NEW ORLEANS — The voice on the radio assumes the tone of a high school principal: “Public service is not about stealing from the people — it’s about giving to the people.”
The voice belongs to James Bernazzani, the FBI’s special agent in charge in New Orleans. He, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office here and a new inspector general at City Hall, is launching a very public assault on public corruption.
The FBI’s New Orleans office has tracked a 452% jump in corruption indictments the past five years. Corruption convictions in eastern Louisiana climbed 33% in the same period, making it one of the top spots in the country for such convictions, according to Justice Department statistics.
Among those convicted: 23 Orleans Parish school officials, 16 workers from city hall and 14 traffic court employees, along with judges, councilmen and other officials, said Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for eastern Louisiana. “We’re going after anyone — whether it’s a teacher or minor public official — who engages in any kind of public corruption,” he said.
If the FBI intends to grab every Louisiana official that’s crooked, and especially every New Orleans and Jefferson Parish official that’s crooked, the state of Louisiana won’t have but a handful of folks left to run the entire state…
The FBI’s New Orleans office has tracked a 452% jump in corruption indictments the past five years, 452%!! Folks, that’s a lot of corruption, and 5 years ago no one could blame it on Katrina, it was just crooked Louisiana politicians, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, it goes a lot deeper than just politicians…
Many of the investigations were launched before the 2005 floods and destruction unleashed by Hurricane Katrina. But the post-storm recovery, with billions of dollars in federal aid streaming into the area, can lead to further corruption and triggered agents to step up investigations, Bernazzani said.
Public corruption has plagued the New Orleans region for more than two centuries, spanning back to 18th-century French and Spanish rule, said Ed Renwick, head of the Institute of Politics at Loyola University. Back then, the monarchy-appointed governor held all the power and often indulged in corruption and cronyism, he said.
And here it is in print, from an MSM source, corruption has been a major way of life in New Orleans for over 200 years, but you can’t mention that to any of the people that populate the NOLA.com forum sponsored by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, God forbid you say one word about corruption and cronyism or having fears that the money the good folks of New Orleans feel they are entitled to, all $6.1 BILLION dollars of it, might fall into the hands of corrupt politicians, you’ll be labled a Klan member, a NAZI, a racist, a hater of New Orleans and any other name they can think of simply because you voiced an opinion, one formulated from having spent many years seeing what Louisiana politics has done to your beloved home state, you’ll be told that what happens in New Orleans is NONE of your business, you don’t live there so you have no right to voice an opinion, that’s from folks that claim to be good Americans, and I suppose they might be good Americans, as long as there’s not a differing opinion on New Orleans or Louisiana politics involved, but if you speak out you’ll find out real fast that the right to free speech and stated opinions only applies to THEM, they are New Orleans natives so they are the only ones entitled to speak concerning New Orleans…
But here’s the summation of the entire subject, this federal probe will get a few ‘scalps’ under it’s belt, a few ‘crooks’ will go to prison, a few politicos will step down in disgrace, a very few, and the feds will stand around shaking each others hands and patting each other on the back and all the while very little, if anything will really change in the great state of Louisiana, the corruption is too deep, it’s inbred into the mentality of an unbelievably high number of Louisiana politicians, and potential politicians, and it would take several generation to breed it OUT, and even then I don’t believe you’ll ever get it all…
The feds do this every so often, they go to Louisiana and do one of their ‘holier than thou’ house cleanings, but I have yet to see ANY permanent change, you can’t affect a change in a system until you affect a change in the minds of a people, and that will take a miracle from heaven if the task is stopping corruption in the state of Louisiana…
Full Story Here:
Feds take aim at corruption by officials in New Orleans
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“what happens in New Orleans is NONE of your business, you don’t live there so you have no right to voice an opinion”
But, they want our tax dollars for reconstruction. They want us to provide workers to rebuild their city. They want us to rescue them from rising water. They want the rest of America to do everything for them but they don’t want you to voice an opinion. I’m sorry, if my tax dollars are rebuilding your house and city, then I have a right to voice an opinion.
The Feds threw millions upon millions of dollars at New Orleans and Democrat politicians were there to catch it. Who would have figured their would be corruption?
Pure straw.
The residents of new orleans both liberal and conservative are well aware of both the state and the city’s history of corruption.
The defensive reactions seen on nola.com forums come in response to a wave of posts declaring the city “dead”, posts declaring the city a “total cesspool not worth rebuilding”, posts using racist language such as calling nola “Ni**er City” and mocking the “savages” that drowned, and partisan posts that attempt to use nola’s problems as a condemnation of the entire Democratic Party.
They do not result from posters simply commenting on the crime or posts that only “voiced an opinion”, as you dishonestly spin it.
The “do you live here?” , “you don’t live here so how would you know?” rebuttals typically come in response to posters making the claim that “nothing” has been done in nola post-Katrina or that the people of nola are “all sitting around waiting for a handout”.
Shamefully, there has been a trend by some to want to use the city’s problems for points on a partisan scorecard. They offer no solution, instead offering only villification and blame-gaming. They border on taking joy from the continued problems in nola and if anyone dare counter their dismissals of the city as hopeless or their declarations that nothing is being done because everyone is sitting around waiting for a handout they snort back with charges of “denial!!” or blindness.
The Feds were well aware of the history of corruption in Louisiana and for that reason they put many stipulations and safeguards on the Federal dollars going to NOLA post-katrina. This is part of why it is taking so long for the money to reach the people who need it.
Well Tyler, you got to speak your piece, but here’s a little advice, don’t EVER come into MY blog and accuse ME of dishonesty, it won’t fly Sir…
NOLA is sinking, it is NOT worth saving and I don’t care if the whole damn place goes and takes every idiot that’s too stupid to walk away WITH it…
I am very honest in my words, and I was called those names, and more, for speaking my mind, and I never called them niggers or animals or savages, I did make several references to their mental capacity, but I do NOT do the name calling thing…
If NOLA residents want to stay there, that’s fine with me, if the corruption doesn’t bother them, OK, good, keep on electing people like Willie ‘Cold Cash’ Jefferson, you make my case FOR me every time you support someone like that…
And if you want to lay blame on ANYONE for making NOLA a JOKE, look to Ray Nagin, ‘Mr Chocolate’ himself, HE is the reason that MANY in this nation balk at giving NOLA a penny, he is the epitome of what’s wrong with NOLA, and you folks took him back with open arms…
Ignorance can be overcome, stupidity is TERMINAL…
Let’s cut further to the chase: I pay taxes. I don’t have a choice; they simply get removed. I pay my state taxes and I pay my FEDERAL taxes. And with the obvious history of Lousiana, and the clear inability of New Orleans city administration, before and after Katrina, to manage themselves lawfully and properly, then I get to write about how I wish my money to be spent. Say what you will about the viability of N.O., its vibrancy, its people, its history — the bottom line is that it is abundantly clear no one, I repeat: NO ONE will solve N.O.’s problems; the city’s mayor is nothing more than a pandering, moronic idiot. He couldn’t manage his way out of the proverbial paper bag. Further, the historical problem with the clear fact that N.O. is SINKING and that cannot be stopped. I do NOT want another CENT of my federal taxes spent on a city, a state, an administration, its residents, who wish nothing more than to proffer an open hand into which should be placed MY alms. The city, the project, is NOT worth spending billions of dollars on. Even taken in only one context, that of the money required to “save” New Orleans and the billions it would require — even in that ONE aspect it is NOT worth the cash. MY cash. From MY taxes.
BZ
[quote]The defensive reactions seen on nola.com forums come in response to a wave of posts declaring the city “deadâ€, posts declaring the city a “total cesspool not worth rebuildingâ€, posts using racist language such as calling nola “Ni**er City†and mocking the “savages†that drowned, and partisan posts that attempt to use nola’s problems as a condemnation of the entire Democratic Party.[/quote]
So can we assume you don’t agree with this sentiment? Too bad - because everyone else does.
The typical liberal bullshit lines … “you don’t know/have authority to speak” if:
1-You weren’t in the service/weren’t in Vietnam/Iraq/etc
2-You don’t live there
3-Don’t know the person
Don’t wash with anyone with a brain. Like BZ said - we pay Federal Taxes (not by choice), so it’s OUR money going to “rebuild” that sewer of corruption, so it can sink further into the slime every year. And I’m not referring to Dem politicians.
I guess this is what Pelosi means by a “Culture of Corruption”.