June 8, 2005
The Politics of Protest
Horst Pfeifer's dislike for oversize vehicles in the Quarter is now well-known. Prior to this publicity stunt, however, it's not clear just how vocal an opponent he or any other Quarter denizens have been. NOPD and the mayor's office both claim they haven't received any complaints about enforcement of restrictions on oversize vehicles. Pfeifer and his cohorts say it's a pervasive problem. Even Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson weighed in:
City Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson echoed Pfeifer's concerns, saying French Quarter residents during the years often have engaged in acts of vigilantism because city ordinances are so poorly enforced.
"That's done all the time, and French Quarter residents have to do that in order to have enforcement," she said. "Even if residents are not within their rights to do that, they still shouldn't be treated like criminals."
For an elected official to say this is incredible. For the elected official who represents these people to say this is incredibly stupid. If these people have such serious gripes with NOPD, why isn't Ms. Clarkson's office involved? Why haven't these people rung her phone off the hook and flooded her e-mail inbox? If they haven't done these things, perhaps it's because the problem isn't such a big deal. If they have, Ms. Clarkson should consider another line of work, since she's showing them less respect than she claims NOPD is.
Perhaps what the French Quarter needs is a City Council representative that is more interested in correcting problems residents and business owners obviously consider serious enough to get arrested over, rather than hunting down tarot readers in Jackson Square.