scum

[realthog]

This is "reprinted" from al_zorra's blog (posting at http://al-zorra.livejournal.com/326835.html), with her gracious permission:

From: Musicians Clinic Mailing List <musiciansclinic@patjolly.com>

Date: June 20, 2008 11:29:06 AM CDT

 

Subject: Re: [Musicians Clinic] It is alive and well.

 

Everybody, I  just read this, sent to me by my good friend, Todd Duke. My anger and shame is palpable. As a white man, raised in Natchitoches, and surrounded by Jim Crow all my young life, I am not surprised at this story. I am shocked and outraged, but not surprised. This narrative should be sent to newspapers read by a variety of people, black and white, like the New Orleans Times-Picayune or even The Gambit.

 

Stories like this one tend to get hidden within e-mails to a number of friends. It should be out there for the whole world to see. Every time this happens, we should broadcast it all over the place. EVERY TIME! The term "Racism" is much too polite a word. Another word should be invented that has an even more negative power, more shameful and more vile. The story of the Jenna Six made me want to crawl into a hole. Once again, Louisiana was presented to the world as a stupid and backward place where rampant racism still not only was accepted, but thrived. I, too, have a large network of friends around the country. I am sending this to all of them today.  It is not enough for us to stand around, shifting our balance from one foot to the other, muttering under our breath and shaking our heads. It is NOT enough.

Please find the following account as reported to The New Orleans Agenda:

"May 20, 2008 was one of the saddest days of our lives. It was the day we realized that racism still exists in this world. Or should I say in Gretna. I guess on some level we still know that racism exists but it's a harder realization when you experience racism personally. For us, it became a reality at the Red Maple Restaurant (1036 Lafayette Street, Gretna, LA 70053).

 

A reservation was made prior to the arrival at the restaurant. We were celebrating our son's graduation from Hahnville High in Boutte. We had nine people in the party. We arrived around 8:20 PM and we were seated in a room away from all the other patrons. Not realizing we were being discriminated against we were not even offered the complimentary amenity of bread and butter while waiting to be serviced. One of our party guests asked the waitress about this and was told she forgot to offer this amenity to us. She apologized and did get the bread. Atthis point, still not realizing we were being discriminated against, Our orders were taken and we received our appetizers around 9:00 PM.

As 10:00 approached the children that were in the party had fallen asleep, and the adults were getting restless. The head of the party asked the waitress how much longer we were going to have to wait for our food. The waitress said not long. Ten minutes had passed and still no food had arrived. Finally we could no longer wait and we asked for the bill. We asked to pay for the appetizers and the drinks. We told the rest of the party they could wait for us outside. Wewere given a bill for $275.00 and told to pay cash only. The Red Maple does accept all credit cards but we were told by the owner/manager on duty that he would not take credit cards from our kind of people.

 

The owner had then called the police and immediately 2 cars arrived at the restaurant. All four policeofficers were white males. The police got out of their cars and began to speak to the owner/manager. One of the police officers then approached a member in the party, put his hand in her face and said for her to pay cash or go to jail.  The member of the party told this police officer that no food had arrived and that we should not have to pay for food we did not receive. The police officer said he did not want to hear what we had to say and to either pay or go to jail. So, we had no choice and $275.00 was paid in cash.

 

The police office said if you don't have it we'll take you to an ATM machine, after begging and borrowing the money from the children in the party. The owner then told us to never come back, that we were in Jefferson Parish and not Orleans Parish, and for us to tell our friends not to come there. Owner/manger remarked that you kind of  people are not welcome here.

The police were called out to protect and serve the owner/manager. Our rights were violated and we were discriminated against because of the color of our skin. We did not serve a threat to anybody. We did not have a problem  paying for what we consumed, but we should not have been forced to pay for food we did not receive. Our voices were not raised and when the police came our voices had no sound. It is 2008, when will this nonsense end. This was the same Police Force that would not let African American cross the bridge for food and water during Katrina. Businesses like this should not be in existence. It is time for us to stop being passive about this kind of treatment and take a stand and pass this on.

We are out the money for food we did not eat and most of all our dignity was lost by the ugliness of this Business Owner (BRENT TRAUTH)/manager on duty. This should not have happened this way especially in front of the children that we are trying to teach respectfully.

--Jerry & Patricia G. Miles

--George French

The George French Band

www.georgefrenchband.com

Comments

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

It's shocking that this is still going on.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Beyond shocking, really. And infinitely depressing.

[louismaistros.livejournal.com]

Disgusting.

Although you don't want to hear about this happening to anyone, it's especially upsetting to hear that it has happened to a respected ambassador of New Orleans jazz, a man whose family goes all the way back to the important Papa Celestin Tuxedo Jazz Band. Any establishment worth it's salt should be rolling out the red carpet for such a person.

You would think that after the infamous bridge incident after the storm, the one witnessed by the world, that the Jeff Parish police would have gotten some sensitivity training about this sort of thing. Here is an article about that, for whoever doesn't remember that or didn't know:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/13/katrina.bridge/index.html

I did want to add that there are many very nice people in Jefferson Parish, and in Gretna as well -- it's always the racist yahoos who get the press. It wouldn't be right to condemn the whole area, but I certainly do share the outrage of anyone who is treated like this.

Very saddening.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"that the Jeff Parish police would have gotten some sensitivity training about this sort of thing"

Bearing in mind that they seem to have been guilty of extorting money with menaces, or at least of having assisted in that crime, and of abusing their position of power in order to do that, what kind of "sensitivity training" did you have in mind? Five years' hard, perhaps?

I mean, the cops involved here committed a criminal act. I sort of feel things have gotten beyond the "more training" stage!

"I did want to add that there are many very nice people in Jefferson Parish, and in Gretna as well"

I'm absolutely sure this is the case.

[louismaistros.livejournal.com]

Well, I was being sarcastic, of course.

But the police problem here does go way beyond Jefferson Parish. In fact, the NOPD makes the Jeff Parish PD look quite saintly at times.

Here are some of our worst examples. Prepare to have your stomach turned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoinette_Frank

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/len_davis/index.html

These are just two extreme examples (and both of these characters are currently on death row). Cases of criminal activity within the police force down here are very common, sad to say.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Cases of criminal activity within the police force down here are very common, sad to say."

I've heard this quite often (and seen the movie The Big Easy!). I understood, though, that over the past year or two there's been something of an attempt to clean up the NOPD?

[louismaistros.livejournal.com]

The Big Easy movie was mostly silly. For starters, people in New Orleans don't speak in Cajun accents and call each other "cher." Ha.

The cleaning up of the NOPD is the company line, but it's still very bad. The sound of gunshots at night is still pretty common.

Right now, things are slightly better because we still have the National Guard patrolling the streets -- but they are due to leave by summer's end. Wish us luck!

I'm afraid we won't have an honest police department till we have an honest mayor, since it's the mayor who gets to pick the police chief. So the future is looking typically bleak at the moment.

In January 2007 things were so out of control that 3000 citizens marched on City Hall in protest -- there was even some national news coverage of this, mostly by way of Anderson Cooper, the last cable guy who seems to give a damn. Things haven't improved much since then. Here's some photos I took at the march, to give you a general idea of what we're actually dealing with here:

http://flickr.com/photos/lgmaistros/sets/72157594478188541/

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

In May, in Metairie, the KKK symbol was burned into the lawn of a house which a black family had just bought and moved into.

The new gub of LA isn't helping much with these racists dorkdongs.

This one at least got reported on in the Times-Picayune, though the Gretna outrage hasn't been. The FBI is investigating the Metairie event to see if it qualifies as a 'hate crime.'

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

The FBI is investigating the Metairie event to see if it qualifies as a 'hate crime.'

That's a tricky one, isn't it? Burning the KKK symbol into a black family's lawn could easily be something else entirely -- burglary, for example, or insurance fraud.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't expect Jindal to do anything about it, him being a born-again Xtian and all.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

And a nutjob, a real nutjob, into the bargain.

A perfect match for mccain -- there's been speculation that he's gonna ask Jindal to be his vp.

Just what this battered and weary and broke-ass nation needs, you bet.

Love, C.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

He certainly seems a nutjob. But he's got a dark skin, and that should insulate McCain from charges of racism.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Kind of an insane world we live in, where someone's "electability" depends more on their skin colour than on whether or not they're a nutjob.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Louisiana is the state where voters were urged to choose someone known to be dishonest because the alternative was a racist flake.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

By our leaders shall ye know us, eh?

[louismaistros.livejournal.com]

He isn't joking. When the gubantorial candidates were Edwin Edwards (a known criminal) and David Duke, people actually walked around wearing buttons that said, "Vote for the Crook." This is a matter of public record, I'm afraid.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Frequently.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

I forgot to included the information that the KKK symbol was burned into the lawn with acid, so it can't be removed by returfing or rototillering.

Love, C.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

First quarter of the twenty-first century. Makes you want to weep.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"First quarter of the twenty-first century. Makes you want to weep."

Too right. And yet these atavisms would probably vigorously assert they're a part of the greatest democracy in the world, and proud of it. Among the most backward of the US's population, there seems no awareness of the disconnect between their patriotic declarations and their racist beliefs and deeds.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

Possibly because - and you know I mean no offence - for the greater part of American history those beliefs were ingrained as the norm. Maybe we like to think that something like that can be overturned in the space of a generation, but when I hear something like this I start thinking it may take a lot longer than that.
And then again, there are assholes everywhere who never change.