Old and New Public Safety Racism.

Public Safety Racism: Old and New. #CapBlackUrbanSafetyist 

A gun battle this weekend between brave officers and a brutal armed robbery suspect on Canal St. and Elk Place, a bad corner of New Orleans Central Business District  ( CBD ), brought home a point I made about that corner, and urban insecurity, for years.

Five innocent bystanders were hit as the suspect opened fire when officers approached him. The corner is heavily populated by working class Black people trying to get from Point A to B at its busstop.

For years bus passengers and pedestrians navigated open air drug dealing and menacing mobs of young men.

The impression I always got when I'd email the past office holders about this corner's powderkeg potential, was that my concerns as a safety advocate who is Black weren't important.

Such menace is considered par for the course for urban environments so no special attention was needed, even if the occasional bus rider or dope boy got shot. No big deal.

I call such indifference the Old Public Safety Racism. Black people weren't considered to be law abiding citizens and any concerns to the contrary were ignored.

I encountered decades worth of such indifference.

Along comes a new variety of bias, disguised as " police reform, " but actually deforming departments into agencies seeking approval of felons they should pursue or face  federal scrutiny and public outcry, if not rioting.

Under this New Public Safety Racism, law abiding Black citizens and their concerns are considered inauthentic. The powers that be bend their ears to the siren song of middle aged former thugs masquerading as criminal justice reformers who hate law enforcement and prosecution and undermine both in the name of social justice.

Legitimized by White members of the community seeking someone to emancipate and Black communities are even less safe under the New Public Safety Racism than they were under its predecessor.

That armed robber knew this, which is why he opened fire in a crowd of people, because nobody's life there mattered.

Maybe since this tragedy happened during the high profile Mardi Gras season, police will be allowed by politicians to do something about it.