I’ll always remember Sheriff Harry Lee as kind of the Godfather of Jefferson Parish. There’s no doubt about it that the “Chinese Cowboy” was a Good Ol’ Boy Louisiana politician but just as he was controversial and sometimes a little crazy, he was loved, respected, influential, and he was one of the few politicians who not only came through Katrina unscathed by the catastrophe but almost heroic.
When FEMA for some unfathomable reason cut the communication lines in Jefferson Parish after the storm, it was Harry Lee who sent in his armed deputies to reconnect the lines and post guards, determined that no one was going to mess around with his territory. And Harry Lee kept looting and crime low after the storm by increasing patrols of abandoned areas of Jefferson Parish. When FEMA told WAL-Mart and Sams to remain closed despite the need by locals in the area for supplies, Harry Lee “commandeered” the ones in his area and instructed them to open anyway.
This was the man in crisis mode after over two decades of service and he kept it together with the same loyalty from his staff that he always demanded and received. He did things his way and that worked. I’m not saying that he was ever the ideal politician. He was, after all, a politician, and a Louisiana politician at that. However, he was one of the good ones in my mind. He got things done, despite some of his methods, the all-to-classic and sometimes amusing clashes with N.O.P.D., and the racial profiling that appeared to be part of his methods. I can’t help but smile now as I think back on when he called for open season on the overpopulation of nutria taking over the parish or that old family restaurant of his with its Mount Rushmore-like Harry Lee head that sat next to Lakeside Mall forever — what a sad day when they tore it down to put in a Borders.
The point is that when I heard yesterday that Sheriff Harry Lee had died, I felt true loss and I shed honest, heartfelt tears for the man. For Jefferson Parish, it really is the end of an era.
Recommended Reading: Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee Dies [The Times-Picayune]
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That’s a really nice tribute. I’d read about him before, but I didn’t realize he’d died.
Yeah, he was one of those politicians you expected to live forever.
He will be sorely missed. There will not likely be another like him for a long time to come.
K