Why I back NOPD should be a no-brainer. As a reasonably well adjusted ( lol) adult man, it should be expected that l support those risking life and limb for public safety. Now lets add the cultural nitroglycerine of race and see what I stir up, especially since it’s Black History Month 2017.

Hats off to the New Orleans Police Department ( NOPD ) for not quitting en masse when this morale and performance killing federal consent decree was applied to its cultural carotid artery. While many sought bluer pastures elsewhere, to the tune of a 40 year staffing shortage, enough remained in a city desperate for protectors.

Despite much publicized marches held by professional police protesters, scant attention is paid to arrests made whose net effect is fewer low income, urban lives being targeted. Every inner city gang dismantled, armed robber caught or rapist captured means our lives are spared or at least avenged in this majority Black city.

NOPD, against gale force opposition from one federal judge and police-handcuffing lawyers, nonetheless proves Black lives matter by the criminals it captures and frankly, the abuse taken trying to prove it isn’t racist to fringes who hate blue regardless of what reforms are enacted.

I’m one Black man speaking for myself and silent others when sharing why I back NOPD in a violent city needing it now more than ever. If our lives truly matter, then we who support protectors over predators can’t afford to be silent.

Happy Black History Month 2017 to the New Orleans Police Department. I even suspended my years long debate on the need for this observance to give you some well deserved credit.

Nadra Enzi aka Cap Black is creator of the Cap Black Street Patrol. 504 214 3082.