Eddie Jordan Calls for More Baby-Sitters: Are You Ready to Baby-Sit Eddie?
The solution to Eddie Jordan seems to be to assign him as many baby-sitters as our legal system can muster. This includes the Attorney General’s office, the National District Attorney’s Association, and at Arnie Fielkow’s request, the Louisiana State Supreme Court. Our civic leaders seem to believe the more the merrier. Are there any other organizations available for District Attorney baby-sitting? Does Nancy Drew still have a fan club? That’s a natch.
Unfortunately for Arnie and others, Eddie Jordan only has two hands. He is fast running out of hands for the holding.
Is Eddie prepared to hold hands? Last I checked, Eddie had a tendency to heap shame upon people who dared to question him, the way he did in his outrageous Nightline interview with Brian Ross.
Doesn’t Play Well With Others
The problem with Eddie Jordan is that he won’t try murderers. Which is why the solution might fall short. It’s not that he isn’t doing a good job. It’s that he is not doing his job at all.
The case against Dinerral Shavers’ suspected murderer, David Bonds was dropped as Bart Everson told us in Nolle Prosequi. You can read all about David Bonds in Docket Master, in Case Dismissed, Ken Foster tells us that ballistics were never run on the murder weapon.
The case against Michael Anderson for the systematic execution of five teenagers in Central City was dropped when the District Attorney could not locate the one witness in the case. The NOPD produced the witness at a press conference the following day.
Both of these murders produced an outcry from the citizens. The murders of Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill, in a wave of murders over the New Year produced the march on City Hall.
We do not get the impression that we are being heard.
It’s the little things like Officer says D.A.’s Office tried talking him out of pressing charges against suspect that are very hard for a citizen living in a crime ridden city to understand. Many people would like to see Eddie Jordan resign from his office. Most notably Councilwoman Shelly Midura, but local voices include Bart Everson, the blogger Schroder, Karen Gadbios, Maitri Venkat-Ramani, and Garland Robinette.
Some people are rightly concerned about who would be put in his place. The next in line would be the first assistant to the District Attorney, one Gaynell Williams. Who is Gaynell Williams?
The options boil down to these two outcomes.
- A bevy of baby-sitters for Eddie Jordan, who will report to us some time in the future about Eddie’s progress much like the fellow from Houston was supposed to make things all better back in January, or
- out with Eddie Jordan, in with someone who reports directly to Eddie Jordan to lead the team comprised almost entirely by Eddie Jordan’s political appointees.
In both cases baby-sitters are necessary. In both cases we can never have enough baby-sitters. I agree with the New Orleans City Council, the more the merrier.
A Swarm of Gadflies
We are only people capable of watching Eddie Jordan or whoever is put in place. We can can watch the District Attorney and we can watch his newly appointed overseers. We must. We cannot put our faith, as we did last time, in yet another press release, yet another new hire, yet another reorganization, yet another 10 point plan, yet another promise.
We need to pry open the District Attorney’s office with public records requests. We need to demand raw 911 data, as Citizen’s Crime Watch has demanded this last six months. We need to track the most violent offenders through the court system, which we can do through Docket Master as it is public information.
We have a voice, but none so strong as the families of the victims. We need to reach out to the families of the victims, because they have the political power to call for change. Many of these families are in the most dangerous communities in our city. If we do not want to be divided, we need to reach beyond our circle of outrage. We need to challenge ourselves to go where people where outrage is something that few can afford and lend our resolve to the people who need it most.
We need the families of the victims to feel friendship and trust or else the efforts to stem corruption will fall pray to the divisive politics that have ruled us for so long.
We cannot allow ourselves to be bamboozled with crime summits and sanctioned court watching programs. We do not need permission of our politicians to hold our politicians accountable.
We need to dig and post, dig and post. We do not need the blessing of the press to share information. We need to blast a message of accountability through the Internet and through the radio. We have an ally in local radio hosts like Garland Robinette, Spud McConnell, and Jim Brown. There are other newspapers in this town who will condemn our politicians when they fail us. We can meet each other, face to face, and tell each other in our own words, from our own experience, what is going on.
Incompetence Is Violence
After Dinneral’s case was dropped, I asked a friend of mine, should we march? The response was that it is to hot and no one is in town. Why have a march that is smaller than the first? The numbers would be the news. I dropped it.
Now there is flurry of activity. There is an opportunity for a new march. If it is too hot now, it won’t be in time. I doubt that the District Attorney’s office will change faster than the weather.
The problem, however, is that the last march petered out into neighborhood walks and an occasional newsletter. The desire for accountability was not met. It was a march with the effect of a parade.
I don’t how we could muster another 5,000 marchers, unless we can find a way to assure them that the message delivered is the message they came to deliver. That is will not be protest against violence, it will be a protest against corruption and incompetence.
I am dissatisfied with the outcome of the last march. I am dissatisfied with how the last march was presented in the media. Why did we march to present five seemingly arbitrary “ideas for change?” Why present five sounds-good-to-me “ideas for change” when we can consult with the many concerned professionals in law and law enforcement that live among us for specifics?
Why ask for a the Mayor to come to a Youth Music Clinic to address us? With concerned citizens and children clamoring for the voice of the Mayor, it is if we designed a campaign stop for him. He won’t listen to us. Why do we want to listen to him?
We need to address the Mayor. We need to gather the wisdom and experience of the city, citizens, the prosecutors, the cops. When we march on City Hall, we will deliver a message of accountability, with an agenda, a time line, and consequences.
When to you want to march and what to you want to ask for?
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Mr. Gunn
If a bunch of people started to reach out to the families of the victims, they could still accuse you of racism, but it won’t be as scary. It’s easy enough to accuse someone of racism. The people at City Council were saying that it was revenge for the firings and Danziger 7. Just ascribe whatever motives suits the accusation.
Eddie Jordan is a horrible District Attorney and people are dying for his incompetence.
If only we’d had enough notice to get more people in City Council chambers when he faced the City Council, the outcome of that meeting would have been different. It would have been about Eddie Jordan, not about race. There were just a handful of Eddie supporters, but a bigger handful than those who want to see Eddie step aside.
[...] He could not have made a comment of that sort while we were reeling from the dismissal of two notorious murder cases, but now that this has passed, and C. Ray Nagin has survived, it’s time to clown again. [...]