Editorial: The Murder Mayor Must Go

In the wake of unspeakable brutality from our police department and the solidarity of our people to demand change -and under the constant threat of unwarranted continued police abuse- the response from our elected mayor, as well as the response of the LMPD is unfathomable. It is almost difficult to describe despite the amount of international coverage in the ongoing belligerent attitude of our local government.

Not that we, here at 37FLOOD, haven't tried. Soon after being elected we began to post editorials about Greg Fischer's criminal  dealings in the Mayor's Office; from raiding the city's coffers in blatant sweetheart landholding deals, such as selling city property well below market value for his friends to immediately flip for handsome profits to his forgivable loans to developers to gentrify low income neighborhoods pushing Louisville's poor into even worse financial situations and using the 'Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund' as a way for Fischer to hand over city funds to his developer buddies so they can have free money to buy up properties in low income neighborhoods and make a fortune with our tax dollars by gentrifying the areas causing one of the biggest cost-of-living increases in the US in the last decade.

It was horrifying the way our mayor so unabashedly targeted and destroyed our lower income citizens for profit causing a major jump in families living in poverty (according to the U.S. Census). But his actions could almost be understood as the actions of a greedy & powerful privileged dick putting profits over human lives, horrifying yes, but sadly we've gotten apathetic to the actions of privileged dicks. But somewhere in his second term his actions took a different tone, seemingly not motivated by stealing vast sums of money from the people, but something even more dark.  After brokering dirty deals, like giving $30 million of the city's money for the soccer arena in a move that further punished the poor and shot the cost of living through the roof he refused to raise minimum wage over $9/hr causing a 34% increase in residents who pay more than 50% of their earnings to housing costs. And after sweeping the poorest into the street to die in order to steal money hand over fist Fischer seemed to enjoy making the process as painful and humiliating as possible for our city's most vulnerable. If that wasn't bad enough he waited until December 8th, 2017, in freezing temperatures, to bulldoze a homeless camp on the arena property in a heartless move that could only be described as sadistic.

By then the mayor was into his third term and without worrying about a reelection he seemed to really ramp up his criminal actions, beyond dirty business deals into behaviour that is more related to ruthless barbarism. While similarly sized cities like Minneapolis have voted to replace the police force with a community-led model, the mayor releases his budget proposal for next year, a whopping $190 million for the police, and just $34 million for public health.  He hasn't even gotten Louisville's Covid-19 Contact Tracing Program started yet and the first reported case in Louisville was early March.

  It's hard to understand his sadistic actions when there doesn't seem to be any monetary or political gain, only for the sake of crushing others because he can. In this defining moment in our city Fischer has the chance to become a great leader, to make solid changes and heal a community in pain, but instead is choosing to show his might as the world shakes its head in confusion and horror. He won't even release the name of (much less fire) the officer who purposely fired rubber bullets at a news crew filming live on air during the protests. The officer, known only as L6, is still on the job after shooting, reloading, and shooting again on the WAVE 3 news crew who were behind police lines and not breaking any law. What is the point of keeping brutal cops on the force besides showing your power during a time when condemnation is coming in from literally the entire world? Other cities are cracking down on police that abuse peaceful protestors but the mayor is going to great lengths to protect them at the expense of the community.

As the world mourns the death of Breonna Taylor and the nation's cities are burning, the Mayor has done more to thumb his nose at a grieving city and make matters worse. The LMPD did all it could to lie, slow up investigations, and railroad Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker, and the mayor did nothing. The Police said they knocked during a No-Knock warrant, witnesses said they did not, using  a battering ram to kick in the door. The police originally said Taylor shot at them although Walker admitted to firing the single shot at police, and only after Taylor repeatedly called out asking the intruders to announce themselves.

The Mayor could say he helped the attempted murder charges against Walker get dropped, but that was 2 months later. He could say they released Walker's 911 call, but that was only after Taylor's family released it first, and the city still won't release 911 calls from witnesses. The Mayor could say he fired the Police Chief, but that was after Conrad announced he was retiring at the end of the month anyway. The 'You Can't Quit Because You're Fired' defense is of little consolation. He could say He signed Breonna's Law banning No-Knock Warrants, but after a unanimous vote by the city council he had little choice. The choices he does have, he has chosen to do next to nothing. The officers involved in Taylor's killing are still on the force. The killers of George Floyd were fired and arrested. The mayor could have at least put them on leave but he didn't, and one of the officers, Brett Hankison, has 15 years worth of complaints against him including rape and serious bodily injury against another officer and is not only still on the job but a member of the Louisville Police Merit Board. When Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear demanded the body cam footage from the officers at David McAtee's killing the mayor said none of the police turned their cams on. This insolence doesn't end and Louisville is paying the price with human lives.  What does it take for a brutal officer to be removed from the force besides retiring? Either the LMPD has some major dirt on the mayor keeping him from doing the slightest thing to curtail police corruption or he is just drunk on his own power keeping him from protecting us. When the LMPD famously walked out on the mayor showing their absolute disregard for the law and chain of command again the mayor did nothing and we are getting murdered over it.

The mayor can't do one thing to pretend like he gives a damn but just continues to show his disdain for justice and civility. After 3 long months of non-action the city finally released its report on Taylor's  death, a report the whole world would see, and it was a big 'Fuck You' to Taylor's family, the Racial Justice Movement, and to the city of Louisville. He knew the world would be waiting for this report, so to release a nearly blank document that basically only includes only the time, date, case number and the victim's name, and the misinformation stating Taylor received no injuries, and that there was no forced entry is beyond blatant incompetence, it is simply criminal. Unions are important, but in the case of the FOP, this is a union that aides in facilitating murder and shielding lawbreakers from justice. We need to follow Minneapolis and Canton in a complete restructure of the police force before more innocent lives are lost to a corrupt local government.
If the mayor can deem the Police Chief unfit, we as a city need to call Greg Fischer unfit for office (if not brought up on human rights abuse charges) and demand his removal immediately before more lives are lost to his incompetence, his disregard to the health and safety of our city, and his flagrant abuse of power. Greg Fischer's continual actions (and inaction in the case of the LMPD) are literally killing innocent Louisvillians. If we love our city the time is now to demand a change.

In 2017, after a record breaking year of homicides (124 in 2016), the Metro Council gave a vote of no-confidence of Louisville police Chief Steve Conrad and recommended that the mayor replace him. Imagine the brutality that would have not happened if he had, or the lives that could have been saved. Instead the mayor not only ignored the council but lashed out against them, saying "too many (council) members are just critics and simplistically target one person for a complex problem." (which is what he himself did after the killing of McAtee) adding that "Chief Conrad and the dedicated men and women of the LMPD have my full support and appreciation, and clearly that of the vast majority of Louisville citizens." The mayor clearly has no idea what the vast majority of citizens want, or doesn't care, and he certainly has no control over the police that have shown they will do what they want, and if they don't like what the mayor is doing, they walk out on him. It is time to end this cycle of violence. Please contact your Metro Councilperson now and demand Greg Fischer be removed from office. It's very easy, just click the link and leave a message demanding immediate action be taken now before more lives are lost.

You can also email the US Conference of Mayors here voice your opposition to Greg Fischer as the Vice President and incoming President of their organization. 

Editorial: Vote Gillzo For Kentucky State Clown

Today is election day for Kentucky's Primary Election, including the primary election for Governor. I'm sure a lot of people skip the primary, only concerning themselves with the election between Democrat and Republican. Although the past few years has taught us that a two-party system is much like the two sides of the same oligarchical coin. This is especially true locally; with the mayor, Greg Fischer, raiding the city's coffers at a lightning pace for his last term in office; handing our hard earned tax dollars over to his friends in blatant sweetheart landholding deals, such as selling city property well below market value for his friends to immediately flip for handsome profits, and in forgivable loans to developers to gentrify low income neighborhoods pushing Louisville's poor into even worse financial situations. 

The most current and disgusting display is the 'Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund' that is supposed to be a city fund to help stop the runaway rental costs in our town, and help overburdened residents stay in their neighborhoods, but is instead the exact opposite; It's become a way for Fischer to hand over city funds to his developer buddies so they can have free money to buy up properties in low income neighborhoods and make a fortune (with our tax dollars) by gentrifying the areas.

It's horrifying the way our city government so unashamedly targets and destroys our lower income citizens for profit; and how the mayor has stopped trying to connivence us he's a nice guy now that he has run out of terms in office and just wants to cash in as many chips as possible before he has to hand the keys back; but after Fischer is gone, there could be a bigger threat: Gill Holland.

I used to equate Holland as the dim-witted sidekick to Fischer that so badly wanted to be Fischer but was more like Pinky to The Brain, or Cooky The Clown to Fischer's Bozo.   Fischer, as diabolical as he is, is smart and cunning, and was able to trick us into 3 terms as mayor as he sold every piece and parcel he could of our city funds. Holland, on the other hand, so desperately wants to be the evil genius his hero Fischer is, but is so unbelievably bad at it that he has become the laughing stock of the town.

Lately he seems more like one of those clown punching bags that you can hit as hard as you want and it still eventually stands back up. We have all become too familiar with Holland's failed schemes and self proclaimed importance, that I think we have become anesthetized to his current big boy plans.

 He still touts his alleged genius on his websites of gentrifying Downtown, although he really just waltzed in after the gold rush with his wife's checkbook and pushed to change the name of my birthplace to the nonsensical name NULU.   But he thought he somehow was the evil genius that displaced hundreds of hardworking Louisvillians (including myself) and sent property rates so high that not even middle income families can afford them. Then he set his sights on Portland and promised everyone he could build an empire there on the backs and in the blood of more lower income Louisville families, and failed miserably. More than 5 years later (We first reported on it in 2013)  and even with mountains of money and using every dirty gentrifying trick in the book, He is still trying to connivence us he can do it.

In March of last year it was announced that the city's Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund was handing Holland's Urban Acupuncture company (No joke y'all, that's what he calls it) $1 Million dollars (also no joke) to build a housing complex at 2506 Montgomery Ave in Portland. Of course Holland likes to pretend that he is some do-gooding altruistic savior trying to help the people he is destroying.  The motto of his company is "Doing Well By Doing Good." No joke, but still very laughable on both accounts.

We aren't surprised when rich privileged guys do really awful things; but why do they always have to act like they are wonderful saviors worthy of praise and thanks? That's what really gets me. They push hundreds of Louisvillians into homeless camps by making the cost of living unattainable and then bulldoze the camps in the middle of winter, and then throw a press conference about how compassionate and wonderful they are.

Fischer said of the new affordable housing project "When families are cost-burdened by their rent, they have to give up other things like time with children, food or other essentials. The allocation by LAHTF will open housing opportunities for people who need them."

But in reality he gave forgivable loans to Holland who plans to rent one bedroom units at a little over $1,000 per month. The current median household income in Portland is $25,851. Which means he wants to rent apartments that go for 50% of the annual income of a family in that area. Which really means this isn't for existing Portland residents. This is designed to gentrify the area and drive up rents beyond what the existing population can afford. And this isn't being done with private money, but  public (our) money allocated for "affordable housing" which means the city government is actively sponsoring the income gap and overburdening working families in Louisville.

So Fischer is a smart bad guy that figured out how to clean out the city money; Holland gets this money but is pretty bad at what he does and flounders most of the time. But that's the problem with privileged guys with money; it doesn't matter how bad they are at something when they have endless funds to keep doing damage.

Remember when Holland ran for city council in 2016? Probably not since he did really poorly in it.
And by the way he was representing District 16; which is not the district where Portland is located (where he claims to be helping), but the district where Norton Commons is located, the neighborhood that so famously tried to stop anyone who made less than $50k a year from living in (further speaking to Holland's motives of revitalizing poor neighborhoods). But he couldn't even connivence a bunch of classist monsters that he could crush the lower classes into submission.

But such the punching bag that he is; He got back up on his feet and kept going. He doesn't seem to mind that his attempts to be important are met with bemusement or outright laughter; He just wants it so bad. So it was no surprise to see he is  running for Lieutenant Governor under Adam Edelen. Didn't know he was running? No surprise, he hasn't seemed to be all that great at campaigning.

But the issue is that he is trying to sneak in under someone else's coat. And If he can siphon millions from the city's funds now by sucking up to Fischer, imagine the damage he could do as Lieutenant Governor. This guy wants to be important so bad that he has actually listed wanting to be Lieutenant Governor as viable experience on his Linkedin page!

Laughable I know, but someone this delusional could really make life more difficult for the working families in Kentucky (Look no further than Trump for proof on that). And we can't risk that. As proud Kentuckians it is our duty to look after our own, not watch them be exploited by power hungry classists. 

So I am urging you today to please go vote, and please vote for anyone at all that you think won't be a punishment to working families. We have learned that privileged millionaires don't have our best interests in mind; and that they seem to not really have a right mind at all, no matter if they call themselves Republican or Democrat. If we wait until the General election then it becomes a race of picking the least horrible privileged guy; but if we get Gillzo The Clown out of the Democratic race now, it won't be so much of a faustian bargain in the general. 

Editorial: How to deal with Louisville's Refuges of Economicide

John King with his 'My Dream For Lou' photo and essay
(with white bar covering Gill Holland's name) at Muhammad Ali Center 

Reading last week's 'Reader's Choice' edition of The LEO I was surprised by comments made by Executive Editor Aaron Yarmouth when describing Gill Holland's Award for Best Entrepreneur.   Yarmouth lays out his reasoning why 'We all owe' Holland 'a huge thank you' for transforming the East Market District -what Yarmouth called a 'drive-past territory'- into a 'thriving hub' that Holland renamed 'NULU'.

     At first glance I am sure many readers didn't catch the comment that is so shocking to me, and I am sure Aaron Yarmouth didn't realize himself the implications he was making.  As a contributing writer for the LEO I know first hand how compassionate and thoughtful the young Editor is; as is evident in his actions, after reading this essay of giving his blessing for me to air my grievance in calling my childhood home a 'drive-past territory'. I think it would have been more meaningful if the LEO had published this letter themselves, but after losing one job recently for my political views, I really don't need to lose the other..  And I think the Leo is already learning a big lesson in undermining their reader's voice,  after the fallout of them vetoing the reader's choice of Amari King's award.

 Regardless of how you feel about the gentrification of the East Market District, and the replacement of it's people and businesses with more 'acceptable' people and businesses, surely you would take exception to anyone referring to your neighborhood as not worth noticing.

     I grew up at Clay and East Market st, and as the popularity of the neighborhood grew I was slowly pushed outward (living at times on main st, Washington st, and Franklin st) until I could no longer afford to live in the area I called home. It is heartbreaking that a respected media outlet like the LEO  would so casually suggest that my home, my family, my friends, are not worth acknowledging.  Unfortunately the casual dismissal of Louisville's poor has become all too common in recent years and lately becoming outright hostile at times as we have seen with residents in the Norton Commons neighborhood coming together in an effort to stop anyone who makes less than $50,000 a year from living there. Which, by the way, is no where even close to the poverty line,  but shows the contempt that some members in our community have for those who even slightly do not resemble Privilege.
 
  Even in well meaning efforts to help those targeted and displaced by the Gentrification of urban Louisville come across as insulting. Last Thursday I attended the 10th annual Center of Health Equity's public forum with the Mayor. Concerns about poor people displaced by the gentrification of Louisville's Downtown were raised, and the most popular solution was that the city build 'Affordable Housing Units' in every neighborhood so that the burden of housing poor folks would be equal across the city. Now, I've attended the Center's meetings before, and most of the members are truly well meaning, but as someone who has never crossed the poverty line, I am tired of being referred to as a burden, as not worth noticing, or as not being good enough to live in certain parts of my own city.

       But the main issue I see with all the recent conversations in the media over gentrification and displacement of poor people is this: Louisville's poor aren't allowed in to the conversation about what is happening to them and what should be done for them.  I don't want to be warehoused in an 'affordable housing' project in a neighborhood that I have no ties to and that doesn't want me anyway. I want to be in my neighborhood where I grew up, where my family and friends live, and worship at the spiritual center of my choice, but I can't because that neighborhood no longer exists.      
 Real estate speculators started buying up cheap properties and replacing poor tenants with those who could pay 3 or 4 times as much on rent, and this happened long before Holland took it upon himself to change the name of my neighborhood and aggressively began seeking investors in property speculation. But he does deserve some credit to the dismantling and displacement of an entire community.  For changing the name of a place does a lot when trying to assume control of a people. Erasing the history of a people is the first step in conquering them. We see this quite often, especially recently by the Islamic State by destroying the cultural heritage of the people of Iraq, Syria, and Libya. By erasing a community's history we devalue their social capitol making it easier to divide and conquer them. Holland's actions are no different.

      Some have argued that the quality of the structures in the East Market District and also in Portland were poor, and the gentrification of these areas are saving the historical buildings. But you must keep in mind that poor people by and large do not own the houses they live in. Rich people do. If the state of the buildings are sub-standard it is not the fault of the occupants but the landlords. Despite popular belief poor people do not enjoy living in squalor, we are forced to by lack of options, opportunity, and the support of the governing body.

    What is happening to the poor neighborhoods by property speculators such as Gill Holland (or how he describes it "private-sector community revitalization") is deplorable, and the health and well being of a community should not be in the hands of the private sector but in the hands of the community itself.  But the true extent of what is happening is not widely known because the local government and the city's media outlets refuse to allow those who are being exploited a voice. How can opponents of gentrification speak out against Holland's efforts when he himself is on the Board of Directors at Louisville Public Media, and has been publicly endorsed by the LEO in the very article thanking him for 'transforming a drive-past area'?

(Full disclosure I worked at Louisville Public Media until last month when I was abruptly let go).

         To toot my own horn for a minute, during the Health Equity Meeting on Thursday several photographs and essays were on display for the 'My Dream of Lou Photovoice' exhibit at the Muhammad Ali Center, and two photos and two essays I submitted were chosen for it.
In one essay I wrote about the issues surrounding gentrification and I mentioned Greg Fischer and Gill Holland by name; specifically Fischer's promise to veto any minimum wage increase over $9/hr, as well as Holland's recent targeting of Portland for 'private sector revitalization'. When the essay was displayed a bar was added covering Holland's name (see photo above). Too be fair, the government office in charge informed me they would be redacting  Holland's name from my essay, but this sort of behavior is not democratic and is teetering into some very dark waters. Especially since Gil Holland is not just a public figure but also (since January of this year) has been running for public office.

Holland announced his bid for city council representing District 16; which is not the district where Portland is located (were he claims to be helping), but the district where Norton Commons is located (further speaking to Holland's motives of revitalizing poor neighborhoods).

      Questioning and voicing opposition of public officials and those running for office is protected by the First Amendment and at the very least our governing body cannot censor speech critical of itself, and for that matter media outlets should allow more than one side of the conversation to be voiced.

     My intent here is not to try and connivence you that Gill Holland's actions have caused immeasurable harm to entire communities for profit and personal benefit (although I firmly believe this). But no matter how you feel about someone,  no public figure or a candidate for public office should be untouchable from critical debate, and no community should be ignored. My hope is that as a community we realize that the most affected group in this situation is being ignored and dismissed and that as Louisvillians we realize that all of us deserve dignity, protection, and a voice.

Editor's Note: You can help by reaching out to your Louisville councilperson asking for more oversight in 'revitalization' efforts, Government policies that protect and help low income families, and an end to government censorship of oppositional voices. You can email your councilperson by following this link. You can contact local media outlets asking for equal representation for opponents of Gill Holland and his For-Profit Business practices, and to release public support of public officials or those running for office as board members of media outlets in the name of transparency and democracy.  Here is a list of local media outlets you can reach out to: Louisville Public Media, LEO, Courier Journal.

One of King's photo/ essays chosen for the
My Dream For Lou exhibit at the Muhammad Ali Center