Year of enforcement

The pleasure seekers are out there tonight...

NEW ORLEANS – The NOPD’s Traffic Division will conduct an upcoming sobriety checkpoint at a location within Orleans Parish.

The checkpoint will be in effect beginning at 9:00 p.m. on Friday, June 21, 2019 and concluding at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 22, 2019.

Stay safe

Still Serpas Signaling

We are way beyond post-Serpas world now.  There are cameras on every corner. Police get away with all sorts of deliberately intrusive behavior now. It takes only a few seconds to find the latest egregious abuse of power. Cops are out there intimidating kids and tazing old ladies and, of course, shooting unarmed people.

So it's almost quaint to note that NOPD is out there setting up checkpoints such as this one they are doing Friday night.

NEW ORLEANS – The NOPD Traffic Division will conduct an upcoming sobriety checkpoint within Orleans Parish. The checkpoint will be in operation between the hours of 10:00 p.m. Friday, August 24, 2018, and 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 25, 2018.

On the other hand, there are more reasons than ever to avoid any and all contact with police if possible. So if you're out this weekend, just be aware that they are too.

NOPD checkpoints are back in action

Be very careful if you get caught up in one of these.

NEW ORLEANS - The NOPD's Traffic Division will conduct an upcoming sobriety checkpoint within Orleans Parish.

The checkpoint will be in operation from Friday, July 27, 2018 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. on July 28, 2018.

During this time, motorists will experience minimal delays at the checkpoint and should have the proper documentation available if requested by officers (proof of vehicle insurance, driver’s license, etc.)

In addition to the normal documentation, officers may or may not be asking after your bicycle registration or perhaps even your proof of citizenship.  Try not to make them too mad. 

Gomez said neither of the arrested men identified himself as an NOPD officer when he encountered them in the Mid-City Yacht Club, which is in the 400 block of South St. Patrick Street, near his house. Gomez said both men were white, and one said he didn't like the military camouflage shirt and pants being worn by Gomez, who is Hispanic.

"He asked me if I was American. I told him yes, and he got mad because he said I was fake," said Gomez, who described himself as a U.S. native who was raised in Honduras before returning to live in New Orleans.

Just this week Mitch Landrieu was asked whether or not the ICE brute squads terrorizing immigrant families all over the country should be abolished. In addition to indicating he felt worse for Trump officials being confronted in restaurants, he also said ICE is really like NOPD.  Turns out he was right about that one.

#CityOfYes we still randomly stop and search your car

It's been a while. Or maybe I just haven't been seeing the notices in a while. But I believe this is the first official police checkpoint under the new mayoral regime. 

NEW ORLEANS - The NOPD's Traffic Division will conduct an upcoming sobriety checkpoint within Orleans Parish.

The checkpoint will be in operation from 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 24, 2018, through Friday, May 25, 2018, at 4 p.m.

Drive carefully. If they nail you for a brake light, there's a way to address that this weekend. 

They keep moving Trick Or Treat

The operation, not the holiday event.

Four more Bourbon Street clubs have had their alcohol and tobacco permits suspended in the state's ongoing "Operation Trick or Treat" investigation, officials said. That raises to nine the number of French Quarter strip clubs or bars accused of illegal activity in the investigation. 

Babe's Cabaret, Big Daddy's, Bourbon Cowboy and The Swamp on Bourbon all received the emergency suspensions Thursday (Nov. 5), according to a release from the Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control.

Authorities said their investigation found acts of prostitution and "drug activity" at the strip clubs Babe's Cabaret and Big Daddy's, as well as "lewd/improper acts."

Shouldn't Scoot or David Vitter or somebody be complaining about how wasteful it is that we're not "focused on the murders" instead of this?  Actually, Vitter probably wants to steer clear of the whole French Quarter vice issue right now so that's a bad example.

The point is, law enforcement does seem to have a lot of capacity to do non-violent enforcement lately.  

The NOPD Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint beginning at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, 2015, to 5:00 a.m. on Friday, November 6, 2015.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc.

Can't imagine they'll end up reporting a whole lot of "unfounded" lewdness either.  Anyway, how much longer is this going on?

"We are in the second month of this operation and it will continue to run through the holidays," ATC Commissioner Troy Hebert said in the release. "ATC will continue to do its part to weed out criminal activity at locations that are given the privilege to sell alcohol and tobacco."

Hmm.. They probably just want to hang around long enough to re-name it Operation Naughty List.. or Bad Santa or whatever. 

NOPD response

When you've got armed robbers on the loose, the thing to do is set up a trap to catch people with bad tail lights and expired brake tags and stuff.

ORLEANS PARISH SOBRIETY CHECKPOINT NEW ORLEANS

The NOPD Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint beginning at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 30, 2015, to 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 1, 2015. Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc.

Notice how they've moved it up to 7:00 so they can get the happy hour crowd... you know if  they robbers don't get them first. 

Double checkpoints

The Ghost of Serpas Signal is hungry.

The NOPD Traffic Division will be rolling out the BATmobile, setting up the cones and pulling out the breathalyzers for a couple of checkpoints on Wednesday (8.19) and Thursday (8.20) night according to a press release. The Department said that the stops will begin at 10:00p.m. each evening and conclude at 4:00a.m. the following morning.

By law, police are requiring to issue a public notice before setting up the sobriety stops. However, the Department is not required to reveal the locations (and they do not).

Checkpoints on consecutive evenings such as these are rare.

Drive carefully. 

Sobriety Thursday is back

We think it's Thursday, anyway. These always happen on Thursday for some reason.  Except when NOPD doesn't know what day Thursday actually is.. which does happen.

NEW ORLEANS - The NOPD Traffic Division along with the assistance of the Louisiana State Police will conduct a sobriety checkpoint beginning at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 17, 2015, to 5:00 a.m. on Friday, June 18, 2015

Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc.  

Thursday this week is actually June 18. Anyway, drive carefully. 

One NOPD function not yet outsourced to Sidney Torres

Unlike many policemen you might run into in New Orleans, the officers conducting the checkpoints are still 100% public agents.  If they stop you tomorrow night, be sure and give them a hug.

NEW ORLEANS- The NOPD Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint beginning at  9:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 2, 2015, to 5:00 a.m. on Friday, April 3, 2015.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc.

Drive carefully.

Un-Serpas Signal

Ronal Serpas is no longer the Chief of Police in New Orleans. But his legacy lives on.

NEW ORLEANS, LA,- The NOPD Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint beginning at  9:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 5, 2015, to 5:00 a.m. on Friday, March 6, 2015.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc.

Drive carefully.

Thursday is date night

If your date is with a New Orleans Police Department Checkpoint it is, anyway.

NEW ORLEANS, LA,- The NOPD Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint beginning at  9:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 23, 2014, to 5:00 a.m. on Friday, October 24, 2014.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc. 

Drive carefully.  And watch out for falling buildings. 

Ghost cops

You've probably seen this anti-drunk driving PSA where the phantom cops appear out of the shadows the moment you might stumble past them after a few too many.



Pretty creepy, right?

Well Halloween is coming and.. I'm not saying I believe in ghosts, exactly. But imagine that these entities are not just traffic patrol officers on the lookout for drunk drivers and instead they are THE GHOST OF RONAL SERPAS setting up those arbitrary checkpoints the old chief was famous for.

NEW ORLEANS, LA,- The NOPD Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint beginning at  9:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 16,2014 to 5:00 a.m. on Friday October 17,2014.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc. 

Drive carefully. 

Troopers gonna troop

Not sure how Landrieu and Serpas get to criticize this.  They're the ones who begged for the "help."

State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson told reporters Wednesday (July 30) his troopers were justified in using force to bring a musician to the ground and handcuff him during a 9th Ward traffic stop last week, though he called the roughness "unfortunate."

Shamarr Allen, 33, a trumpeter who leads a well-known band, Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs, claimed in an interview with WWL-TV that troopers unnecessarily pushed him, kicked him and threatened him with their guns drawn. He said he was trying to comply with troopers' demands.

"You move one time, I'm going to blow your head off," Allen recalled hearing a cop tell him in the WWL interview. "In my head I'm like, 'Maybe this is how it's going to end for me.'"

But Col. Edmonson said at a Wednesday news conference in the French Quarter that after reviewing video of the incident and a police report, he concluded the troopers used reasonable force for the situation at hand.

The "situation at hand" was they were looking for a suspect who had just escaped custody.  So they randomly stopped anyone who happened to be in the area and threatened him with  "I'm going to blow your head off." 

Somewhere Norman Robinson is smiling.

It's also worth remembering that the troopers are pretty much just doing what they were hired to do.  We understood their history when they arrived.

The incident is not the first allegation of racial bias involving State Police troopers in New Orleans. During Mardi Gras 2013, several white plainclothes State Police troopers tackled two young black teens to the ground in the French Quarter, detaining them until one of their mothers, who was an NOPD officer, intervened.

Anyway, if you're driving around out there tonight, it's a good idea to be aware the Serpas Signal is up. Hopefully no one tries to blow your head off.

The New Orleans Police Department’s Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint, in Orleans Parish, on Thursday July 31, 2014, beginning at approximately 9:00 P.M. and will conclude at approximately 5:00 A.M.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc.  

 

Serpas Signal

Busy week for the chief.  He's having to beat back yet another round of allegations that his department manipulates statistics in order to downplay serious crimes.

Responding to an inspector general’s audit that uncovered dozens of misclassified rapes, New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas acknowledged Wednesday there is room for improvement in the department’s crime reporting, even as he disputed the audit and insisted no one under his watch has attempted to “game the stats.”

Only one thing that can take our minds off of this unpleasantness and that's padding the stats on less serious violations.

The New Orleans Police Department’s Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint, in Orleans Parish, on Thursday May 15, 2014, beginning at approximately 9:00 P.M. and will conclude at approximately 5:00 A.M.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc.

Drive carefully. 

Robert Adley likes the giggles

Senator Adley is co-sponsoring a bill in the Louisiana Legislature introduced by J.P.Morrell that would decriminalize marijuana possession.

Sponsored by state Sen. J.P. Morrell, the bill would make possession of marijuana a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison. Under current law, first-time marijuana possession is a misdemeanor; subsequent charges are felonies. The maximum sentence for the third offense is 20 years in prison.

A few weeks ago a less good bill in the House which would have kept the felony charge but reduced the proscribed sentence was deferred, supposedly because Austin Badon forgot to call the Sheriffs Association ahead of time to ask them if it was ok.

The Sheriffs don't like this bill either, of course. But it's worth noting that several conservatives like Senator Adley do.

Referring to Morrell’s bill and the state’s budget problems, Adley said, “We can’t fill up the jails on simple possession charges. We don’t have the money to keep them.”

Adley said that smoking marijuana as a Marine courier in Vietnam during the 1960s has led him to conclude that the dangers of the drug are overhyped. “People were better off smoking it than drinking alcohol,” he said. “They just got the giggles. The more whiskey they drank, the meaner they got.”

The Senate bill goes before committee on Tuesday.  Who knows, maybe it will do better than the Bible bill did today.

If it somehow manages to become law, though, it will be interesting to see how Chief Serpas's statistics-focused NOPD handles it.  Serpas and DA Cannizzaro have previously announced their intention to arrest fewer people on simple possession charges. But, as long as the criminal penalties still exist in statute, those charges can and have been pressed.

Recently Serpas told WGNO he was most worried about encountering marijuana users in the context of.. what else.. one of his renowned traffic checkpoints.

NOPD Police Chief Ronal Serpas says whatever lawmakers decide it’ll be up to law enforcement officers to enforce the changes.

“Marijuana, alcohol, any kind of synthetic drugs, they affect the way people drive and that’s one of the things we’re most concerned about is impaired driving.”

Serpas says he's concerned about impaired driving and I guess we'll take his word for that.  Last year the Times-Picayune reported that, while DWI arrests are way up under Serpas, the rate of traffic accidents due to driver impairment is unchanged. But whether the chekcpoints actually make the roads safe isn't important.  The pretext they provide officers to conduct arbitrary stop-and-searches, on the other hand, sure is a neat bonus. 

Here's a recent Democracy Now! interview with Matt Taibbi. His new book is about contrasts between the way the US justice system treats the superwealthy as opposed to.. pretty much everyone else. In the interview here he's talking specifically about how the drug laws can be used to intimidate people in absurd ways. 

MATT TAIBBI: So, HSBC, again, this is one of the world’s largest banks. It’s Europe’s largest bank. And a few years ago, they got caught, swept up for a variety of offenses, money-laundering offenses. But one of them involved admitting that they had laundered $850 million for a pair—for two drug cartels, one in Mexico and one in South America, and including the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico that is suspected in thousands of murders.

And in that case, they paid a fine; they paid a $1.9 billion fine. And some of the executives had to defer their bonuses for a period of five years—not give them up, defer them. But there were no individual consequences for any of the executives. Nobody had to pull money out of their own pockets for permanently. And nobody did a single day in jail in that case.

And that, to me, was an incredibly striking case. I ran that very day to the courthouse here in New York, and I asked around to the public defenders, you know, "What’s the dumbest drug case you had today?" And I found somebody who had been thrown in Rikers for 47 days for having a joint in his pocket. So—

AMY GOODMAN: And that’s—is that even illegal?

MATT TAIBBI: No, in New York City, actually, it’s not illegal to carry a joint around in your pocket. It was decriminalized way back in the late '70s. But with part of the now past stop-and-frisk, what they do is they would stop you, and then they would search you and force you to empty your pockets. When you empty your pockets, now it's no longer concealed, and now it’s illegal again. So they had—in that year, they had 50,000 marijuana arrests, even though marijuana—having marijuana was technically decriminalized at the time.

So, my point was: Here’s somebody at the bottom, he’s a consumer of the illegal narcotics business, and he’s going to jail, and then you have these people who are at the very top of the illegal narcotics business, and they’re getting a complete walk. And that’s just totally unacceptable.

Serpas's sobriety checkpoints aren't NOPD's only answer to stop-and-frisk.  Sometimes, they randomly stop bicyclists too.  Which is what happened to the subject of the lede to the Lens article we began this post with. 

Bernard Noble was visiting his father in New Orleans three and a half years ago when two cops spotted him riding a bicycle. They stopped Noble, frisked him and found a small amount of marijuana — the equivalent of two joints.

Noble, a 47-year-old truck driver and father of three, is now serving a 13-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty of marijuana possession. It was his seventh drug possession conviction in Orleans and Jefferson Parish.  He originally was sentenced to five years, but Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro Jr. appealed and got a longer sentence.

Since Serpas' policy response to the bills in the legislature appears to be a redoubling of his efforts at traffic enforcement, it isn't hard to imagine more scenarios like these even if marijuana possession is partially decriminalized in Louisiana.  It won't be, so we don't have to worry too much about that particular irony.  But between a DA holding out for longer sentences in possession cases despite his own stated policy and the impaired drivers who are actually  bicyclists, there's plenty of that to go around. Perhaps enough to inspire a giggle from Senator Adley when he's in the right state.

Serpas Signal

If you're hopping down the bunny trail this Holy Thursday be on the lookout.

The New Orleans Police Department’s Traffic Unit will conduct a sobriety checkpoint on Thursday, April 17, 2014, in Orleans Parish.  The checkpoint will begin at approximately 9:00 P.M., and will conclude at about 5:00 A.M.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc., available if requested.

Serpas signal

Looks like we've resumed our regular Thursday Night routine.

The New Orleans Police Department’s Traffic Unit will conduct a sobriety checkpoint on Thursday, March 27, 2014, in Orleans Parish.  The checkpoint will begin at approximately 9:00 P.M., and will conclude at about 5:00 A.M.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc., available if requested.

Drive safely

Serpas Signal

I was starting to wonder why we hadn't seen one of these in such a long while.  It was nice of them to wait until after St. Patrick's Day and even St. Joseph's Night to do this.   Hope y'all don't have any plans Thursday night, though.

The New Orleans Police Department’s Traffic Unit will conduct a sobriety checkpoint on Thursday, March 20, 2014, in Orleans Parish.  The checkpoint will begin at approximately 9:00 P.M., and will conclude at about 5:00 A.M.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc., available if requested.

Be safe out there. 

Serpas signal

If you're tying one on after that spectacular Ray Nagin comeback show today, be aware.

As required by the Louisiana Supreme Court, the New Orleans Police Department is issuing a public advisory regarding a sobriety checkpoint that will be conducted.

The New Orleans Police Department’s Traffic Unit will conduct a sobriety checkpoint on Thursday, February 6, 2014, in Orleans Parish.  The check point will begin at approximately 9:00 P.M., and will conclude at about 5:00 A.M.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc., available if requested.

Superintendent of Police Ronal Serpas said, “I would like to remind all drivers to always drink responsibly and use a designated driver”.

Serpas Signal

The experiment: Do traffic checkpoints even work in "wintry mix" conditions?



I'm asking for a friend because it figures to be a busy night out there on the roads.

Stacy Head will be guest bartender at 9 pm at Molly's on the Market tonight. Good place to gather after The Lens' party (6-9 pm at Fox 8)
— The Lens (@TheLensNOLA) January 23, 2014

So if you're attending either of these events (or traveling between them, perhaps) do be advised that safe driving practices are encouraged. 

The New Orleans Police Department’s Traffic Division will conduct a sobriety checkpoint, in Orleans Parish, on Thursday January 23, 2013, beginning at approximately 9:00 P.M. and will conclude at approximately 5:00 A.M.  Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s license, etc. 

I hope the Traffic Division officers don't have to stand out in the wintry mix conditions the entire time, though.  Or, at least, if they do, maybe they'll have a way to cope with the cold. A comforting beverage of some sort would be ideal.