At a press conference today, Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu fired back at the former members of his police chief search team, dismissing them as "individuals who chose to take their ball and go home." The Mayor-elect did not respond to their criticisms at length, seeming to ignore the fact that many of their demands related to basic issues of transparency such as access to task force meeting minutes."We have seventeen members of the task force who are completely on board with what we're doing," said Landrieu, adding that the total number of members of all his search teams was more than four hundred people. "We've had four people out of four hundred say this isn't my cup of tea."
Landrieu said that the board members represented the old ways of New Orleans politics. He accused them of finger-pointing and possessing a narrow agenda, and painted their departure as sour grapes against a new mayor who is breaking with the city's old habits. "We're going to rediscipline ourselves in this city," said Landrieu.
Baty Landis, the Silence is Violence founder who was forced off the committee for making her comments public, was disappointed in Landrieu's comments. "I was hoping that he would step up today," she said. "I was hoping he'd say that he would take an active hand in the process. As it stands, it seems he's just saying everything is fine and our complaints were just an aberration."
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