a seat on the Orleans Parish Civil District Court bench will be decided along racial lines, if last month's primary results offer a clue.

The battle is sketched in black and white as attorneys Rachael Johnson, 40, and Suzanne "Suzy" Montero, 53, make their final push for votes, with a slender turnout expected for the only contest on the Orleans Parish ballot.

Montero, who is white, won nearly 88 percent of the white vote and just 2 percent of the black vote on her way to claiming a spot in the runoff, according to an analysis by University of New Orleans political science professor Ed Chervenak.

Johnson, who is black, came in 600 votes behind Montero while taking 80 percent of the black vote and 7 percent of the white vote.

Montero won 45 percent of the overall vote, to 43 percent for Johnson. Attorney Marie Williams, who is black, trailed with 11 percent, mostly from heavily black precincts.

"When you have a biracial election, a very low-stimulus election where we don't have a lot of information about the candidates and their qualifications, people tend to fall back on shortcuts like race," Chervenak said.

Now, Chervenak is not being entirely honest here.  He might mean to say the average voter may not have followed the news very closely. But anyone who has will have all of the information we  (his word) have about the candidates, which is plenty. Here is a the usually excellent Antigravity election guide to this race. There's a few more points one could add. And I'm disappointed that they end on a no recommendation. But besides that it's a quite good sampling of the information we all have.  But let's take at face value that we do have a low profile but citywide election between a "Who is White" and a "Who is Black."  That should tell aspiring mayoral candidates a little bit about the relative strengths of each block.

That isn't all we'll be watching, of course. Beyond just race, we're looking at how the influence of specific interests and individuals can be brought to bear in 2017. For example the Johnson campaign is being handled by powerhouse politico Karen Carvin while Montero's is supported by PR work from Cheron Brylski. Both of those names will be all over the fall elections.  Montero seems to have had a bit more money to play with. She's certainly had more ads flying around TV and social media sites. But where this really gets interesting is where the endorsements start to line up.  Here is a quick list of people whose names have appeared on Montero's fliers and ads over the past few weeks.

Charles Foti
Jackie Clarkson
Peggy Wilson
Harry Connick Sr.
Suzanne Haik-Terrell

And, of course, these two beloved friends of the people.



What we have here is a fine sampling of the small section of our community who actually likes the criminal justice system just fine the way it is. Before you go vote today you may wish to think about whether you care to see such people emboldened by the results of a citywide contest. Today's election doesn't directly have a lot to do with that issue. In a vacuum it's about which one of these equally qualified individuals could be a Civil Court judge. They both could. That's why Antigravity doesn't endorse either.  But politics doesn't happen in a vacuum and a single office alone isn't really the point. It never is.

Calls for unity

When you hear them call for "unity," mostly what they mean is they want everyone to go home and eat their feelings.  Pat sort of gets it right here but not exactly.

That is the choice we are faced with after the last week. How do we step back from the ledge? There is a positive choice that has a foundation in truth and justice and listening to one another. We can say we’ve seen enough precious life spilled into the street that it is worth stepping out of our comfort zones to try and hear what we aren’t hearing. We can take each other’s fears and heartbreak as seriously as our own. We can work with one another in good faith to fix what is broken. This choice leads to a place where community wounds and hearts can begin the long and difficult process of healing.

Because the other choice is to demonize those we disagree with, perpetuate a climate of fear and distrust, dismiss the experience of others as if they do not matter, and double down on the toxic idea that violence is the most effective way to solve problems. This is the choice of a false “unity” that bullies use in bad faith to try and silence anyone pointing out uncomfortable truths. This choice puts everyone back in their respective corners, and inevitably takes us right back here to this awful place we find ourselves living or watching with our hearts breaking. This choice leads to more heartbreaking, unbearable loss that will only be bumped off the front pages by the next list of heartbreaking, unbearable loss. This second choice puts everyone on different teams and looks at lists of the dead and wounded and arrested as if they were a scorecard.

He's spot on about the political calls for unity being 100 percent counterproductive bullshit. But it doesn't follow that its opposite has anything to do with both sides "listening to one another" in order to "begin the long and difficult process of healing."  Nothing is better just because we prayed publicly and had a "conversation" about the hurting. In fact, that sounds like more of the same. 

We don't need to listen and heal. We need to fix the dang problem. The problem is there is an oppressive, racist police state armed to the teeth inflicting violence on the citizenry. Full stop. That atrocity doesn't demand unity, it demands justice. 

The reason people talk about "healing" or "unity" is because they want to seem like they're offering responsible leadership but don't actually want anything to change. Take, for example, Governor Edwards here.  

Edwards said he has been criticized for saying the video of Sterling's shooting, which has generated mass protests in Louisiana's capital city, was "disturbing" and from others "because I didn't call for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the officers involved in the shooting."

It's an illustration, Edwards said, of a powder keg mentality and reluctance of people on either side to allow conversation .

"When I called the video disturbing, some folks thought it was a condemnation of the officers," he said. "From the other side when I didn't call for the immediate arrest of the officers it was taken by some as not striking the right balance.

"But I don't think anyone who saw the video could say it wasn't disturbing, and I don't believe the officers should be condemned without a thorough investigation.

That's quite a riddle, isn't it? It's "disturbing" but let's not be hasty. Let's not prosecute the murderers.  Let's not act.  Let's just emote. That should be enough, right? As long as we maneuver ourselves such that "both sides" are unhappy with our  incoherent and ultimately useless position we get to go home and claim the moral high ground. Good for us. Too bad for the next victim, though.

Recusals

Baton Rouge District Attorney recuses himself from prosecuting the Baton Rouge police who murdered Alton Sterling.

Moore said the only factor for the him in reaching this decision involves his relationship to the parents of officer Blane Salamoni. His parents are both experienced law enforcement professionals who have achieved senior leadership positions within the Baton Rouge Police Department, Moore said.

Salamoni's mother was the violent crime and crime scene commander during most of the District Attorney's term of office and interacted personally and professionally with the District Attorney in establishing the parish-wide violent crime unit in 2010, according to a report Moore released following Monday's news conference.

Earlier the officers' body cams recused themselves as well when they conveniently "came loose" during the incident.  Luckily, there were other cameras on the scene that night.  Unluckily, they have been.. well.. let's call it involuntarily recused.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — The owner of the convenience store where Alton Sterling was killed last week by cops alleges in a lawsuit that police stole surveillance video from his shop, confiscated his cell phone, and locked him inside a car for the next four hours.

Abdullah Muhlafi, proprietor of the Triple S Mart, saw police confront and kill Sterling who was selling CDs with his permission in the front parking lot last Tuesday night. Muhlafi recorded part of the incident in footage he gave The Daily Beast last week that shows Sterling did not have a weapon in his hand when Officer Howie Lake shouted “gun!” and Officer Blane Salamoni fired six shots into his chest.

Muhlafi claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in Baton Rouge district court that after Salamoni killed Sterling, he immediately ordered two responding officers to confiscate the “entire store security system” and detain him.

So that's fun.

Meanwhile, John Bel Edwards has praised the conduct of the police at nearly every opportunity. After they harassed and arrested over 100 protesters on Saturday night, he thanked them for their "moderate response."  After police in riot gear had brutally advanced on and dispersed a peaceful crowd near downtown Baton Rouge on Sunday, one would expect the governor to maybe take a more critical stance. One would be disappointed, though.

Governor John Bel Edwards is commending law enforcement’s response to growing discontent

— 89.9 WWNO (@WWNO) July 11, 2016

Maybe the governor needs to be recused too.