New Orleans Mayor: 'flying coach is not safe for black women,' refuses to reimburse city

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell (D) said at a news conference Thursday that she had to fly first class on the taxpayer's dime to France and Switzerland because economy class is dangerous for a black woman, especially a black woman with a child.

Cantrell was asked if she plans to reimburse the city for $30,000 she misused to fly in luxury and she said she was not going to pay it back despite a city policy that apparently requires she do so.

“My travel accommodations are a matter of safety, not of luxury,” Cantrell claimed. “As all women know, our health and safety are often disregarded and we are left to navigate alone.”

This apparently was not an issue for her entourage who she made fly dangerous coach. When challenged on this point, she used her motherhood as the real reason.

“As the mother of a young child whom I live for, I am going to protect myself by any reasonable means in order to ensure I am there to see her grow into the strong woman I am raising her to be,” she said. “Anyone who wants to question how I protect myself just doesn’t understand the world black women walk in.”

So she used her skin color and her child to justify her misuse of city finances.

Unfortunately, nobody at the press conference asked her for actual statistics regarding violence done to black women in coach on passenger planes. If this was an issue, there would be a ton of coverage in the media, especially in cases where the media can use race as a headline with concomitant riots breaking out all over the country. But it isn't an issue--it's a lie and this grifter mayor should be made to reimburse the city coffers. 

Only Fox news coverage at the press conference even questioned her about the situation.

At yesterday’s press conference, @FOX8NOLA was the only station that asked Mayor LaToya Cantrell about whether or not she will reimburse thousands of dollars to the city for her travel upgrades.

Here’s her full statement: pic.twitter.com/swA2flFIkc

In July, the mayor flew from Washington's Dulles Airport to Switzerland at a cost of $10,000, according to The Daily Mail. The following month she went on a $43,000 mission to France, where she signed a symbolic partnership agreement with a small city on the Mediterranean Sea. Cantrell’s airfare alone cost $18,000, according to NOLA.com.

Fortunately, she flew in first class and arrived at both destinations unmolested by passengers on those flights.

The New Orleans City Council voted in August to limit travel expenses, and the city has had a longstanding policy directing employees to cover the price difference for upgrades from coach, according to the site. But Cantrell insists the law does not apply to her, mainly because she is black, a woman, a mother, and is a freaking mayor of the city which makes her above its laws and policies.

“All expenses incurred doing business on behalf of the city of New Orleans will not be reimbursed to the city of New Orleans,” she told reporters. “One thing is clear; I do my job and I will continue to do it with distinction and integrity every step of the way.

“When you look at the mayor and the budget I have for travel that I have is pennies on a dollar to a $1.4 billion organization that I lead,” Cantrell said defiantly.

The city’s law department is reportedly trying to determine if Cantrell must be required to reimburse the funds spent to upgrade her flight accommodations, but will likely rule in her favor because she is black, a woman and has a child.

In January, Cantrell spent taxpayers' money to fly first class to a Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. Her ticket cost $2,300 while her staff flew coach at a cost of $250, The Daily Mail reported. Then in March, Cantrell flew first class to Miami for a U.S. Conference of Mayors, costing the taxpayers $2,800, about nine times the cost of coach, according to 4WWL.

New Orleans residents launched a recall effort to unseat Cantrell based on her extravagant misuse of taxpayer funds and the soaring crime rate in the city. It also didn't help that she appeared in court on behalf of a 13-year-old carjacker who was being sentenced. 

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But to her credit, she did not get attacked on her first class travels and we cannot know with certainty if this would have been the case had she risked life and limb of herself and her child while flying coach. Ironically, nobody in her entourage, some of whom are black, experienced any violence on the trips.

They must have been very lucky.

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