NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was enjoying carnival season perhaps a little too much as she was caught on video appearing to make a shocking gesture as she rode on a float during Mardi Gras.
A statement was issued Sunday night by the mayor’s Communications Director Gregory Joseph attempted to portray the incident in a playful night.
“Mardi Gras is a time where satire and jest are on full display,” Joseph wrote. “The City has been enjoying a safe and healthy Carnival and is looking forward to continuing the celebration on Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras.”
In the video, Cantrell is heard yelling, “I love you. God bless you. I’ll see you. Happy Mardi Gras. Enjoy your ride. So glad your ride was good. Love you.” As she says the final two words, she pointedly raises a middle finger toward the riders.
Cantrell is under scrutiny for lavish travel, commandeering a city-owned apartment in the French Quarter, and being entangled in a divorce filing of a member of the city’s police department.
She is facing a recall over her handling of the COVID-19 disaster and what her detractors call “lavish spending” on the taxpayer’s dime.
“This was pretty shocking,” said Fox 8 political analyst Dr. Robert Collins, a professor of public policy at Dillard University. “I’m a former political PR person myself. … I have never seen a mayor behave this way — any mayor. So, it was pretty shocking.
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Mr. Collins hasn’t been to Inglewood where Mayor James T. Butts was caught on film telling a resident to “choke herself”, has the city spending excessive amounts of taxpayer dollars on legal fees for his consensual affair with his subordinate, and his driving through a red light and injuring multiple people including an LAPD motor officer.
The City is expected to lose millions of dollars as a direct result of Butts’ behavior.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
