Aint No Love...

“Aint no love, in the heart of the city.” - Bobby “Blue” Bland

At the time of this posting, the 13th day of 2012 is yet to be over but the murder count in the city of New Orleans is already at 11, which amounts to almost 1 dead body per day as the result of an unjustified killing. Now while these killings have been in residential areas and not the spots where tourists flock to, one can only imagine what kind of effect this would have on a city who’s economy is largely dependent upon tourism should the crime and murder continue at this alarming rate. Most of the commentary from the peanut gallery which consists of the frequent posters to Nola.com make the comparison of the potential of New Orleans of the 2010’s to be the same as Detroit of the 1980’s and 90’s after the decline of the domestic automobile industry. My first and last time in Detroit was in 2008 and I have seen a Mecca of many Southern-bred families in search of a better life as a shadow of its former self, first-hand. If many predict that New Orleans would experience a modern-day decline similar to Detroit, I can only shed a tear and pledge myself to trying to do what is necessary to prevent that, hoping to inspire others to do the same. The problem I see with New Orleans is more of a double-edged sword between the police department and the community at-large, and to be honest they both can use some help.

Aside from the fact that I have many friends both close and of the acquaintance variety who are police, I treat most of them with a separation from their personal and professional lives and still stand firm on the claim that I don’t trust police. This is attributed to both incidents in my own personal and professional life in addition to several incidents of corruption, mishandling of cases, and the revolving doors of the Orleans Parish Prison. At the same token, I can sit here and say that this line of thinking is not the fault of the average NOPD patrolman. I give NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas credit for being second in charge during the murder decline of the late 90’s under the watch of Richard Pennington, but some people are better suited for being the man next to the man. Serpas has started a new trend of publicizing the criminal records of murder victims I guess in an attempt to make the average law-abiding citizen feel like they are safe from the bedlam that has become the streets of New Orleans, but I see a problem with that. For one, one victim had a lone 15-year old conviction for solicitation, a time period that even the majority of the legal community would consider to be a bit excessive. Secondly, this line of thinking leads way to the philosophy that time only changes, people never do. While I never considered the average law-enforcement agent to be a proponent of rehabilitation, sometimes it makes others feel good when you can see that despite the actions of the members of society, there is still some good in the human race that shines through over all. Serpas also has used most of his limited resources (not his fault) to focus on keeping order in these tourist destinations, remarking that we have the best police force at crowd control in the nation, which I agree with, but if you cant control the members of the community, then what?

Then, there are those average police that I spoke of earlier. A few officers them have taken their thoughts to Facebook and Twitter, some pointing out the community’s fault in all of this, which I will get into later in this posting, and others adopting a “ready for war” attitude. In fact, this post was inspired by a twitter rant of my own in which I criticized the latter line of thinking because of the fact that most criminals have no rules. Gone are the days of thugs who consider themselves gangsters and gentlemen, with a regard for family and a respect for innocent life. I doubt that anything that 12 yr old did in her short life resulted in her untimely demise, but maybe Serpas found out she was in a fight in pre-school so that lets him sleep better at night. A friend of mine remarked a similar sentiment by quoting a line from the movie Die Hard; “you’re a policeman…there are RULES for policemen.” True the police may have the bigger squad, but for the most part, they don’t have the artillery to be ready for war with most of these “big fish” out here, as evidenced by the finding of two grenades in the car that was tied to the home shooting and subsequent shootout with police on yesterday. These same thugs who have no regard for the life of children damn sure don’t care about the life of a cop, or that of their families who don’t wear a badge. Nevermind the fact that these are people out here trying to make a way in the world, faced with a low-paying position as compared with those similarly situated in other muncipalities around the nation, with a community that doesn’t give two fucks about them, doesn’t respect their authority for the most part, has no appreciation for them putting their lives at risk on a daily basis, and won’t help them do their job out of fear or just a nonchalant attitude about things that don’t directly affect them. Many of us hate the places in which we are employed and merely go to work and collect a check doing the minimum required to get by, but when police do this, what are we left with, one word; ANARCHY! Put yourself in their shoes for one second, how would you feel if your job required you to take a bullet for someone that didn’t like you, I bet you would think twice before acting too. In most instances, its not them being scared, its just that they too have families who expect them home at the end of their shift. And please don’t give me the rhetoric about police corruption, because although I don’t think the ENTIRE police force of our beloved city is on the “up and up,:” I do believe that the good far outweighs the bad. There are bad members of every profession, and I don’t believe that all of society is inherently evil.

Lastly, the community as a whole has to realize that we are responsible for these kinds of people taking over our streets. Maybe if the parents of New Orleans spent more time actually trying to be a mentor, positive reinforcement, or authority to their children as opposed to a schoolhouse chum, their kids would respect them more. But when I think about it, many of these same parents who choose to be a buddy rather than a driving force in a child’s life don’t have much to put on display that should garner the respect they deserve as a parent. Just because someone makes a baby doesn’t give them the ability to be a good parent, and just because your parents sucked, doesn’t mean that you have to travel down the same road. WAKE UP PEOPLE, IT’S TIME TO BUCK THESE NEGATIVE TRENDS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED OUR SOCIETY FOR FAR TOO LONG!!! In my opinion, being a parent is about trying to make your kids better than you are, that’s called progress because when you know better, you do better. With that being said, I have long heard the tired pleas of the community to outlaw guns, but ask yourself this question, how many murders do you think are committed with lawfully carried and registered firearms? Im pretty sure that number, if it is larger than zero, is a miniscule percentage as compared to the opposite end of the spectrum. So if we outlaw guns and the only people who carry guns are those who obtain them illegally and our law-enforcement agencies, you honestly think it would be safer than with our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms TO PROTECT OURSELVES???

So does the New Orleans community suffer from ignorance or stupidity? Being stupid is when your actions are so because you don’t know any better, but when you know better and you still choose not to utilize that knowledge, then you my friend, are ignorant. We are too encompassed in minding our own damn business that we no longer care about the city as a whole, just our own little space. We let rappers determine how we live our lives, and use fictional lyrics as inspiration to real life. The whole “Stop Snitching” campaign that took flight a few years ago was even misguided. Stop snitching is not a cry for you to shut up, it’s telling those of you who get caught to “take your lick,” rather than drag others down with you, not to mind your business. Besides, if one of those same innocent bystanders who got killed was a close relative or a child of yours and a friend had information about who pulled the trigger would you encourage that friend to come forward to the authorities in order to apprehend those responsible, or would you remind him that “snitches get stitches,” or whatever other ignorance that you let rappers talk you into. But I guess that wouldn’t be considered snitching because it was YOUR family. Well I have news for you, EVERY MURDER VICTIM IS A PART OF SOMEONE’S FAMILY! We really have to do better individually to live better as a whole! I don’t think that sending in the National Guard would help out much because if you did your research, you would find that martial law is a helluva lot more flawed than our imperfect system of due process.

In closing, I would like to thank the unbiased, honorable men and women of the New Orleans Police Department for their day to day duty of protecting and serving this city, even those who society has written off a long time ago. Your efforts go under appreciated and often unnoticed, but things have no choice but to get better, because as Frank Ocean said;” I still believe in man/
A wise one asked me why/Cause I just don't believe we're wicked/I know that we sin but I do believe we try,” but our efforts may be for naught when “aint no love in the heart of the city, and aint no love in the heart of town.” Peace and Love, New Orleans, PLEASE STOP THE KILLING!