A Prolific Time

Over the past two weeks, I've had 3 different pieces aired on different radio programs. The first was on WWOZ, a community station dedicated to New Orleans music and culture. This evening a story of mine will air on the local NPR affiliate, WWNO. And FSRN led with a piece that I did on Monday. Unfortunately, two out of three of these stories focus on the impact of the oil spill that is already hitting the Louisiana coast.

Sunday, one of my neighbors had a dog shaving party. She put posters up all over the neighborhood, and, like a good reporter, I went all the way around the corner to see what was going on. The clippers were buzzing away and there were several buckets full of fur and hair around. It was a really local effort to do something about what is happening on the coast, a catastrophe that is ongoing and that most of us here have no sense of power over.

Yesterday, as I came out of a house where I had been doing a census interview, it smelled like diesel. The neighborhoods where I live -- and where I'm doing census work -- are called the Bywater and the Marigny. The are some of the oldest communities in the city, and they face the Mississippi River. Or at least they face the levee which stands about 8 concrete feet high on the top of a little ridge. We're not particularly close to the Gulf, but it's not the first time people in New Orleans have reported smelling the fumes from the spill.

One good thing is that yesterday Obama proposed increases to the 2010 and 2011 budgets in a range of areas that will have to deal with the spill and its aftermath: the EPA, Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, and others. What really needs to happen is a war on erosion. I have to admit, though, that seeing people like Patti, my neighbor, doing what they can to make a difference is heartening. Sometimes I get stuck criticizing and not doing enough to create something different. This is especially easy to do as a journalist. Thanks, Patti. The future is in OUR hands.

Being a public defender in New Orleans

Not long ago, I met a cool woman in a bar in my neighborhood. She didn't want her name used in this posting, so I'll call her Jane. Jane is a public defender here in New Orleans. She grew up in nearby Lafayette, but she'd been living in New York for the past few years, and actually moved down here around the same time I did. Although, as she puts it, she moved into the bosom of her family, which I did not.
Anyway, Jane called me around 10 tonight to ask if she could come over for a quick visit. As we sat on my stoop, she told me that a judge here, Karen Herman, had issued an arrest warrant for her today. The reason was that Jane was unwilling to go to trial today because she hadn't gotten discovery from the DA's office. That is, the DA hadn't shared with Jane the information they had related to the case that could affect the outcome.
The case was about a purse snatching on Bourbon Street, and the DA's office had a surveillance video. The video was given to Jane today when she arrived in court, and the judge insisted that Jane and her client watch it in the judge's chambers immediately. The honorable judge Herman insisted that jury selection begin as soon as the viewing had ended. Jane protested. She also had other motions in other court rooms, and so, after the video screening, she went to attend to those other matters. While she was in another court room with a motion, a bailiff approached and told Jane that she was subject to an arrest warrant. At that point, Jane burst into tears.
When she returned to courtroom I and Judge Herman, Jane's bosses were there to help negotiate with the judge. This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened. In fact, one of Jane's colleagues had his ribs broken by bailiffs last fall when a judge had him arrested for contempt of court. It is clearly a way for the judges to show who's the boss. The thing is that people's lives hang in the balance.
Jane is diligent and prepares for her trials. She also is a seasoned veteran with 15 years of experience as a criminal lawyer. Yet the judge can push when she or he wants to, as happened today, potentially putting someone behind bars wrongfully.
I haven't been here long, and I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know what happens around these things in other parts of the country, but it does seem to me like the courts here are fiefdoms where judges and clerks make and break people's cases. And ribs. I think that threatening to jail a public defender for trying to do her job faithfully is too much.