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Day 900: Can The City Fire Nagin Now, Please?

It has been 900 days since Katrina’s landfall and the levees broke.  To commemorate thirty months, I thought of writing something poignant about how far the city has come and how much farther it has to go.  This city has a mayor, however, who has a nasty habit of knocking all feelings sentimental and hopeful to the ground.  What is this five-year-old’s problem and and why is he still our mayor?

A Completely Inappropriate Show Of Firearmplay In A City Plagued With Gun Violence

This is a recent picture of New Orleans Police Chief, Warren Riley, and Mayor Nagin horsing around at a Tuesday gun show at the Superdome.  They are celebrating the city’s acquisition of “more than $1 million in new armament and other equipment, largely for use by the SWAT squad in emergency and riot situations, including a fully equipped mobile command post, two armored cars and modern assault rifles.”

I’m not going to recite NOLA’s 2006-2008 murder/gun violence statistics.  Everyone knows by now the magnitude of our crime problem and what’s at stake.  To combat it, the people who run this city require gravitas and not to glorify these weapons that plague our streets.  In no way is this problem funny.  What is the difference between the above picture and the one below?

Not a thing.  Both of these pictures show boys with their toys, bad-ass gangsters in their own minds.  This is not the kind of example Nagin and Riley ought to set for the youth of New Orleans.

Oyster and Moldy David complained that deserved vitriol lobbed at Nagin by the Times Picayune is usually found in the opinion section of the Saturday papers, when few actually read the paper and get to that section.  Well, this picture with our equally onerous police chief is towards the front of today’s paper.  It’s a two-fer out there for everyone to see!  What’s New Orleans going to do with it now?  (Besides hold snarky caption contests, that is.  Come on, guys, this is the position of mayor we’re talking about, not a vaudeville act.)

Violence in New Orleans isn’t supported by NOPD and City Hall, my eye.   Nagin and Riley, get out!

Related:
Pistolette – Until 2010?
People Get Ready – “Our mayor” shoots police chief while playing with guns

16 comments… add one
  • mominem February 13, 2008, 1:46 PM

    Exactly Right.

    We need someone to show some maturity and some leadership, and it isn’t these two.

    The Chief surely ought to know how to handle a weapon better that that. It is not a toy.

    If one of his officers did that on the firing range the range officer would probably suspend him.

  • Blair Tyson February 13, 2008, 1:53 PM

    Where do you find these doofuses? Come back to Madison – if you can find us under the snowbanks.

  • Maitri February 13, 2008, 1:54 PM

    mominem, I’m sure the firearm isn’t loaded, but in no way should the mayor be photographed pointing that firearm at the police chief and vice versa. They are not toys. These two just can’t take a damned thing in this town seriously. I feel like I’m living in the Simpsons with Quimby as my mayor and Wiggum as police chief. Too bad real life isn’t a cartoon.

    Blair, I’d love to, but the weather down here is more appealing. Then again, I’d rather have Dave Cieslewicz for mayor.

  • Howie Luvzus February 13, 2008, 2:20 PM

    The parallel you illustrated really points out why violence continues in our city and in our society.

    You simply can’t stop violence with violence. Too bad our mayor just doesn’t get that man.

  • mr. gunn February 13, 2008, 4:52 PM

    I realize that seriousness is what’s called for here, but that’s a lolmayor if I ever saw one.

    It’s funny and sad and outrageous all at the same time. Growing up in a small town in Mississippi was taught to not point a gun at anything I didn’t intend to shoot, and clearly he’s sending the wrong message. I don’t think this man can take anything seriously, but can you blame him? I mean, he’s part of the New Orleans government. Last thing I heard any local official take seriously was garbage collection.

    We need a SDT of crime, don’t we?

  • Mark Folse February 13, 2008, 6:38 PM

    Thank you for that apt juxtaposition. How the hell do we get rid of him, starting now?

  • ReX February 13, 2008, 8:11 PM

    A very poignant statement and sadly, so very accurate in the scope of the photograph.

  • Charlotte February 13, 2008, 10:30 PM

    I agree with Mr.Gunn from Ms…the first rule of responsible gun ownership is NEVER point a gun at someone, loaded or not, unless you intend to shoot.
    Why is this lesson only taught in rural areas? Obviously Nagin was never taught responsibly and Riley is too kiss-ass to correct him.

    America is laughing at us once again.

  • rickngentilly February 14, 2008, 12:24 AM

    putting the two pictures together is worth more thn two thousand words.

    it really puts a face to how fucked up this is.

    thanks.

  • mominem February 14, 2008, 12:43 AM

    Maitri,

    The number one rule of firearm safety is that all weapons are always loaded. The weapon could have had a round in the chamber. I don’t care who checked them, the responsibility is with the person holding the gun.

    If you don’t know that you have no business handling any weapon.

    They are both IDIOTS.

    Apparently in his long carrier of carrying a gun the Chief has never learned that.

    It is a habit that needs to so ingrained in people handling guns it is automatic. If any true professional had been there they would have taken the guns away from the children.

  • M Styborski February 14, 2008, 3:51 PM

    This is a repost of my Flikr comment on the above picture.

    ‘OK, OK, I know it looks bad but I gotta defend Chocolate Ray. I saw the whole thing last night on WDSU and there was video of this and believe it or not the photo is really taken out of context.

    Nagin and Riley are at a press conference showing off newly acquired weapons, (like that’s our first priority in this town,) and someone tells a joke as Nagin is swinging his gun around to put it away. Kamenitz simply caught hizzoner in the worst possible position and the Times-Picky-Picky decided to use it. They know they screwed up by using it too as they refused to comment when reached by WDSU. Just one more reason Gambit kicks the Times-Picayune’s ass when it comes to responsible journalism.”

    Nagin should have pointed the barrel up as he swung it away but as previously mentioned in any number of posts, he is an idiot. Sheesh. I never thought I’d be defending that moron.

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