They were the ones who knew that you had to hide the scandals to protect the illusion of America AND, simultaneously, keep the idiots out of office. Keep a lid on religious zealots - they’ve always hounded the capitalist colonizers - except now they ARE the capitalist colonizers and they’re capitalizing on the sheer blind trust of ignorant sheeple (“MAGA”). Bless these people’s hearts, y’all

These men really thought they got as close to losing control as they ever would with Pres GWB - I don’t think they saw Trump coming. Certainly not to this magnitude - but why not? He’s always been a readymade joke - a punchline. Hate him or merely detest him; People KNOW him and he’s always been relevant in pop culture for both the boomers and the gen-xers (millennials too, thanks to The Simpsons) - he provided the fodder for their 1980s party lifestyle “goals” because they really believed he was representative of their own potential opportunities. The coke and fever dream of the 80s fucked up these boomer brains and those men taught their Gen X sons to be predators of young girls - because THEY were predators of young girls. Any woman alive today who was a young girl in the 1980s-1990s will tell you how very devastatingly true that statement is. We were all preyed upon by men in power positions - I guarantee it. Especially if you grew up in “the church.”

Now it’s up to us, the people. We are at a turning point - where do we go from here?

Thank you for your time. I write to you today, en masse, to express my deepest concerns over the incredibly asinine bill(s) being brought forth in this legislative session, by a senator who openly admits his disdain for, and who is completely disconnected from, Orleans Parish and our people, Mr. John C. Morris. I am writing to demand that you all vote NO NO NO on every one of his bills that aim to destroy New Orleans’ judiciary and court system. Mr. Morris cannot seem to make up his mind, is New Orleans “unsafe”?? Is our crime rate “up” or “down”? It seems he does not know, nor do any of y’all who seem hellbent on describing our city (which I warrant a guess Mr. Morris has never visited) in ways that scare your older, predominantly lily-white constituents, YET AT THE SAME TIME Mr. Morris wants to CUT OUR JUDGES. So, which is it, Mr. Morris, are we “dangerous”?? Or, did we somehow, miraculously all of a sudden in the last few weeks become “safe” enough to warrant reducing the number of our criminal court judges AND ELIMINATING OUR ENTIRE COURT??????????? This is ridiculous that this has even advanced this far because it doesn’t affect the people of Monroe. It affects people who NEVER VOTED FOR MORRIS (and would never, to be clear, he could never win here) - HE DOES NOT SPEAK FOR THE PEOPLE HE SEEKS TO CONTROL. DO y’all get that? This is a dangerous precedent and you should all be worried that suddenly other senators will start messing with the people in YOUR CITY and YOUR jurisdiction. Does this not concern you? It should - because, if you allow such an overreach and BLATANT DISREGARD FOR THE PEOPLE NEW ORLEANS ACTUALLY DID ELECT TO REPRESENT US stand, then I would urge all senators who care to introduce legislation to tear down the segregated and completely insane “town” of “St. George” in Baton Rouge, for starters.

I am a practicing attorney in New Orleans - I practice both civil and criminal law, and I also represent children; who our overly incarcerative state likes to pretend does not include Black boys who are 17, since y’all repealed the Raise the Age Act (in another act of sheer lunacy). My practice means that I traverse all of our courthouses.

Now, there is a lot of information Mr. Morris has failed to communicate to you all regarding both the state of New Orleans’ courts AND whether the people of Orleans Parish have any interest whatsoever in his ridiculous overreach into OUR judicial system. Partly because Mr. Morris does not care about New Orleans, our people, or our judicial system. He only cares about - well, I’m not sure WHAT he cares about, because he does NOT care about people. He does NOT care about BLACK PEOPLE - and that much is clear from his bills.

WHY would an elected official from an area of our state that is hundreds of miles from the area he seeks to regulate introduce such bills? I would wager a guess that it hinges almost completely on the fact that the governor and attorney general are upset that THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS SPOKE VERY LOUDLY and voted in a New Orleans Parish Criminal Clerk of Court, who just so happens to be a Black man. Who also happens to be an exonerated person who served an unconstitutional and unwarranted multitude of years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Mr. Morris wants to implode the courts on a whim - on the marching orders of a governor who claims to be “tough on crime” but wants to close down the ONE COURT in this state that handles more than HALF of all criminal prosecutions IN THE STATE?????????

You know what this will do - it will lead to higher bails, which will lead to more people in OJC in pretrial detention who have NOT BEEN CONVICTED OF ANYTHING, where they will languish in horrifying conditions while the State complains that they don’t have enough resources to DO THEIR JOB thanks to the legislature. IF Mr. Morris is successful in this racist, backwards-thinking, 1865 level of legislative overreach WE ARE ALL DOOMED. Maybe, if he succeeds, we need to start housing the people he would doom to our overpopulated, dilapidated, crumbling parish jail IN MONROE INSTEAD.

Look, I know that many of you did not make it this far in my letter, but for those of you who have - I beg you. Especially those of you who are practicing attorneys (or used to be), LEAVE US ALONE. Better, if you want to “mess” with Orleans Parish and our judicial system, maybe you should consider the following as an alternative:

• Funding an expansion and update to OJC

• Funding OPD to be able to hire better and more attorneys AND KEEP THEM (the salary is insulting)

• Funding mental health, drug, alcohol, and DV diversion programs

• Funding EDUCATION and not trying to take money from poor schools with the stupid vouchers

• Funding an expansion and update to the CDC and Civil Courts buildings

• Reducing the petty “misdemeanor” offenses that exist which are nothing more than remnants of Jim Crow era legislation

There are literally a million things that you COULD do that would BENEFIT us, and this right here - it’s not it. Not at all.

White people, we have a duty to recognize the harm that our ancestors wrought and to take a stand and say “NO MORE” - to DO something. To stand in the way of actions like this that seek to destroy communities only to make them easier to take over. I’m exhausted of fighting against systemic racism but I will not quit until every single one of you understands the ramifcations of your actions. Don’t like New Orleans? Don’t come here; we don’t mind if Mr. Morris stays in Monroe and out of our city. But keep your sticky fingers out of our city, sir.

Yours in Revolution,

Courtney N. Newberry, Esq.

Attorney-at-law

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