The last time I saw signs yelling “Enough!” was in the mid-1980s just below Charlotte, North Carolina. We had moved there to pastor a church and were taking our first tour of Heritage Village, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s personal Neverland. Everywhere you looked, signs and bumper stickers announced “Enough is enough,” a reference to the barrage of criticism they were taking from the media and other outsiders who suspected things were not as they should be in PTL-land. We know now who was right.

Thursday, at the downtown New Orleans march to protest the city’s alarming murder rate, “Enough” blared at you from many a sign and poster. People are tired of being shocked by the morning news that more murders occurred overnight. One sign read, “Silence is Violence.”

The official estimate is that 3,000 people of all colors and races were marching. They came from several directions and met in front of City Hall for a rally. The funny thing about it–we’ll say it’s funny but I doubt Mr. Nagin thought so–is that many of the speakers were railing at the mayor, wondering where he is, calling for his resignation, evidently without a clue that he was standing right behind them.

Pastor John Raphael, Jr., gets my vote for our next preacher-leader. He was the instigator of this march and has been rallying the city from the pulpit of his New Hope Baptist Church (presumably a National Baptist church). In fact, a dozen years ago signs popped up all over certain sections of the city calling out “Thou shalt not kill.” A large billboard with that message was erected at Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard and South Claiborne Avenue. They were Pastor Raphael’s idea and paid for by New Hope Church.

These days, that same billboard has one word: “Enough!”

At the rally, Mr. Raphael, whom I do not know, said, “We have come to declare that a city that could not be drowned in waters of a storm will not be drowned in the blood of its citizens.” Great line. An important declaration.

Various speakers called for the resignation of the mayor, Police Superintendent Warren Riley, and District Attorney Eddie Jordan. Nagin and Riley were present–Jordan was a no-show–but were not allowed to speak, for once. This was not their show. Like a pastor called on the carpet before a hostile church business meeting, their job was to sit there and take it. And give them credit; they did.

The instigation for these marches and this rally–and the outrage of the population–was two murders in particular. Helen Hill, a local film-maker and married to a medical doctor whose clinic was devoted to helping the poorest of the city, was gunned down at her home on January 4. Her husband was shot numerous times, holding his baby in his arms. He has survived, thankfully. The other murder was Dinerral Shavers, drummer for a local group called the Hot 8 Brass Band. On December 28, he was driving with his family when a teenager shot him by mistake. Police say he was trying to kill Shavers’ 15-year-old stepson, the result of a flareup in a neighborhood feud.

Hill was white, Shavers was black. The crowd at the rally was all colors. Thankfully, our people are realizing this is not just an African-American problem. It affects everyone. The newspaper said white people appeared to be in the majority Thursday.

At the rally, Bart Everson, a friend of Helen Hill, criticized Nagin, Jordan, and Riley: “You have really let us down. You have failed us.” He added, “The criminal justice system and the government is broken. And I want to communicate to you the level of outrage that my friends and neighbors are feeling, because we don’t think you get it.”

Voices in the crowd called out, “What do you have to say, Ray?” A woman yelled, “Impeach Nagin.” A chorus arose from the crowd, “Where’s Nagin?”

He was there, taking it all in. The newspaper says, “In a rare moment, the mayor found himself without a voice.”

A few days ago, we reported here some steps Nagin and Riley say they are taking to curb the city’s violence, including calling for more citizen involvement. Instead of calming the residents of this community, that enraged them.

Karen Gadbois from the Carrollton neighborhood said, “Nagin and Riley’s call for citizens to galvanize is an insult. We have been galvanized for 16 months.”

Toward the end of the rally, Nagin was secreted out of the gathering by a cotillion of bodyguards and groupies. Not far away, he called his own news conference for the media only, to make a few statements. He took no questions.

Give him credit. Nagin’s office had been saying he would not join in the activities. But he was there, taking his lumps. “It was something that I took to heart,” he said. “I am affected personally by every murder that happens in this city.”

He is now, I’d say. The citizens of New Orleans may have elected him, but they’re not willing to let him continue to jet around the country putting on airs like a celebrity when he has a big job to do back at home. The question remains whether he has gotten the message: “Enough!”

Enough of the crime. Enough of senseless murders. Enough of do-nothing leaders who see their duty as putting the best face on the problems. Enough of that.

One reason for the anger toward the police superintendent is that up until this week, Chief Riley has been downplaying the murder rate as an exaggeration. He argued that the rate was inflated by faulty population numbers and was not as bad as it appeared. He was wrong. In the last 6 months of 2006, with a population of less than 230,000, 106 people were killed. That figures out to a rate of 90 deaths per 100,000 people. That would make this city the murder capital of the United States.

In the old Martin and Lewis comedies, Jerry Lewis used to say, “Enough is enough and too much is plenty.” We all agree.

Wednesday in our pastors gathering, Pastor Cornelius Tilton of the Irish Channel Christian Fellowship, called for our guys to attend the monthly meeting of the mayor and the clergy of the city. “And let me be blunt,” Cornelius said. “It’s not just for the blacks. This is for every one of us.”

Message received.