New Orleans Prison Break: A Product of Progressivism

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New Orleans is the “City that Care Forgot,” the home of the Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street, and the world-famous French Quarter. It also teems with rich culture, colorful history, beautiful architecture, fabulous food, renowned restaurants, amazing festivals, and attractions that bring tourists from every corner of the globe. No other city can host an event like New Orleans, which makes it a popular destination for conventions, Super Bowls, and a multitude of special occasions for individuals, couples, families, and businesses.

Unfortunately, New Orleans is also home to progressive politics that have turned the city into a hub of dysfunction. Democrats control every political position in New Orleans, including school board members, legislators, council members, a U.S. Congressman, and, of course, the mayor. In fact, the last Republican Mayor of New Orleans left office in 1872, so Democrats have had 153 years of uninterrupted control.

Sadly, in New Orleans, elections are not even close, as Republican candidates are fortunate to garner 15% of the vote in gubernatorial or presidential elections. Yet, an obvious question for the very progressive voters in New Orleans is why do you keep electing Democrats to office?

Democrats have delivered substandard streets, poorly performing schools, an extremely high crime rate, and a dismal economy. Democrats keep getting elected, but they never improve the quality of life for suffering residents.

The results have been devastating. In 1960, New Orleans attained its record population of 627,525. In the next 65 years, the population steadily declined until it reached the level of 351,399 this year.

Since the 2020 census, New Orleans has lost a greater percentage of its population than any other city in the nation. In the last five years, the population of New Orleans has dropped 31,842 or an astounding 8.31%.

Among the people residing in New Orleans, there are many who have no opportunity to leave. The city’s poverty rate is 22.63%, more than double the national average of 11.1%.

Why is the economy so poor, and why are so many people moving out? While New Orleans has been victimized by high crime, hurricanes, outrageous insurance rates, and other problems, the primary reason for the city’s woes has been horrific political leadership.

The current Mayor, LaToya Cantrell, has been accused of carrying on an affair with her security guard. She misused a city-owned apartment as a personal residence until the City Council removed her. Her extensive international travel to climate change conferences was criticized by citizens who demanded that she focus on her job duties.

A previous Mayor, Ray Nagin, was convicted of federal bribery, money laundering, and other corruption charges and served ten years in federal prison.

Another former Mayor, Mitch Landrieu, removed Confederate monuments from the city while decimating the police force. Today, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) faces a recruitment crisis, with a staff that is woefully inadequate and hundreds of officers below satisfactory operating levels.

Progressive activists led an effort to change the names of streets honoring Confederate generals and other “unacceptable” people; however, these same protestors were totally uninterested in improving the conditions of the dilapidated streets.

The names of many public schools were changed to be politically correct, so George Washington, the first United States President and the hero of the Revolutionary War, was removed, along with many others. Not surprisingly, while the names changed, the quality of the schools remained quite low.

As activists worried about symbolism over substance, huge public safety problems were not addressed. For example, the Sheriff of Orleans Parish, Susan Hutson, was elected on a very progressive platform. As Sheriff, her approach focuses on maintaining equitable policies, ensuring gender-affirming housing and healthcare, and investing in transformative justice programs.

Unfortunately, her priorities did not include keeping dangerous criminals behind bars. The utterly inept Hutson allowed ten dangerous criminals to escape from Orleans Parish Prison on Friday morning.

The prisoners escaped at 1 a.m. Friday morning, but their absence was not noticed until 8:30 a.m., and the NOPD and the public were not notified until two hours later.

The prisoners escaped by detaching their cell doors from their tracks, removing a toilet from a wall, exiting through the hole, crossing a loading deck, climbing a wall, and running through an interstate highway. Before leaving, the prisoners left Sheriff Hutson and her staff some taunting messages such as “To(o) easy Lol,” and “catch” them when “they can.”

While three escapees have been captured, seven remain on the loose, a public safety nightmare. The fugitives include one criminal convicted of murder and three others facing murder charges. Instead of taking responsibility for the disaster, Hutson blamed inadequate funding to fix “defective locks” at the prison.

This embarrassment happened just a few months after the New Year’s Day terrorist attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14innocent people and injured 35 pedestrians in the French Quarter.  A terrorist was able to drive on to Bourbon Street because barricades were not properly installed on the street and sidewalk. It was incompetence that resulted in those untimely deaths.

More incompetence was on display in the Orleans Parish Prison. As ten inmates were escaping, a civilian left for a food break, no armed guard was on duty, and some of the 900 cameras in the prison were inoperable. Was anyone monitoring the cameras?

To make matters worse, it was not noticed for seven hours that the extremely dangerous criminals were missing.

If Sheriff Hutson had any decency, she would immediately resign. Fortunately, she faces an election this fall, but all the major candidates in the race are liberal Democrats.

It is the same situation for the upcoming Mayor’s race. All the leading candidates are liberal Democrats. In fact, the frontrunner is the former Louisiana Co-Chair for the Kamala Harris for President campaign. It is not likely she will offer the beleaguered citizens a new direction.

Can New Orleans expect different results if voters continue to do the same thing and elect progressives to office?