If there’s news about Louisiana as a whole, it’s usually bad news.
If you had to guess, it’s now official — Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the union.
And it doesn’t seem like things will ever change.
The University of Illinois at Chicago released a study earlier this month detailing corruption throughout the U.S. Researchers listed the most corrupt states based on federal public corruption convictions per capita between 1976 and 2010.
And, of course, Louisiana was the first state listed after Washington, D.C., which was exponentially more corrupt than any state.
Louisiana scored 2.00 corruption convictions per 10,000 people. Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania followed Louisiana in the study.
Though this is certainly bad news for the state, is it really anything new?
For some reason, we like to elect corrupt officials. It’s as though we’re attracted to them.
In 1998, former Gov. Edwin Edwards was indicted on numerous charges, including racketeering and extortion, after accepting $845,000 to locate a for-profit juvenile prison in Jena, La. Obviously, he was convicted.
An equal comic and crook, ex-Representative “Dollar” Bill Jefferson thought he could save his bribe money by hiding it in his freezer. Yep, he placed $10,000 increments in tin foil and placed them in frozen food containers (Pillsbury Pie Crust boxes, to be specific), amounting to $90,000 in delicious frozen cash.
He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2009, which was the longest sentence given to a congressman for bribery.
A grand jury recently began investigating ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for a laundry list of questionable activities, including accepting luxury travel and home maintenance by the city’s technology vendors and a granite counter-top installation contract from The Home Depot.
According to The Times-Picayune, the court has sworn testimonies that Nagin accepted flights to Hawaii and Jamaica and took a sexy ride on a private yacht stocked with Sen. David Vitter’s favorite diversion — hookers.
There have been a few other corruption cases in the past few years. While less sensational, they simply point out how easily corrupted our elected officials are.
The FBI caught a number of politicians in a 2010 sting operation. The setup, appropriately titled “Operation Blighted Officials,” set up a fake garbage can washing business to see if public officials would play into the ruse.
“The Cifer 5000 was marketed as an automated waste container cleaning system using specially designed and equipped trucks to clean and sanitize commercial and residential waste containers,” the FBI wrote in a news release.
St. Gabriel Mayor George Grace and former Port Allen Mayor Derek Lewis were indicted for allegedly using their positions to promote and obtain money for the fictional “Cifer 5000,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Grace allegedly accepted approximately $15,000 and other gifts to help the FBI’s fictitious company obtain a “Cifer 5000,” and Lewis allegedly accepted a 10 percent cut of the profits stemming from “Cifer 5000” use.
Former New Roads Mayor Tommy Nelson and former White Castle Mayor Maurice Brown are already serving sentences of 11 years and 10 years, respectively, for falling victim to the great garbage can cleaning scam.
Are our elected leaders simply stupid?
Could they not Google “Cifer 5000” to see fellow policy makers had fallen victim? And were they unaware there aren’t laws mandating the government to clean trash cans?
Some are probably pretty stupid. These guys provide bigger tax-free weekends on firearms than school supplies.
Gov. Bobby Jindal said he’s cleaning up corruption in the state, and I’d like to think it’s true.
But right now, I don’t particularly believe him. He’s more concerned with cutting education than cutting out corruption.
And besides, corruption seems to be in our Louisiana blood.
Unless the FBI keeps taking out the political trash and the media step up as watchdogs, the cycle is bound to continue.
Chris Grillot is a 20-year-old English and mass communication senior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_cgrillot.
 
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Contact Chris Grillot at [email protected].