JAMES CARTER; NEW ORLEANS CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMISSIONER & THE BLACK GRATITUDE GAP

[NADRA AKA CAP BLACK]

Atty James Carter.

New Orleans Criminal Justice Commissioner

" Black faces in high places have it hard. If they're too strident, mainstream employers and peers balk. Should they appear inattentive to an expectant Black community barks. " -Capt Black.

 

Somewhere between these two extremes lies the truth.

Criminal Justice Commissioner James Carter has the Samsonian task of being both brother and bureaucrat at a time when both are exceedingly risky propositions. He's tasked with being New Orleans applied researcher and quiet field marshal in league with her mayor and police chief against historic violence.

He comes to this station uniquely prepared by both the Hood and Howard University Law School, where he and secular saint US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshal are alumni. I've taken the time to research Mr Carter because I know how easily Black males in criminal justice can be mispercieved and intentionally maligned.

I call this the " Black Gratitude Gap " and it often pits one segment of our community against the other.   

To his credit a significant pay cut ( a lawyer friend assured me Carters' private practice easily netted six figures ) and a job, reducing Black homicide, are proof he isn't yet another ethnic escapist disinterested in the inner city's seemingly unsolvable safety problems.

This isn't a job he had to take and quite frankly, most Black middle class professionals wouldn't have done so. With his resume ( See City of New Orleans entry below ) their concern about the Hood is alot less stressful. Few also have work days which include personally visiting crime scenes where chocolate Klansmen's lethal handiwork is on display.

As an activist who doesn't only blame others and Black faces in high places I humbly submit to local progressives that they give Brother Carter a break! Had he your loud voices and massed marchers behind him imagine the reforms and grassroots involvement possible?

As a nosy transplant when I heard about an Independent Police Monitor and proposed deployment of violence interrupters I was frankly amazed that Southern White officials could be that hip????

QUICK EXPLANATION BEFORE Y'ALL START TRIPPIN' ( LOL ): Not being racist but Dixie isn't quite the place where civilian snoops look over police shoulders or ex-cons mediate Hood disputes before they become bloody.

When Brother Carter was revealed as the local lobbyist for their implementation I knew the mayor had chosen well. I also realized in Brother Carter New Orleans has a field marshal taking the fight from the highest offices to the lowest zip codes.

He's our field marshal and it seems only fair we activists offer to be foot soldiers beside him working together finally to reduce our murder rate; in our neighborhoods and families before the National Guard becomes the only sane criminal justice choice available! 

If we're really about justice then let's unite with him and see what we can accomplish!

Criminal Justice Commissioner Carter has enough battles without the Black Gratitude Gap attacking him from behind! When Howard Law founder Charles Hamilton Houston said a lawyer must be a social engineer or a parasite Brother Carter obviously decided not to be a parasite.

Let's march with our field marshal instead of against him!

NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT BLACK promotes creative crime prevention. [phone]

 

 

Criminal Justice Commissioner 

James Carter serves as the Criminal Justice Commissioner for the City of New Orleans.  In this capacity, he has revamped the Office of Criminal Justice Coordination, which manages federal grants and collaborates with public and private agencies involved in criminal justice and victim assistance activities. Commissioner Carter has overseen vast improvements in programming and management at the Youth Study Center, launched a pre-trial services program in conjunction with the Vera Institute and a number of crime-fighting initiatives, including CeaseFire New Orleans in Central City, the Mayor’s Strategic Command to Reduce Murders, and the Saving Our Sons campaign.

Mr. Carter has dedicated his professional career to combating crime. As a member of City Council from 2006 to 2010, he served as Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee, created the Criminal Justice Leadership Alliance, organized two comprehensive crime summits, spearheaded bringing the CeaseFire Initiative to New Orleans, led the effort to fund the Tulane Towers Learning Center and led the effort to create the position of and Independent Police Monitor.

As an attorney, Mr. Carter has served both as a former public defender and as an attorney on the Criminal Justice Act Panel of the United States Eastern District Court of Louisiana. He has also served as Program Director for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Initiative, Weed and Seed Program in New Orleans.

Mr. Carter is very active with nonprofit organizations and community groups in New Orleans. He serves on the boards of Second Harvest Food Bank, Ochsner Baptist, and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.  He was a Vera Institute Fellow, and an Associate Professor of Trial Advocacy with Tulane School of Law.  Mr. Carter secured his B.A. in 1991 from Howard University and Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law in 1997 where he received the Law School’s Academic Achievement Award.  He has been recently named to New Orleans City Business Magazine 2012 class of Leadership in Law.