Last year, when Vanessa Caston LaFleur was running for a seat in the Louisiana Legislature, she went to the community and asked potential voters what the top three issues they wanted her to deal with. Easy, right?
The first-time candidate believed her district would rank business development and job creation in the top three. Keep that thought.
Last Saturday night after leaving a nearby event, she drove down Bennington Avenue and witnessed dozens of young people milling around outside of a nightclub called Dior. That so many people were outside bothered her. Actually, it made her a bit nervous.
She spotted a police unit near the crowd, so she felt a little better. There was some security. They would be a deterrent, she thought.
Later that night, 12 people were shot or injured at the club. By midday, the local and national news was reporting a “mass shooting” in Baton Rouge. Guns and violence had struck the Capital City and in particular, young Black people, yet again.
Days afterward, in a conversation about the shooting, LaFleur said she understands better now the results of asking her constituents their top three issues. “They gave me only two — crime and education,” she said.
The shooting has deeper, more personal meaning and frustration for LaFleur. One of the seriously wounded is her nephew, who was the DJ at the Dior event.
“My heart hurts,” she said, as her nephew and the family deal with his injury and his future.
LaFleur, an attorney, took office in April representing the 101st District, which is 70% Black. Baton Rouge’s Black community has witnessed and complained for years about the growing and deadly violence.
Most studies have shown that gun violence disproportionately impacts racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods. And the incidences are usually highly concentrated in a relatively small number of neighborhoods that have historically been under-resourced and racially segregated.
The usual finding is that the location of violence is rooted in a lack of safe housing, along with satisfactory educational and employment opportunities.
The Dior shooting was the usual location. It was right near restaurants, bars, businesses and hotels. And it is near two upper middle-income subdivisions.
“People are wondering if any place is safe,” LaFleur said, adding that the Bennington location has probably drawn more attention than if it was one of the lower-income areas of town.
Even the presence of uniformed police and their vehicles was not a deterrent in this case.
“Where are we missing the value of life?” she asked. “Why does something like this happen?”
Investigators have said the shooting was a targeted event, meaning one or more people were the targets. Yet many others were shot because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. That's a situation happening a lot in Black communities in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and around the country.
“This kind of random shooting means we’re missing something,” she said.
She argues for parenting programs; she wants major supporters of the pro-life movement to not forget about the children after birth. They should be supporters of programs that can help them and their parents navigate the problems of life.
About year ago, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and the Baton Rouge Police Department announced crime prevention initiatives that included SWAT teams, deployment of drones, the involvement of the District Attorney’s Office, judges, and federal and state law enforcement agencies.
The number of homicides dropped in 2022 by 23%. Nonfatal shootings dropped by 11%. But there were a high number of shootings related to confrontation and disputes.
Even if more law enforcement would be available that would not be a solution, she said: “You can’t lock everyone up.”
LaFleur said she and others believe there should be a push to finance more afterschool and parenting programs, along with additional funding to expand mental health care.
She says she wants her fellow legislators along with local government and community officials to meet to develop long-range plans to fight the problem.
“I want to be at that table,” she said.
Email Edward Pratt, a former newspaperman, at epratt1972@yahoo.com.