Two Top bummers of the year in Fiction

I just remembered two pieces of fiction about New Orleans I encountered in 2009 that offered up such ugly and totally believable portraits of the city that I've tried to block them out ever since. For the most part they both fall into the genre of "Whitefolk in NOLA Acting Batshit Crazy."

Seeing as they both left me trembling on the floor in a pool of my own piss& tears questioning the fiber of my being, I would certainly NOT recommend that you... read Ellen Gilchrist's disturbing book of short stories where every other male psychopathic character (and there were a few!) seem to be from Nashville, TN

"But most of all they just wouldn't allow themselves to believe that a man would do such thing a to $3,000 dollar labrador retriever." -The Land of Dreamy Dreams, last line of the first story

NOR

watch Nicholas Cage in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call- New Orleans spiral frighteningly out of control and never totally lose control as only a person in a position of too much power can pull off.


"I also wish I could tell you — sort of embarrassingly so — that in Orleans Parish I had a police department that I could point to with a lot of pride, and say, you know, we’re doing a good job with that department. I wish I could say that they were as effective or efficient as the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, or that they were able to investigate cases as effectively as the FBI. But in all honesty I can’t tell you that either.

I have to tell you that when I took office, roughly 50 percent of the cases that were brought to my office by the police department were outright refused.

Think about that, just for one second. If I’m a D.A., and I don’t get a case to court without a police officer, and I’m telling my team mate or my partner that 50 percent of the work you bring to me isn’t even acceptable to go to court, then we’ve got a gigantic problem...

We have some serious problems. And to complicate those problems, ladies and gentlemen, we have unfortunately a population — no fault of theirs — that doesn’t have any respect, or any confidence, in the criminal justice system. They not only have a lack of respect or confidence in the police department, they have a lack of confidence and respect for the judges that work in the criminal court, and they have no confidence or respect for the district attorney." -Leon Cannizzaro, the District Attorney of LA, real life
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