Mayor Latoya Cantrell governs in the face of the strongest most organized recall efforts in New Orleans history. Belden “Noonie Man” Batiste is a driving force behind the movement. We interview him to check the progress near the halfway point. Noonie Man speaks about the recall.

Where It’s At, Where It’s Going, And Who’s Really Behind it

If you ask Noonie Man to do an interview about the recall at 8 o’clock, he will call your phone at 8 o’clock. On the dot. And text you if you don’t answer.

“Hey, I said I told the man 8 o’clock, so it’s 8 o’clock. I like to be on time, you know.”

Ain’t nothing wrong with that. But lets jump into this with the question everybody wants to know: Who’s really behind this? And what do you to say to people who say y’all are just out here repping for white people, two of them to be exact?

“Man let me tell you, listen that wasn’t true. They wanna say that most of the money came from two white men. But most of the money came from everyday people. I’m talking about Independents, Libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, people with no party. And listen, the trip part is that the same two white men who donated to us donated to the mayor. Let’s open up all 450 pages of her campaign finance and see who’s donating to her. Now, we can’t control who donate, but let me tell you this straight up: I’m running this show, me and Eileen Carter — two black people!”

Alright then, so where y’all at with the recall? You’re at the half way point right?

“Yeah we half way through. We just waiting on more mail outs to come back, you know. The first batch came back in. And we were impressed with the first batch, so I think we doing good.”

Belden “Noonie Man” Batiste

Noonie Man Speaks About the Recall

How y’all looking signature-wise?

“The last time we counted we were like at 30%. But after the holidays we doing another count, you know. So I would say by the end of December we should know where we at.”

Who’s counting these signatures?

The Secretary of State.”

Now that we’ve all had our stockings stuffed with mail out petitions, what’s the next move?

“I don’t want the mayor knowing our next move. But it’s time to get aggressive. Even with the mayor giving us a gift everyday.”

Speaking of gifts, is the drama behind appointing a new police chief an early Christmas present?

“Man let me tell you, The lady she’s trying to put in there couldn’t lead a 3rd grade class down the street. She don’t have a plan, and the mayor don’t want her to have a plan.”

Mayor LaToya Cantrell

Why wouldn’t the mayor want the new chief to have a plan?

“Because she wants to be in control. People been there [the NOPD] 20 years and didn’t get a promotion. And you gon tell me somebody come in one or two years, and you give’em a promotion? That’s why 86% of the police said they not satisfied. It’s not about the consent decree. It’s not about the pay. But it is about favoritism, nepotism, sexism, and cronyism. I talked to the police. She not worried about qualifications. She just wants somebody she can control.”

Noonie Man Speaks About the Recall

Her defying the Council might be good for more signatures, right? But if she relents, then maybe she’s starting to show signs of a mayor ready to work together and compromise.

“The citizens voted for the Council to have confirmation over her appointees. So if you go ahead and appoint a chief, you piss the people off. If you bring somebody in and do a national search that’s going to take a year and a half. So we in a pickle. We gotta see if we can get somebody within the force or somebody else who knows how to run it.”

Besides the chief, she’s even given y’all the gift of Marc Morial too, right?

“She gives us a gift everyday. But yeah, she threw him under the bus when she named names. Talking about the apartment, she was like ‘Mitch Landrieu did it. Marc Morial did it.’ That was a mistake, playing with Marc like that. I knew Marc was going to clear his name. He straight up said she was lying about the apartment.”

All this gift giving and yet there’s still a lot of signatures left to get.

“People always doubting us. They said we wasn’t getting off the ground. But we off the ground. They said we wasn’t getting the money. Now we got the money. We doing everything. I even challenged the mayor to a debate. Guess what I wanted to call it? The Rumbo in The Gumbo. We reached out to her about it.”

I’m sure she didn’t respond to that.

“Nope. She won’t debate me, because I’m a hit her on the hard questions.”

Well, 2 months to go until February 22nd, how do you see this actually playing out?

“This is what I think: either the recall is going to happen, she resigns, or the FBI gets her behind the fraud in the Wisner Fund. She won’t release the names of the people getting money because it’s all her friends. That’s what’s going to nail her.”

What’s the last thing you want the people to know?

“The mayor can talk all she wants. But are you doing the job? That’s what the people wanna know. And she’s not. But we gotta get this city moving, bruh. If we leave this lady there for 3 more years, we done.”

We shall see. Come February 22nd the people will let it be known if they’re ready to stick a fork in her or not. Stay tuned.

5 thoughts on “Noonie Man Speaks About The Recall”
  1. That’s my nookie man batiste him and Ellen doing a great job supporting the people when we people sees the Mayor not Not doing her job its time to go our city had went down the drain when she got into the office her and her petsey to say we the city is the Capitol murder of rate and nothing being done about it That’s mean the mayor don’t care fr the city its time for her to go we’re tired of murders..carjacking and etc…Recall Cantrell

  2. I love Noonie. And I support his tenancity in his endeavors. He is an American citizen exercising his rights. With that said I do not support this recall effort. I think it’s a big distraction in a city that needs a lot of work. This mayor is not dragging the city down. Who cares about the Pontabla apartments? No one knew it even existed and now we’re worried about who is going in and out of it. As it relates to the police chief. If the mayor is the boss of the police chief of course she wants to be able to control them. But I doubt she’s looking for the worse person. And the mayor has the right to choose until the law takes affect. And even after the law takes affect the mayor has the right to choose. You can’t tell the mayor how to choose the person. The law doesn’t give the council that authority. But I could be wrong. Streets are being fixed. The pumping system is getting the power it needs. NORDC continues to have programming. Still doing first time home buyer programs. SWB is still figuring out how to stabilize their billing. Ferguson is finally getting his people to solve the outstanding crimes and make some arrest Annnnnddddd inform the public. Is she perfect, no? This is pure misogynoir. Let’s work with this mayor to move this city forward. If we spend this much time on the mayor trust and believe the AG will walk into the office of the governor. And eyes have not seen and ears have not heard what a disaster to human rights, the environment and education that will be. I love y’all and I’m hoping that everyone in New Orleans wins. Including the mayor and Noonie and others.

  3. Can’t sign the recall, but the Pontabla, misuses of the publics money, Officer Vappie, the Congo Square proposal without public concerns being taken seriously, Bayou Phoenix still being drugged through the mill, are more than concerning. I’m just waiting for her term to end. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I approved of her handling of the Covid pandemic

  4. When Marc was mayor, the city was called the “murder capitol.” When Mitch was mayor, there was talk about his infidelity and as a result, a ‘love child.’ When Ray was mayor, he ended up in jail. LaToya’s not perfect, but if a recall was to happen, I don’t see anyone else in this city that can step into the job of mayor. Crime is running rampant in all major cities. It’s mainly because of the economy. Marc couldn’t stop the crime until he hired Pennington. There’s a lot more going on than the public can see.
    I agree with Raymond Sweet.

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