Two Distinct Events; And The BEC Makes The Case for A True Response To the City's Crime
Today's New Orleans City Council Emergency Meeting On Crime
If there’s a glimmer of hope in today’s City Council meeting, find it in Councilman Oliver Thomas, who, deep into the fourth hour of the marathon meeting, spoke the truest of words, making a point that, if heeded, could have real effect:
“In 1890, 84% of our households had a male and female head of household. During the Great Depression it was 81% of our households. Today, only 36%.”
Councilman Oliver Thomas
Thomas spoke with passion:
“There’s a social group we talk about on the fringes…. we usually celebrate and acknowledge what they do wrong… we acknowledge this group based on violence.”
“It’s not trendy to talk about black men and boys,” he continued.
“Black boys feel they’re unloved. No other group has fared so badly and so consistently for so long. Sounds like a group that needs love and attention and resources. If we don’t begin to do that, we’re not going to impact this. That’s the group that we’re here for, that this whole meeting is about.”
Indeed, yes, Mr. Thomas, that is the group to be here for. But will your attention upon them and solutions for them be more of the same? More of the very government programs that have created the culture of ‘Baby Mamas,’ abortion, poverty, sagging pants, gang life, incarceration, drugs and violence that plague urban black culture?
(Councilwoman Moreno, absent today because of a positive covid test result, prepared a video about her ideas and also, commendably but briefly, mentioned fatherhood.)
The BEC speaks with thorough seriousness and candor about this matter and we are convinced to our core that the very programs intended to help people have hurt them; the very effort to “show empathy” has created deep pain; the intervention celebrated as The Great Society —now sixty years and twenty-six trillion dollars later — those programs have broken the very people they were intended to help.
The result is the urban black experience as seen in New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit….
So we implore you, Mr Thomas: Take the right lesson from this situation, and while undoing the harm of government seems an impossible task, at least don’t make things worse by implementing initiatives that are, at their root, a force of cultural and social corruption. You are well-intended, sir, and we do not doubt your sincerity, but resist the urge to do ‘more of the same’ and expect different results.
The Culture of City Hall
A hive-mind dominates at New Orleans City Hall. And what we heard today in the Council’s desperate effort to respond to the vicious crime threat is more of the hive-developed narrative: task the health department to draw up a violence intervention model, force parking lot owners to hire attendants, create a task force between the city and the state firearms division, inform the public about stolen firearms, enforce existing juvenile curfews and crack down on truancy, and use police resources better.
We’re not seeing much in that, at least not enough. Certainly nothing that shouldn’t already be happening anyway.
What we need to see from the City Council, along with the mayor and every department head, is the total dedication of city policies, resources, and actions to building up the traditional family structure. Teach it in schools. Hold it up as the better way. Elevate citizens, especially black citizens, as examples of family life.
Make family life, Mom and Dad together raising children, the grounding for every city-endorsed activity.
Think of it this way:
Promote and prioritize “Family Life” as you now promote and prioritize “Equity.”
Indeed, should anyone believe it is not the role of government to lift up the family, then how is it the role of government to destroy it, as has happened?
If it is not the role of government to teach values that uphold the father + mother two-parent home as the ideal setting for raising children, then how is it the role of government to celebrate Southern Decadence?
If it is not the role of government to defend the traditional family, what is the role of government at all?
The Clowns Showed Up
We mentioned “Two Distinct Events,” as the first few hours of today’s meeting were hijacked by Malcolm Suber and his ilk, all the usual suspects who are first in line and loudest at the microphone to demand reparations, to blame white supremacy, to blame gentrification, to blame the schools and lack of free after school activities and…
You get the drift. The Marxists, the Maoists, the Community Organizers, the Non-Profit Workers, the Unemployed PhDs in Education.
It was a circus, a farce, a mess, and a shame.
But once that haze cleared, the Council got down to some business.
The moment demands a seriousness rarely needed in such great measure. If we do not demand of our city leadership a complete dedication to family life, this city is irredeemably lost. There is no other way forward that addresses the deep-seated sources of the problems we collectively face.
Council members Green, Giarrusso, Moreno, Morrell, Harris, King, and Thomas, along with Mayor Cantrell, District Attorney Williams, Police Chief Woodfork, Health Chief Avegno, and Sheriff Hutson… take heed and do what you know in your hearts to be right. Do your duty.
And save the black men and boys.