Louisiana State Representative Austin Badon Announces He Wants to Engage in Sex Trafficking

Louisiana state representative Austin Badon (a Democrat representing New Orleans East) is the sponsor of House Bill 1158, which he says was written at the direction of local law enforcement, to further penalize solicitation, whether it is panhandling, prostitution, or hitchhiking. According to an article on nola.com, Badon said that police "needed something to be able to stop (prostitutes), question them and find out what they're doing."

The proposed law has already received national attention for the mean-spirited way it targets the poorest people in our communities. The website ThinkProgress noted:

The bill’s author, State Rep. Austin Badon (D), told Post TV that he hoped that banning begging will somehow lead to fewer poor people on the streets. He doubted that many were in actual need, saying, “they’re paying their cell phone bills, they’re paying their computer bills. It’s a racket.” Badon is echoing a familiar trope — that panhandlers are living large from others’ charity. But it’s not based on any actual research. In fact, a major study of panhandlers in San Francisco last year found just the opposite: the vast majority make $25 a day ($9,125 per year) or less. That meager income is largely used to eat. Nearly every beggar — 94 percent — said they used the money they receive for food; less than half used it for drugs or alcohol.

But giving police new tools to harass the poor and desperate is just one aspect of the bill. According to nola.com, Badon also bragged that his bill would allow for sex workers to be "hassled by the cops," forcing them to move to another place or another state.

This statement by Badon that he seeks to force women to cross state lines should cause concern for many reasons. One definition of trafficking is forcing someone to cross state lines to engage in prostitution. From his statement, it seems this is Badon's intention - and that he intends to use the force of the state of Louisiana to back up his scheme.

This is not the first time police have been used to force sex workers to cross state lines. In a famous case in Washington, D.C. in 1989, police rounded up sex workers and forced them to march to the Virginia state line, until a couple of Washington Post reporters spotted them, at which point the police ran off.

A 2008 report called Move Along: Policing Sex Work in Washington, D.C. highlighted the way in which policies like "prostitution free zones" end up harming those already at the margins, and "pose serious threats to health and safety of community members identified or otherwise targeted as sex workers." Louisiana has already become notorious for targeting and harassing sex workers by making them register as sex offenders (a practice that finally ended last year), conducting mass arrests, and increasing criminal penalties.

It seems Rep. Badon has declared this to be "attack and dehumanize women week." He also has been pushing a bill, HB 1274 that, according to one recent article:

Would allow the state to prohibit a family from ending medical treatment for a comatose or incapacitated pregnant woman. Badon's bill would bar the removal of a pregnant woman from life support if the obstetrician examining her “determines that the pregnant woman's life can reasonably be maintained in such a way as to permit the continuing development and live birth of the unborn child.” If it becomes law, this bill would mandate that a brain-dead pregnant woman remain on life support for the rest of her pregnancy, regardless of her family’s wishes or how far along the pregnancy is. This could mean up to 40 weeks of a loved one remaining on life support.

We hope Badon and the Louisiana legislature will reconsider their plan to make life worse for those already living on the edge.

Moving Forward With the Status Quo

A Response to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s Veto of Senate Bill 67, by Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children:
When Governor Bobby Jindal vetoed State Senate Bill 67 (SB 67), he failed to protect the right to education for thousands of Louisiana school children. Each year more than 25% of Louisiana students are put out of school for “willful disobedience”, which includes suspensions of students in elementary grades for very minor “infractions”, like being out of uniform. In the 2009-2010 school year alone, there were more than 14,600 Louisiana students suspended for being habitually tardy or absent. (Source: Louisiana Department of Education, 2010. Discipline Actions and Ethnicity by Reason Code).

It was this alarming data that led students, parents, teachers and education advocates in Louisiana to come together to advocate for SB67 to demand that suspensions and expulsions be reduced and those positive approaches to school discipline be used that address student behavior while keeping kids in school. If we are to create an equitable and high quality public education system for Louisiana’s children, we must ensure that students are not hastily pushed out of school for minor infractions. Keeping our young people in school should be our number one priority.

Yet despite having bi-partisan support, majority floor votes, and being passed by both the Louisiana House of Representatives and Senate, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal vetoed SB 67 on July 1, 2011.

Senate Bill 67, if enacted, would have reduced suspensions and expulsions for minor infractions by encouraging schools and districts to use positive intervention tools and strategies such as restorative justice and peer mediation. Research from schools and districts across the country has shown that these positive approaches are more effective than suspensions and are proven to reduce disciplinary incidents and even decrease violent incidents in schools by up to 50%.

In Governor Bobby Jindal’s statement following his veto of the bill, he stated, “I have always supported a teacher’s right to use a variety of tools and strategies in his or her own classroom. Senate Bill No. 67 reduces those tools and strategies by placing restrictions on when and how they can be used.” Yet at the close of each legislative session Governor Bobby Jindal signs many bills from the Louisiana Legislature that limit the variety of tools and strategies that teachers can use, including the many budget cuts imposed on the education profession that the governor actively supported and that will have a significant impact on the accessibility and application of tools and strategies teachers can use in their classroom. Furthermore, Senate Bill 67 would not have taken away rights or restrict teachers from using any tools and strategies in their classroom. However, it would have required that classroom teachers allow students in grades kindergarten through 5th grade to stay in class when out of uniform or for being habitually absent or tardy.

In his statement Governor Jindal added, “nothing in current law prevents a school board from deciding to reduce the use of suspension or expulsion, speed up the expulsion hearing, or hold parent-teacher conferences in a timelier manner.” However, nothing in current law encourages them to do so, which is exactly why SB67 is so necessary since the school boards are in fact doing the opposite. Each and every year, approximately 300,000 Louisiana students spend several days out of school due to “disciplinary” reasons. (Source: Louisiana Department of Education, 2010. Discipline Actions and Ethnicity by Reason Code).

The state of Louisiana will never close the achievement gap or decrease the racial disparities among students who are pushed out of school in Louisiana for subjective minor “disciplinary” reasons. Currently, the Louisiana Revised Statute 17:416 (R.S. 17:416) allows local school boards to keep a student out of school indefinitely until an expulsion hearing takes place; it has been noted that on average students are kept out of school for more than 14 days awaiting an expulsion hearing.

At present, there is nothing in state law that protects the rights of children or prevents school boards from putting young students out of school for minor and subjective disciplinary reasons. SB 67 would have amended state law R.S. 17:416 to decrease the number of days a student could be suspended out of school for minor disciplinary infractions and require districts to create guidelines for reducing suspensions for “willful disobedience.” Furthermore, the bill would have made certain that students were not out of school for more than 10 days awaiting an expulsion hearing. Finally, SB 67 would have supported the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) in attaining the “9 Critical Goals” as adopted by the LDOE and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in 2010.

The current practices of school boards across the state and the current state law related to suspensions and expulsions do not align with the goal of the Louisiana State Constitution which states:

“The goal of the public education system is to provide learning environments and experiences, at all stages of human development, that are humane, just, and designed to promote excellence in order that every individual may be afforded an equal opportunity to develop to his full potential.”
- Preamble to Article 8 of the Louisiana State Constitution

If we do not begin to make logical data-driven decisions to protect the educational rights of our children by amending the state’s disciplinary laws (specifically R.S. 17:416) to ensure that students are not being denied their right to an education, the state of Louisiana runs a high risk of a class action law suit for violating students’ constitutional rights to receive an education.

Power, authority and autonomy is heavily sought after within the education system in Louisiana; the teachers want power and control in their classroom by any means; the principals want power over their school by any means; the school boards wants power over the schools in their districts by any means; and in the mean time students are left powerless.

Given the existing data and bi-partisan support we can only conclude that Governor Jindal’s reason for vetoing Senate Bill No. 67 was not based on data, qualitative information, or concern for the constitution but rather on the governor’s subjective reasoning and uninformed advice. We recommend that Governor Jindal support the provisions proposed in Senate Bill 67 during the 2012 legislative session.

If we are to shift the current paradigm and change the status quo it is imperative that we continue to organize ourselves.

For more information contact dmorgan@fflic.org.

Cracking, Stovepipes and Gerrymandering: Redistricting in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina, By Trupania Bonner

Nearly six years ago, the African American community in Greater New Orleans suffered a devastating and disproportionate blow from Hurricane Katrina, as the storm's wrath and subsequent failures of relief and recovery programs drove thousands of minority residents from their neighborhoods and delayed their timely return to the only homes and livelihoods many had ever known. Now the state's legislators want to punish these long-suffering but resilient Louisiana citizens once again, by approving a redistricting plan for the State Senate that weakens the political clout of these residents in the halls of power, thereby diminishing even further any chance for a full and fair recovery for all communities.

The magnitude of the region's population loss in the wake of Katrina became clear with results from the 2010 Census. The enumeration recorded a population of roughly 344,000 for New Orleans, down almost 30 percent from its pre-storm level. New Orleans lost roughly 140,000 residents overall, 118,000 were African American. With political representation constitutionally tied to population shifts among and within states, the loss cost Louisiana a seat in the U.S. Congress and threatened The Big Easy's political influence in Baton Rouge, and alas, this Redistricting process is the nail in the coffin to a fair and just recovery for New Orleans post-Katrina.

With off-year elections forcing the legislature to follow a tight timetable for redistricting based on the new census data, the Senate moved quickly and, perhaps not surprisingly, stealthily to consider a plan put forth by chamber President Joel T. Chaisson II (D-Destrehan) that would reduce the number of majority-minority Senate districts in New Orleans from five to three. The Senate did little to inform Louisianans of their right to submit alternative plans for consideration and ignored testimony gathered from residents around the state about the cultural and economic characteristics that bind them together, a key factor for consideration in drawing district boundaries. Instead, Sen. Chaisson bemoaned the alleged lack of options when he pushed his plan through the chamber by a vote of 27-12 in late March.

It is just this sort of disregard for the rights of minority citizens that has subjected Louisiana to heightened scrutiny of its redistricting plans (both federal and state) under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice are examining both the process and results of Senate Bill 1, to determine if lawmakers followed rules that promote meaningful community involvement and protect minority voters from plans that unnecessarily weaken their ability to elect candidates who best represent their interests.

There's a reason that no member of the state's Legislative Black Caucus supported the bill: By abolishing the current District 2 (Eastern New Orleans, Lower 9th Ward), and spreading its population among three districts covering as many parishes (Orleans, Jefferson, St Bernard), the new map clearly diminishes and dilutes the votes of minority residents and all but eradicates their opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.

Supporting an alternative solution offered by her constituency and advisors, Sen. Cynthia Willard-Lewis (D-Orleans) proposed an alternative redistricting map as evidence that the Senate could comply with requirements of the Voting Rights Act and save a majority-minority Senate seat in Louisiana. Dubbed "The People's Plan", Senate Bill 33 would preserve four out of five majority-minority districts in New Orleans. Notably, the Willard-Lewis proposal would keep the current 2nd District — which the census showed is growing faster than surrounding areas — intact, avoiding the obvious "cracking" of communities of interest in the Chaisson plan; the latter's treatment of eastern New Orleans' would so blatantly marginalize minority voters that Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, for whom the infamous practice of political "gerrymandering" was named, would have been proud to call this “octopus-shaped” district his own.
Lawmakers who supported Senate Bill 1 have chosen to draw districts that best protect their political futures instead of creating a map that maximizes the ability of all communities, especially those that have been marginalized historically, to elect representatives of their choice. Fair-minded residents of Greater New Orleans and all Louisiana communities should let their elected officials know that a full and just recovery from the 2005 catastrophe depends substantially on redistricting plans that put people — not politicians — first.

Trupania Bonner is Executive Director of Moving Forward Gulf Coast, Inc., a community-based, advocacy organization with a mission to build stronger communities of Color with sustained civic engagement around the protection of human rights.

Louisiana Legislature Takes Steps Towards Ending Crime Against Nature Law

From our friends at Women With a Vision:

Tomorrow, Tuesday May 24th, at 9:30am, the Louisiana House of Representatives Criminal Justice Committee will take up the bill to remove Solicitation of a Crime Against Nature (SCAN) from the sex offender registry and make the penalties the same as prostitution. Women With A Vision's Deon Haywood will be testifying with others in our network. The bill author is Representative Charmaine Marchand Stiaes, District 99.

This is a huge step in our struggle for healing and justice with the women of NOLA.

In New Orleans, women engaged in sex work are increasingly being charged under the felony-level SCAN statute. A SCAN conviction mandates 15-year registration as a sex offender. Along with having to send out cards to all the local schools and agencies wherever they move, anyone with a SCAN charge also faces a minimum $2,000 fine, with threat of incarceration for failure to pay.

At present, 97% of women registered as sex offenders are mandated to do so because of a SCAN conviction.

This law completely disconnects our women from what remains of a social safety net, making it impossible for them to recognize and develop their goals, dreams and desires. That is why our women are calling it ‘NO JUSTICE.’ And it is their words that we take as our organizing call.

For more information on SCAN, please check out our policy brief at this link.

Love to all who have helped us come this far!

Vote on SUNO/UNO Merger Expected Tomorrow

From our friends at the Save UNO Coalition:
The Save UNO Coalition encourages everyone who opposes the SUNO/UNO merger and supports higher ed to email or call your reps and senators today! The bill that would merge SUNO and UNO is going up for discussion and a vote in the house most likely tomorrow, and will be up in the senate soon. But, they need a 2/3 majority of each to pass this, and it looks tight. We really could make a difference and win this fight to keep both institutions open and protect a vital historically Black institution.

Below you can find links for your reps/senators and their contact info, as well as a form letter. Please personalize if you are able, and it also helps to add if you are a student, grad, parent, faculty, or staff at SUNO or UNO.

We would so appreciate it if you could take two minutes to send an email, and even more helpful would be to forward to any lists you're on and to ask your organizational members, family, friends, and coworkers to please make their opinions heard. It's close, but I really think we can win this one. Thanks so much!

Find your Louisiana representative and senator:
http://www.legis.state.la.us/district/zipcode.asp

Find their contact info:
For the house: http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/H_Reps_Email.asp
For the senate: http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Senators/e-mail.asp

Sample Letter:

Dear ___________,

As your constituent, I urge you to vote NO on HB 537 and SB 183, to oppose the merger of Southern University of New Orleans (SUNO) and the University of New Orleans (UNO); and to fully fund all institutions in Louisiana’s public higher education system.

Merging the two universities will create higher administrative costs for consultants to advise to the transition, rather than funneling money into maintaining and improving the many excellent programs that exist at both institutions. Estimates for the total cost of the merger process are largely unknown and greatly underestimated in the proposed legislation. Furthermore, SUNO’s role in the community as an historically Black university is extremely important. It should be protected and able to decide it’s own direction as an autonomous institution. The current version of the merger also threatens UNO’s position as an important research institution.

Transferring to the University of Louisiana (UL) system is not a viable alternative to improve New Orleans higher education. This transfer would lead to further cuts to funding and would destabilize tenure for our dedicated faculty. The Jindal administration severely cut state general fund support for higher education in 2009, most notably resulting in a 30% budget reduction, from $67 million to $45 million for UNO that was covered by federal stimulus money -- stimulus money that members of the Jindal administration criticized as wasteful government spending. Instead of an expensive merger followed by more cost cutting, state general fund support to UNO, SUNO, and the entire system of higher education in Louisiana should be restored to 2008-09 levels.

There is no evidence to show that the proposed merger of SUNO and UNO will ultimately improve the quality of public higher education in New Orleans, protect the integrity of our respective institutions, or save money. I urge you to invest in Louisiana’s future by funding both institutions and maintaining their accessibility to working class students. Oppose the merger and vote against HB 537 and SB 183!

Sincerely, _____________

Save UNO Coalition Rally and Block Party for Higher Education This Wednesday

From our friends at the Save UNO Coalition:
The Save UNO Coalition, a group of students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends of the University of New Orleans will be holding a rally and block party for higher education on Wednesday, October 6th, at 12:30pm at the amphitheater on UNO’s Lakefront campus to protest the budget cuts and build energy for a state-wide mobilization in Baton Rouge on November 10th.

This Wednesday, UNO will send a clear message to the capitol. The Save UNO Coalition demands an end to the budget cuts, an end to faculty and staff layoffs, an end to tuition hikes, and full funding for public higher education in Louisiana. The block party for higher education will begin at 12:30pm on October 6th with a performance by local hip hop artist Truth Universal, and will feature a rally at 1:00pm with speakers from UNO’s student body, student government, alumni and faculty members.

There will be stations set up during the block party for students to contact their legislators via phone and email and voice their concerns about the budget cuts. UNO will remind Louisiana lawmakers that their constituents demand accessible, fully-funded public higher education. Instead of investing in our future, the Louisiana government has cut higher education by more than $250 million dollars over the past two years, with larger cuts promised once the Federal Stimulus money ends in the summer of 2011. As class sizes and teaching loads grow, and the variety of programs and course offerings shrink, tuition steadily increases. Affordable education is especially critical during times of economic crisis, and students should not pay more for a lower quality education.

This crisis is not about the budget, but a crisis of priorities in Louisiana’s legislature. The sudden and still-unexplained expulsion of UNO’s chancellor Tim Ryan leaves UNO’s student body and faculty without crucial leadership and advocacy at the state level, and is a threat to its self-governance. Louisiana must invest in our collective future by committing sufficient resources to higher education, not by shifting the burden to students, not by eliminating programs, and not by cutting staff and faculty. New Orleans is a unique, world-class city, and deserves a world-class, public university.