[StBernard] Corruption

[Westley Annis]

You know what the sad thing is...when Katrina happened as I sat waiting to
hear from my mother, my sister, my grandmother.  I had a glimmer of hope in
my heart that this would bring down the way things were done.  For your
information, I did contact people...I contacted every local media station
and every national media station, I contacted news papers, I contacted the
white house, I begged them to look into the dealings of the Saint Bernard
parish government, I begged them to just look and my contacts were
endless...do you know how many responses I got back?  Zero.  
 
Most recently it's come out that even Mr. Stephen's himself is in connection
with the F.B.I., so you please tell me what doing that will do?  Everything
is done so secretively, I would also believe that Katrina was a blessing in
itself as to any paper trail that may have been left behind.  So maybe the
storm didn't leave that much hope as it was.  All I know is what I have
grown up knowing, the mysterious way things just seem to happen, the amazing
way's certain people are elected into office who are relatively unknown, or
into Judge's seats no less.  As a relative of a former judge I have heard
enough.  Yet as the granddaughter of a man who put his heart into St.
Bernard parish and was recognized for doing so, it saddens me that I cannot
carryout his legacy.  As a friend of many people harassed by certain members
of the sheriff's department for over a decade, as the girlfriend of someone
who was taken under the green bridge as a juvenile by an officer with a gun
held to his head, and as someone who lived there off an on her entire
life...live as jaded as you must...it is sickening what goes on and until
CITIZENS come together and accept it, and as ONE try to put an end to it, it
will not go away.
 
Why is a certain officer still allowed on the force, after being found to
have stolen drugs from the evidence room and also guilty of hitting another
officer with his motorcycle?  Why is a Judge found to have been a peeping
Tom and pervert, still declaring what is "just" in a court of law?  Why are
the HIGHEST levels of dirty politics all involved in the multi million
dollar "fund" of Ms. Arlene Meraux?  Why?  Because it's the people you know,
and the price you pay to sell yourself and buy into it all.  Another person
I believe has never been given his credit for the good he has done for Saint
Bernard is Lynn Dean, he may be an old mean man as many say, but he has put
a lot of effort and hours of his life fighting for the parish, and he's
looked at as an outcast.  Look at the council, ceasing all spending in the
Parish President's office, do you think that is because they had nothing
else better to do?   Please now, really!
 
I don't even know why I express myself, it does no good, but at least I can
rest in knowing that I tried and I spoke my heart and my mind.  And do not
get me wrong, some officers are AMAZING officers on the force, such as
Ronnie Martin...one of the best!  So I am not biased against the entire
department, only against the leader and his lack of leadership onto the
people, for the good of the people and against those who vow to be for the
people and are only for themselves and how far they can go.  Tis the way of
life.
 
I just miss my home, and I am one of the most optimistic people in this
world, I know with a little change what Saint Bernard has to offer...it's
sad it's just going to waste.
 
Bianca