LaToya Cantrell “Won’t Be Bullied.” You Will.

There comes a time in every political or governmental crisis when the cards are all on the table and it becomes unmistakable exactly who you’re dealing with. We have reached that time – in truth we reached it months ago, but there can be no argument now – with respect to LaToya Cantrell.

Who at this point we’re going to start calling “LaKaren,” because while the stereotypical Karen is a middle-class white lady Cantrell fits the psychographic profile of the irritable, emotionalist modern petty tyrant perfectly in every other way.

Yesterday Cantrell had a press conference which was one for the ages, and in it she responded to criticism from, essentially, the white dudes from Jefferson Parish over her decision to wipe out the Big Easy’s large-event schedule for the rest of the year.

There was the Jefferson Parish Chamber of Commerce’s Todd Murphy, who sent a letter to Cantrell chiding her for not including stakeholders from outside Orleans Parish in her decision-making, despite the fact Orleans wouldn’t survive five minutes if the suburban parishes decided to adopt a hostile posture toward New Orleans proper. And there was the full-page newspaper ad taken out last week by a group of businessmen in the New Orleans area making the case that it was a premature move to close down the city.

Well, LaKaren couldn’t handle that at all. It’s clear she has no use for white people and their negative opinions of her governing methods, something she made known at that presser yesterday.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Monday offered the strongest defense yet of her decisions last week to extend stay-home restrictions in New Orleans through mid-May and to recommend the cancellation of large events through the rest of the year due to the coronavirus crisis.

“The data will drive us and not a specific date,” the mayor said several times during an afternoon press conference, where she took issue with a letter published in a full-page newspaper ad the day before by four prominent businessmen that said her moves threatened the city’s economy.

During the press conference, Cantrell cast her critics as out of touch with the city’s public health needs. She also suggested they were prioritizing money over people’s lives.

“To the citizens of the city of New Orleans, please know that I will and have always continued to put the health of the people first. They are the priority. And not only that…. but you can be reassured that I will not be bullied,” Cantrell said.

The mayor also took issue with comments Friday by Todd Murphy, the head of the Jefferson Parish Chamber of Commerce, who said she made her decision to recommend cancelling fall season festivals without consulting neighboring parishes or considering the impact of the decision on them.

Cantrell said she has been in constant contact with leaders in other parishes and said she doesn’t believe it will be safe to hold festivals in the fall since it will be hurricane season and because the coronavirus pandemic is likely to remain active then.

“These things I have to think about,” Cantrell said. “They are not driven by a dollar. They are driven by the public health of this community.”

Cantrell even said she may insist that the number of new cases per day has to fall to zero before she would agree to reopen the city.

And to punctuate the fact that she “won’t be bullied,” LaKaren threw in a little bit of abuse of the police powers

The New Orleans Police Department’s traffic division will be conducting traffic checkpoints to “promote public safety and awareness.”

“The NOPD will also use these checkpoints to verbally provide information regarding the current stay-at home order in place within Orleans Parish due to the current COVID-19 public health crisis,” city officials said.

They will be conducting vehicle checkpoints within Orleans Parish to monitor seat belt usage by all occupants of automobiles. Louisiana law additionally requires all drivers to be properly licensed and to have proof of insurance and registration within the vehicle.

On March 16, 2020, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a proclamation limiting gatherings and closing certain establishments. This proclamation was recently extended through May 16.

The city has stressed the stay-at-home order, expect for essential trips to places like the pharmacy, doctor, grocery store, and for workers.

“Personal recreation is allowed, but not in groups. Citizens are urged to avoid close contact with others when leaving home for essential activities,” a statement said.

These checkpoints will be conducted through the duration of the city’s stay-at-home order.

This is pretty obviously going to be a mechanism to keep people from Jefferson Parish from traveling to Orleans, as harvesting traffic and other fines from Jeffersonians who travel into the city has been a staple of governance in Orleans Parish for a long time. Now, with NOPD checkpoints to “verbally provide information” while demanding that travelers provide their papers, the signal has been sent that LaKaren’s going to harass suburbanites as much as she can.

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She won’t be bullied. She does the bullying.

This ought to be seen as the declaration of war that it is. The suburban parishes adjoining New Orleans, most particularly Jefferson Parish, should take it as such, and do what Jefferson should have been doing for years.

Namely, to engage in the most hostile, predatory economic development program possible aimed at sucking out every last business still headquartered in Orleans Parish and bringing it to Jefferson. And now, since Cantrell has abandoned the large event trade in Orleans Parish Jefferson ought to do what it can to reel in those events she cancelled. Jefferson has a few venues which could be suitable for outdoor concerts, for example – Lafreniere Park has held those before, and maybe it ought to host some of Cantrell’s leavings.

She can’t really call that bullying, since these are people she’s thrown away.

The fact is that New Orleans was all but a dead city before LaKaren ever moved in from Compton with her carpet-bag in tow. But now, with her idiotic edicts destroying tourism and hospitality, the only industry left in the city, there can be no mistake. New Orleans is finished, perhaps forever.

That’s what happens when you elect mouth-breathing morons to run a city. And those morons show themselves by making public policy personal, practically every time.

But while New Orleans proper might be dead, the suburbs around it don’t have to be. It’s time for them to fight for their survival, and the best way to do that is to arm themselves with everything of value they can salvage from LaKaren’s wasteland.

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