Harry Lee
Encyclopedia
Harry Lee was the long-time sheriff
of Jefferson Parish
, Louisiana
. He was first elected in 1979, as the 30th Sheriff, and was re-elected six times, serving twenty eight years and six months. He is the older brother of Playboy
magazine's first Asian-American centerfold, China Lee
.
. When they were old enough, he and his siblings, eventually numbering eight, were given jobs in the laundry and later in the family's restaurants, including the House of Lee in Metairie.
He got a firsthand taste of politics early, at age 12, when he was elected president of the newly formed student body government at Shaw Elementary School. Each year after that, he was elected to class office. During his senior year at Francis T. Nicholls
High School (now Frederick Douglass
Senior High School), he was president of both his senior class and the student body, a school first.
He earned a bachelor's degree in geology
from Louisiana State University
, served in the Air Force in Texas
and married Lai Lee, then returned to Louisiana in 1959. That was the year that the family began construction on the House of Lee, where Mr. Lee would meet the man who became his political mentor, Hale Boggs
. For six years he worked as Boggs' driver and confidant when the congressman was back home in Louisiana.
Soon, Lee decided that public service was the career for him and saw law school as an entree. He took classes at Loyola University School of Law
while working 12-hour days at the family's restaurant.
After law school, he set up a small practice with classmate Marion Edwards, now an appellate judge. With Boggs' help, he was appointed the first magistrate for the U.S. District Court in New Orleans, and in 1975 he became chief attorney for Jefferson Parish
.
Four years later, with Sheriff Al Cronvich embroiled in a wire-tapping scandal, Lee saw a chance to plunge into electoral politics. Assailing the corruption and inefficiency of the Sheriff's Office, he ran as a reform candidate, led the five-candidate primary and took 57 percent of the runoff vote to defeat Cronvich.
He immediately gave deputies raises and poured money into the Sheriff's Office, computerizing it for the first time. He also began to build a political machine that would become one of the largest in southern Louisiana, although his record of getting others elected was spotty.
.
His death came less than three weeks before he hoped to win an eighth term in office. Lee had qualified to run in the October 20 primary against Harahan Police Chief Peter Dale and contractor Julio Castillo. State law requires qualifying to reopen if a candidate dies before the election is held.
Lee was re-elected regularly by huge margins even as he managed to become embroiled in controversy. Defying every notion of political good sense, he unabashedly - and often indelicately - took stands considered taboo by most politicians. His shoot-from-the-hip style often made his closest advisers cringe even as it endeared him to voters.
"I think people like me because I do a good job and because I tell it like it is", he once said. "If you ask me something, I'll give you an answer, straight up. People may not like it, but I'm not going to sugarcoat it."
One of Mr. Lee's most famous assaults on political sensibilities came in 1986 when he ordered his deputies, in the wake of a suburban crime spree, to stop black men for no reason other than driving "rinky-dink cars" in predominantly white neighborhoods. The order, later rescinded, prompted calls for his immediate resignation and landed him in the national news. Years later, he said he really didn't understand what all the fuss was about and blamed the news media for blowing his order - which he called "good police practice" - out of proportion.
Their fears were often expressed in stark racial terms, and they found vent for a time in the divisive rhetoric of an aspiring politician named David Duke
, whom Metairie residents sent as one of their representatives to the state Legislature.
Once Lee was accused of trying to separate the races by issuing an order erecting a barricade on a street at the line dividing majority-black New Orleans and majority-white East Jefferson. Mr. Lee turned the story—although false—into political capital. "Depending on who I'm talking to", he said, "I either take credit for the barricade or I don't." On another occasion, he defended his decision to yank deputies out of an all-black neighborhood in Avondale after residents complained about police brutality.
When an 8-year-old girl was raped in March 1998, the police initially described two black males as the culprits. Lee was criticized for declaring every black man in the subdivision a suspect. He apologized for any offense but insisted the practice was not racist. In fact, friends said the sheriff was so personally shaken by the vicious attack on the girl, who was also black, that he pulled out all the stops to solve the case.
"I'm going to catch that bastard, and when I catch him, he is going to be black," he said. "I just don't give a damn what people think of me anymore. If that was their daughter and we weren't doing that, they would be on our ass." Several days later, he personally placed the girl's stepfather under arrest for the rape. In 2003, a jury sentenced the stepfather to death.
Despite the apparent missteps, his popularity grew from the time he took office, particularly among whites. In 1994, a survey for The Times-Picayune showed that 84% of Jefferson Parish residents had a favorable impression of the sheriff, including 91% of whites. The same poll showed that, while almost nine out of 10 people thought he "tells it like it is", six of 10 thought he should sometimes keep his mouth shut.
Lee's widespread popularity gave him some political capital in the face of criticism about his management of the Sheriff's Office. A 1993 study by one government watchdog group lambasted his handling of the Sheriff's Office then-$60 million budget; the same group gave him higher marks in a follow-up study a few years later.
The worst political scare of his career had to do with crime and nothing to do with race, his fiscal management or his controversial remarks. It came in 1985, when voters learned that a convicted rapist named Brian Busby was allowed to wander Jefferson Parish unsupervised during the day, instead of being locked down in state prison elsewhere. Mr. Lee had granted Busby special privileges as a favor to a Parish Council member. Ten days after the disclosure, Busby was sent to the Louisiana State Peniteniary at Angola. Lee's approval rating plunged. A year later, however, after a series of Metairie robberies in which white shoppers were followed to their homes and held up at gunpoint in their driveways by African-American men, Lee made the following statement, which either almost ended or saved his career:
Outrage was immediate, and Mr. Lee quickly cancelled the order and apologized as the NAACP called for his resignation. When he ran for his third term the next year, however, Lee failed to win the primary, but defeated Art Lentini in the runoff with 54 percent of the vote.
.
At this time, he also attended Loyola University New Orleans
School of Law
, where he was elected president of the student chapter of the Bar Association
. Lee graduated in 1967 and started a small law practice in Gretna
with Loyola classmate Marion Edwards (not to be confused with the brother of future Governor Edwin Washington Edwards - whom Lee was a very avid supporter of - who shares the same name).
Lee was appointed as a magistrate judge
for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
in 1971. He was elected President of the National Council of United States Magistrates in 1973. He was invited to join the congressional delegation to the People's Republic of China
in 1972, which was led by House Majority Leader Hale Boggs
from Louisiana, and House Minority Leader and future U.S. President Gerald Ford
. He resigned as a Federal Magistrate in 1975 and was appointed Parish Attorney for Jefferson Parish.
Art Lentini
, later a state senator
, and he was forced into a general election
, but he managed to win by 54-46 percent. He was re-elected with no significant opposition in subsequent elections, and he remained a political celebrity within Jefferson Parish. He was credited with keeping the crime rate low for the past twenty-five years, while the rate in neighboring Orleans Parish remains one of the highest in the nation.
In 1989, Lee deplored the choice of Republicans David Duke and John S. Treen
for the vacancy in state House District 81 created by the resignation of Charles Cusimano
, who became a state court judge. To Lee, the showdown in the special election was a choice between "a bigot and an asshole."
A Democrat
, Lee ran for governor in 1995 but dropped out before the primary. Lee endorsed Mike Foster
, a Republican who came from behind in the polls to win the governorship and to serve two terms. He also endorsed Bobby Jindal
for Governor in 2003, his bid for Congress in 2004, 2006 reelection and again for Governor in 2007.
Lee, one of the best-known politicians in the Greater New Orleans Area, was known as a zealous crime fighter. He also gained a reputation as an anti-corruption reformer while serving as the Parish Attorney for Jefferson Parish. Lee was a political insider in Louisiana
, and had close personal contacts with former Governor Edwards and the Boggs
family in New Orleans. He often made controversial statements to the local media. He showed unwavering loyalty to his deputies during allegations of police brutality in Jefferson Parish. He had also shown support for other Louisiana politicians during several federal investigations of government corruption, including the investigation and eventual conviction of Edwards. Many of these politicians were personal friends of Lee, but Lee himself was never accused of corruption.
The family of Harry Lee is affiliated with the Chinese Presbyterian Church
in Kenner
. Since his passing, unused funds totalling more than $250,000 from his campaign war chest have been donated to the church in accordance to his will. Lee and his wife Lai have one daughter, Jefferson Parish council member Cynthia Lee Sheng and two grandchildren.
. Most memorably, the morning before Katrina hit New Orleans, Lee appeared on emergency radio, with a message for those who had not yet evacuated: "You better haul ass! Y'all should have left yesterday." The previous evening, he had let the community know that his birthday party had been cancelled.
Lee was one of the few New Orleans politicians to maintain his pre-Katrina
popularity. During the storm, Parish President Aaron Broussard
evacuated all Parish personnel directly under his control to St. Tammany Parish
on the Northshore, including the drainage pump operators. This is widely considered the primary cause of flooding on the Eastbank of Jefferson Parish. However, the Sheriff's Office in Jefferson Parish is independent of the Parish President and operates directly under an elected Sheriff.
When storm conditions dissipated, Jefferson Parish deputies immediately began patrolling all major commercial roads and even individual neighborhoods in the Parish. Most of the Parish at this time had been evacuated, and communications were nearly non-existent. Parish deputies were the only form of security in the Parish in the first week after the storm.
Most of the looting that did take place in Jefferson Parish occurred in Terrytown
and Gretna
, which borders on Algiers
and the Crescent City Connection
. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has jurisdiction
over all of unincorporated Jefferson Parish, while incorporated cities such as Gretna, Kenner, Harahan and Westwego have their own independent city governments and police departments. In the first week after the storm, Gretna police officers were accused of preventing New Orleans evacuees from crossing the Crescent City Connection
(Outside their jurisdiction) in an effort to prevent looting. It should be noted however, that Gretna officers did not block the actual Crescent City Connection (bridge), but attempted to prevent entry into Gretna city limits from exits leading into their city. This action has been praised by Gretna residents but criticized by many Orleans Parish elected officials. As the Gretna Police Department is independent of the Sheriff's Office, Lee bears no responsibility for these actions.
He was diagnosed with leukemia
in April 2007 and, as with almost all his medical maladies, used the occasion to try to educate the public on April 13 with the news. His health, he said, was the public's business. He described himself as “shocked” at the diagnosis. At a press conference, Lee said he would be going to Stanford University
to have his situation assessed for treatment options, which were expected to include chemotherapy
. Lee indicated he would also like to explore unusual treatments. Lee also announced his plans to run for re-election in the fall of 2007.
On June 2, Lee's leukemia was declared to be in remission, but two months later, on August 16, it was announced that the cancer had returned, but that he would also continue his campaign for re-election.
On September 30, WWL-TV reported http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl093007jbharry.126382b4f.html that Lee was hospitalized in serious condition due to complications from leukemia. Lee was reportedly having breathing problems and was taken to the Ochsner Medical Center
. He died on October 1, 2007, at 10:44 a.m., and he was buried four days later in New Orleans.
Shortly after Lee's death, the primary election for sheriff was moved from October 20 to November 17, and Newell Normand, a Republican, was appointed as the interim sheriff. Normand, who had been the chief deputy since 1995, was elected as the sheriff with over 90% of the vote.
In 2001, Lee was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
in Winnfield
.
Sheriffs in the United States
In the United States, a sheriff is a county official and is typically the top law enforcement officer of a county. Historically, the sheriff was also commander of the militia in that county. Distinctive to law enforcement in the United States, sheriffs are usually elected. The political election of...
of Jefferson Parish
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Jefferson Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States that includes most of the suburbs of New Orleans. The seat of parish government is Gretna....
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. He was first elected in 1979, as the 30th Sheriff, and was re-elected six times, serving twenty eight years and six months. He is the older brother of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine's first Asian-American centerfold, China Lee
China Lee
China Lee, born Margaret Lee, is an American model and actress. She was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for the August 1964 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Pompeo Posar. She was the first Asian American Playmate...
.
Early years
Lee was born in 1932, the son of Chinese immigrants. His birth occurred in the back room of the family's laundry on Carondelet Street, in the part of New Orleans known as Central CityCentral City, New Orleans
Central City is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. It is located at the lower end of Uptown, just above the New Orleans Central Business District, on the "lakeside" of St. Charles Avenue...
. When they were old enough, he and his siblings, eventually numbering eight, were given jobs in the laundry and later in the family's restaurants, including the House of Lee in Metairie.
He got a firsthand taste of politics early, at age 12, when he was elected president of the newly formed student body government at Shaw Elementary School. Each year after that, he was elected to class office. During his senior year at Francis T. Nicholls
Francis T. Nicholls
Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls was an American attorney, politician, judge, and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War...
High School (now Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
Senior High School), he was president of both his senior class and the student body, a school first.
He earned a bachelor's degree in geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
from Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
, served in the Air Force in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and married Lai Lee, then returned to Louisiana in 1959. That was the year that the family began construction on the House of Lee, where Mr. Lee would meet the man who became his political mentor, Hale Boggs
Hale Boggs
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. , was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana...
. For six years he worked as Boggs' driver and confidant when the congressman was back home in Louisiana.
Soon, Lee decided that public service was the career for him and saw law school as an entree. He took classes at Loyola University School of Law
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law is a private law school in New Orleans, Louisiana affiliated with Loyola University New Orleans. Loyola's law school opened in 1914 and is now located on the Broadway Campus of the University in the historic Audubon Park District of the city. The College...
while working 12-hour days at the family's restaurant.
After law school, he set up a small practice with classmate Marion Edwards, now an appellate judge. With Boggs' help, he was appointed the first magistrate for the U.S. District Court in New Orleans, and in 1975 he became chief attorney for Jefferson Parish
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Jefferson Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States that includes most of the suburbs of New Orleans. The seat of parish government is Gretna....
.
Four years later, with Sheriff Al Cronvich embroiled in a wire-tapping scandal, Lee saw a chance to plunge into electoral politics. Assailing the corruption and inefficiency of the Sheriff's Office, he ran as a reform candidate, led the five-candidate primary and took 57 percent of the runoff vote to defeat Cronvich.
He immediately gave deputies raises and poured money into the Sheriff's Office, computerizing it for the first time. He also began to build a political machine that would become one of the largest in southern Louisiana, although his record of getting others elected was spotty.
Background
Lee died five days after returning from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for his latest round of treatment for leukemiaLeukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
.
His death came less than three weeks before he hoped to win an eighth term in office. Lee had qualified to run in the October 20 primary against Harahan Police Chief Peter Dale and contractor Julio Castillo. State law requires qualifying to reopen if a candidate dies before the election is held.
Lee was re-elected regularly by huge margins even as he managed to become embroiled in controversy. Defying every notion of political good sense, he unabashedly - and often indelicately - took stands considered taboo by most politicians. His shoot-from-the-hip style often made his closest advisers cringe even as it endeared him to voters.
"I think people like me because I do a good job and because I tell it like it is", he once said. "If you ask me something, I'll give you an answer, straight up. People may not like it, but I'm not going to sugarcoat it."
One of Mr. Lee's most famous assaults on political sensibilities came in 1986 when he ordered his deputies, in the wake of a suburban crime spree, to stop black men for no reason other than driving "rinky-dink cars" in predominantly white neighborhoods. The order, later rescinded, prompted calls for his immediate resignation and landed him in the national news. Years later, he said he really didn't understand what all the fuss was about and blamed the news media for blowing his order - which he called "good police practice" - out of proportion.
Controversies
By the late 1980s, as fear of crime became Jeffersonians' No. 1 concern, Lee sensed his continued political fortunes would have less to do with reforming the Sheriff's Office than in making his suburban constituents feel safe from the big city ills.Their fears were often expressed in stark racial terms, and they found vent for a time in the divisive rhetoric of an aspiring politician named David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
, whom Metairie residents sent as one of their representatives to the state Legislature.
Once Lee was accused of trying to separate the races by issuing an order erecting a barricade on a street at the line dividing majority-black New Orleans and majority-white East Jefferson. Mr. Lee turned the story—although false—into political capital. "Depending on who I'm talking to", he said, "I either take credit for the barricade or I don't." On another occasion, he defended his decision to yank deputies out of an all-black neighborhood in Avondale after residents complained about police brutality.
When an 8-year-old girl was raped in March 1998, the police initially described two black males as the culprits. Lee was criticized for declaring every black man in the subdivision a suspect. He apologized for any offense but insisted the practice was not racist. In fact, friends said the sheriff was so personally shaken by the vicious attack on the girl, who was also black, that he pulled out all the stops to solve the case.
"I'm going to catch that bastard, and when I catch him, he is going to be black," he said. "I just don't give a damn what people think of me anymore. If that was their daughter and we weren't doing that, they would be on our ass." Several days later, he personally placed the girl's stepfather under arrest for the rape. In 2003, a jury sentenced the stepfather to death.
Despite the apparent missteps, his popularity grew from the time he took office, particularly among whites. In 1994, a survey for The Times-Picayune showed that 84% of Jefferson Parish residents had a favorable impression of the sheriff, including 91% of whites. The same poll showed that, while almost nine out of 10 people thought he "tells it like it is", six of 10 thought he should sometimes keep his mouth shut.
Lee's widespread popularity gave him some political capital in the face of criticism about his management of the Sheriff's Office. A 1993 study by one government watchdog group lambasted his handling of the Sheriff's Office then-$60 million budget; the same group gave him higher marks in a follow-up study a few years later.
The worst political scare of his career had to do with crime and nothing to do with race, his fiscal management or his controversial remarks. It came in 1985, when voters learned that a convicted rapist named Brian Busby was allowed to wander Jefferson Parish unsupervised during the day, instead of being locked down in state prison elsewhere. Mr. Lee had granted Busby special privileges as a favor to a Parish Council member. Ten days after the disclosure, Busby was sent to the Louisiana State Peniteniary at Angola. Lee's approval rating plunged. A year later, however, after a series of Metairie robberies in which white shoppers were followed to their homes and held up at gunpoint in their driveways by African-American men, Lee made the following statement, which either almost ended or saved his career:
- "If there are some young blacks driving a car late at night in a predominantly white neighborhood, they will be stopped. There's a pretty good chance they're up to no good. It's obvious two young blacks driving a rinky-dink car in a predominantly white neighborhood—I'm not talking about on the main thoroughfare, but if they're on one of the side streets and they're cruising around—they'll be stopped."
Outrage was immediate, and Mr. Lee quickly cancelled the order and apologized as the NAACP called for his resignation. When he ran for his third term the next year, however, Lee failed to win the primary, but defeated Art Lentini in the runoff with 54 percent of the vote.
Legal career
After being honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1959, Lee returned to Louisiana to manage his father's restaurant, The House of Lee. Lee was elected president of the New Orleans Chapter of the Louisiana Restaurant Association in 1964. His leadership was instrumental in the peaceful racial integration of New Orleans restaurants, in compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
.
At this time, he also attended Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
School of Law
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law is a private law school in New Orleans, Louisiana affiliated with Loyola University New Orleans. Loyola's law school opened in 1914 and is now located on the Broadway Campus of the University in the historic Audubon Park District of the city. The College...
, where he was elected president of the student chapter of the Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
. Lee graduated in 1967 and started a small law practice in Gretna
Gretna, Louisiana
The city of Gretna is the parish seat of Jefferson Parish, in the US state of Louisiana. Gretna is on the west bank of the Mississippi River, just east and across the river from uptown New Orleans. It is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area...
with Loyola classmate Marion Edwards (not to be confused with the brother of future Governor Edwin Washington Edwards - whom Lee was a very avid supporter of - who shares the same name).
Lee was appointed as a magistrate judge
United States magistrate judge
In the United States federal courts, magistrate judges are appointed to assist United States district court judges in the performance of their duties...
for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana is a federal trial court based in New Orleans. Like all U.S...
in 1971. He was elected President of the National Council of United States Magistrates in 1973. He was invited to join the congressional delegation to the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
in 1972, which was led by House Majority Leader Hale Boggs
Hale Boggs
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. , was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana...
from Louisiana, and House Minority Leader and future U.S. President Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
. He resigned as a Federal Magistrate in 1975 and was appointed Parish Attorney for Jefferson Parish.
Political career
Harry Lee was elected sheriff in 1979, having defeated long-time incumbent Alwynn Cronvich. He was re-elected in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003. In 1987, Lee faced a strong re-election challenge from RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Art Lentini
Art Lentini
Arthur J. "Art" Lentini, , is an attorney in Metairie, Louisiana, United States, who served from 1996 to 2008 as a Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate from District 10 in Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs. For eight years he was the Senate parliamentarian...
, later a state senator
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
, and he was forced into a general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
, but he managed to win by 54-46 percent. He was re-elected with no significant opposition in subsequent elections, and he remained a political celebrity within Jefferson Parish. He was credited with keeping the crime rate low for the past twenty-five years, while the rate in neighboring Orleans Parish remains one of the highest in the nation.
In 1989, Lee deplored the choice of Republicans David Duke and John S. Treen
John S. Treen
John Speir Treen is a retired homebuilder from Metairie in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, who lost a 1989 special election for the Louisiana House of Representatives to the former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke. Treen is the older brother of the late David C. Treen, the first Republican governor of...
for the vacancy in state House District 81 created by the resignation of Charles Cusimano
Charles Cusimano
Charles Vincent Cusimano, II, known as Chuck Cusimano is a Republican politician from Metairie in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana....
, who became a state court judge. To Lee, the showdown in the special election was a choice between "a bigot and an asshole."
A Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, Lee ran for governor in 1995 but dropped out before the primary. Lee endorsed Mike Foster
Murphy J. Foster, Jr.
Murphy James "Mike" Foster, Jr. served as 53rd Governor of Louisiana from January 1996 until January 2004. Foster's father was Murphy J. Foster, Jr., but Mike Foster uses "Jr." even though he is technically Murphy J. Foster, III. Foster is a businessman, landowner, and sportsman in St...
, a Republican who came from behind in the polls to win the governorship and to serve two terms. He also endorsed Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....
for Governor in 2003, his bid for Congress in 2004, 2006 reelection and again for Governor in 2007.
Lee, one of the best-known politicians in the Greater New Orleans Area, was known as a zealous crime fighter. He also gained a reputation as an anti-corruption reformer while serving as the Parish Attorney for Jefferson Parish. Lee was a political insider in Louisiana
Politics of Louisiana
Politics in Louisiana has always been a controversial yet interesting combination. Since statehood, Louisiana has been a traditionally conservative state full of middle-class whites and African Americans...
, and had close personal contacts with former Governor Edwards and the Boggs
Hale Boggs
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. , was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana...
family in New Orleans. He often made controversial statements to the local media. He showed unwavering loyalty to his deputies during allegations of police brutality in Jefferson Parish. He had also shown support for other Louisiana politicians during several federal investigations of government corruption, including the investigation and eventual conviction of Edwards. Many of these politicians were personal friends of Lee, but Lee himself was never accused of corruption.
The family of Harry Lee is affiliated with the Chinese Presbyterian Church
Chinese Presbyterian Church
Chinese Presbyterian Church, also commonly known as CPC, is the oldest surviving Chinese church in Australia. It is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Australia...
in Kenner
Kenner, Louisiana
Kenner is a city in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 66,702 at the 2010 census....
. Since his passing, unused funds totalling more than $250,000 from his campaign war chest have been donated to the church in accordance to his will. Lee and his wife Lai have one daughter, Jefferson Parish council member Cynthia Lee Sheng and two grandchildren.
Hurricane Katrina
Sheriff Lee maintained a strong presence during Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. Most memorably, the morning before Katrina hit New Orleans, Lee appeared on emergency radio, with a message for those who had not yet evacuated: "You better haul ass! Y'all should have left yesterday." The previous evening, he had let the community know that his birthday party had been cancelled.
Lee was one of the few New Orleans politicians to maintain his pre-Katrina
Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans
The effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans have been long-lasting. As the center of Katrina passed South-east of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 3 range with frequent intense gusts and tidal surge. Hurricane force winds were experienced throughout the...
popularity. During the storm, Parish President Aaron Broussard
Aaron Broussard
Aaron F. Broussard was the president, a combined municipal-parish position, of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana from 2003 to 2010. A Democrat, Broussard is known nationally for appearances he made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina....
evacuated all Parish personnel directly under his control to St. Tammany Parish
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
St. Tammany Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana, in the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area. The parish seat is Covington....
on the Northshore, including the drainage pump operators. This is widely considered the primary cause of flooding on the Eastbank of Jefferson Parish. However, the Sheriff's Office in Jefferson Parish is independent of the Parish President and operates directly under an elected Sheriff.
When storm conditions dissipated, Jefferson Parish deputies immediately began patrolling all major commercial roads and even individual neighborhoods in the Parish. Most of the Parish at this time had been evacuated, and communications were nearly non-existent. Parish deputies were the only form of security in the Parish in the first week after the storm.
Most of the looting that did take place in Jefferson Parish occurred in Terrytown
Terrytown, Louisiana
Terrytown is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. It is a suburb within the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 25,430 at the 2000 census...
and Gretna
Gretna, Louisiana
The city of Gretna is the parish seat of Jefferson Parish, in the US state of Louisiana. Gretna is on the west bank of the Mississippi River, just east and across the river from uptown New Orleans. It is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, which borders on Algiers
Algiers, Louisiana
Algiers is a neighborhood within the city of New Orleans. It is the portion of Orleans Parish on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.Algiers is also known as the 15th Ward, one of the 17 Wards of New Orleans.-History:...
and the Crescent City Connection
Crescent City Connection
The Crescent City Connection, abbreviated as CCC, refers to twin cantilever bridges that carry U.S. Route 90 Business over the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. They are tied as the fifth-longest cantilever bridges in the world...
. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
over all of unincorporated Jefferson Parish, while incorporated cities such as Gretna, Kenner, Harahan and Westwego have their own independent city governments and police departments. In the first week after the storm, Gretna police officers were accused of preventing New Orleans evacuees from crossing the Crescent City Connection
Crescent City Connection
The Crescent City Connection, abbreviated as CCC, refers to twin cantilever bridges that carry U.S. Route 90 Business over the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. They are tied as the fifth-longest cantilever bridges in the world...
(Outside their jurisdiction) in an effort to prevent looting. It should be noted however, that Gretna officers did not block the actual Crescent City Connection (bridge), but attempted to prevent entry into Gretna city limits from exits leading into their city. This action has been praised by Gretna residents but criticized by many Orleans Parish elected officials. As the Gretna Police Department is independent of the Sheriff's Office, Lee bears no responsibility for these actions.
Health
In 2003, weighing about 375 pounds, he opted for gastric bypass surgery and, within 10 months, he lost 90 pounds. By this time he had already replaced both knees and both hips. Type 2 diabetes and hearing loss were other ailments, and his cancerous prostate was removed in January 2007.He was diagnosed with leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
in April 2007 and, as with almost all his medical maladies, used the occasion to try to educate the public on April 13 with the news. His health, he said, was the public's business. He described himself as “shocked” at the diagnosis. At a press conference, Lee said he would be going to Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
to have his situation assessed for treatment options, which were expected to include chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
. Lee indicated he would also like to explore unusual treatments. Lee also announced his plans to run for re-election in the fall of 2007.
On June 2, Lee's leukemia was declared to be in remission, but two months later, on August 16, it was announced that the cancer had returned, but that he would also continue his campaign for re-election.
On September 30, WWL-TV reported http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl093007jbharry.126382b4f.html that Lee was hospitalized in serious condition due to complications from leukemia. Lee was reportedly having breathing problems and was taken to the Ochsner Medical Center
Ochsner Medical Center
Ochsner Medical Center, historically also known as Ochsner Clinic, Ochsner Hospital, and Ochsner Foundation Hospital, is a hospital in Jefferson, Louisiana, a short distance from the city limits of New Orleans. As the flagship of the Ochsner Health System, it was founded by Dr. Alton Ochsner,...
. He died on October 1, 2007, at 10:44 a.m., and he was buried four days later in New Orleans.
Shortly after Lee's death, the primary election for sheriff was moved from October 20 to November 17, and Newell Normand, a Republican, was appointed as the interim sheriff. Normand, who had been the chief deputy since 1995, was elected as the sheriff with over 90% of the vote.
In 2001, Lee was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, highlights the careers of more than a hundred of the state’s leading politicians and political journalists. Because three governors, Huey P. Long, Jr., Oscar K...
in Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
.
Sources.
- Wild About Harry: A Biography of Harry Lee. Deno Seder (2001). Edition Dedeaux. ISBN 0.930987.01.2.
External links
- Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office
- "Larger-Than-Life Sheriff Rules Louisiana Parish", John Burnett, All Things ConsideredAll Things ConsideredAll Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
, National Public Radio, November 28, 2006