[StBernard] St. Bernard councilman, toxic commenter get chummy: Jarvis DeBerry

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard councilman, toxic commenter get chummy: Jarvis DeBerry

Published: Tuesday, August 23, 2011, 9:30 AM

By Jarvis DeBerry 

Bea Rill knows everything. At least, that's the impression she gives me when
we talk, that if she doesn't know it, it's not to be known.

She is the information lady, after all, the sarcastic sage who greets me by
name when I dial 411, the irrepressible spirit who sometimes breaks the
telephone information rule book and places a call to me.

I called her Friday to ask if she knew the identity of "frikba," a prolific
online commenter whose postings became an issue in federal court last week
during a contempt of court hearing against St. Bernard Parish.

"Not off the top of my head," she said in a sweeter-than-normal voice, "but
if you go to lmgtfy.com, I'm sure you can find out"

"L-M-G-T-F-Y? That's an odd series of letters. What do they stand for?" I
asked, as I typed them into my address window."

"Patience, Ed Bradley. Let your computer do its job," she said.

"Oh," I said, "LMGTFY: Let me Google that for you."

"Was that so hard?" she asked.

According to the online search, "frikba" is a handle used by blogger Tinsley
Grey Sammons, "a self-educated Geezer with an abiding passion for liberty
and justice" and "a very angry, blue-collar-to-the-marrow curmudgeon" who
moved to Gonzales after his St. Bernard Parish home was destroyed by
Hurricane Katrina.

"Very angry, hunh?" Bea Rill said. "As if the white people unite comment of
a few years back didn't clue us in on that one."

St. Bernard officials have denied accusations that their dogged opposition
to Provident Realty's affordable housing units is driven by animosity for
the black tenants projected to lease at least half the apartments. An
attorney for Provident made "frikba" an issue Thursday because St. Bernard
Parish Councilman Wayne Landry seems to have become quite chummy with him in
online conversations. Was Landry aware, attorney John Relman asked him, that
"frikba" proclaimed in an online forum that "the absence of White solidarity
will destroy America?"

Landry said he had no clue.

"I can believe he didn't know," Bea Rill said. "Only a precious few of us
are omniscient. What I can't believe is his response when asked if he'd keep
on communicating with "frikba" if he did know, his refusal to categorically
reject anybody who'd make such a comment. I can't believe that in 2011 we
have politicians who can't, without hemming and hawing, declare their
opposition to white supremacists."

"Yes, it was pretty weak," I said, "He said, 'If you are asking me if I
wouldn't communicate with anyone who has different beliefs than me, I
wouldn't know how to answer you.'"

"Again, everybody ain't Bea Rill. Not everybody is as comfortable doing what
I do: I'll always stand up for what I think is right and not care what
anybody says. I can be reckless with my truth-telling. I can't expect
everybody to do that. Still, it's some kind of sad to hear Landry refuse to
even hypothetically distance himself from people spouting racist nonsense."

"He told a reporter that if he disassociated himself from people with
different views, he couldn't associate with anybody at all."

"What was that book JFK wrote before he ran for president? The one about
legislators taking unpopular stands?" she asked.

"Was it 'Profiles in Courage'?"

"That's the one," she said. "I guess the only book Landry could write would
be called 'Profiles in Cowardice.' You'd go to it when searching for an
excuse for silence, for inaction. What did Sly call it, 'a permanent crease
in your right and wrong'?"

I knew she'd throw in a musical reference at some point. "And what song did
you get that line from?" I asked.

"'Stand,' she said, something Landry has shown himself even hypothetically
unwilling to do."