DA Jason Williams
And the weekly crime report
District Attorney Jason Williams is the subject of an article in the National Review by Scott Centorino, who, until 2019, lived here in New Orleans. He and his wife moved as a consequence of crime, when they were shot at…
It’s Not Hard to Stop Crime in the Big Easy
by: Scott Centorino
A far-left prosecutor’s recent carjacking only highlights that tried-and-true methods of law enforcement are what New Orleans needs.
The district attorney of New Orleans, Jason Williams, and his mother were recently carjacked at gunpoint. It was a terrible crime — and entirely predictable. As one of America’s many George Soros–backed district attorneys, Williams has dismissed charges for 66 percent of carjacking arrests over the past two years, encouraging more of the crime that he’s now experienced. Republican governor-elect Jeff Landry is set to be inaugurated in January, and he should prioritize protecting the people of New Orleans from their own district attorney.
New Orleans has long been a dangerous city. My wife and I left in 2019 largely because of widespread crime; my truck was broken into twice, and my wife and I were shot at while trying to stop a robbery. Yet the slide into chaos has only accelerated in the years since. In 2022, the city overtook St. Louis, Mo., as the “murder capital of the United States.” In terms of homicides per 100,000 residents, it’s one of the ten most dangerous cities in the world — beaten only by Mexican cities overrun by drug traffickers such as the Sinaloa Cartel. New Orleans didn’t see this many murders even in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when the city became synonymous with disorder.
Williams has directly contributed to soaring crime. After running a 2020 campaign as a “progressive prosecutor,” he promised “to go beyond punishment and invest in our community to heal, restore, and create justice that endures.” In a candidate questionnaire for the ACLU of Louisiana, he vowed to focus on “declining & diverting cases that should not be prosecuted,” with an eye toward “drastically reduc[ing] Orleans Parish’s state prison admissions.” His approach is grounded in his belief, as he said while campaigning, that “the criminal legal system is not just racist; it is racist and sexist.”
As night follows day, inaction has followed his ill-considered words. District Attorney Williams assured voters that he’d go soft only on low-level offenders, yet in the first eight months of his tenure, he dismissed 937 violent felony cases out of a total 1,400-plus arrests by the New Orleans Police Department. That represents a nearly 85 percent increase in violent-felony refusals over his predecessor.
Prosecutorial discretion is one thing. But this sudden and measurable decrease in the prosecution of violent crimes is something else, involving a willful neglect of duty in cases ranging from murder and rape to kidnapping and more. And the data don’t lie: Criminals have felt emboldened to commit more crimes of every kind. During my recent trip back to the city, my mother-in-law stated that she sees multiple cars run red lights every day. Other friends and family tell me they see much worse, much more often.
Do residents have any hope for the return of law and order? Williams’s six-year term doesn’t end until 2026, yet in such a blue city, he seems likely to win reelection if he runs again. Fortunately, Jeff Landry assumes the governorship in January and has promised a special legislative session focused solely on crime. He has overwhelming majorities of his fellow Republicans in the state legislature, and the question is what reforms he’s going to prioritize.
The smart move is to look to Florida. There, the governor is constitutionally empowered to remove district attorneys, a power Governor Ron DeSantis has exercised twice with Soros-backed officials. They had refused to enforce the law, with one even allowing pedophiles and violent offenders to evade incarceration. As Florida shows, this policy is about principles, not politics. Governor DeSantis has left many liberal district attorneys untouched, only going after those guilty of dereliction of duty.
If Louisiana isn’t ready to go that far, the state legislature could instead give the governor or attorney general the power to appoint special prosecutors in jurisdictions where current officials are falling short. Louisiana could also simply empower the attorney general to prosecute crimes that district attorneys won’t. All these policies would likely require a constitutional amendment, which lawmakers could propose and then put to voters as soon as the next statewide election.
Louisiana isn’t the only state that would benefit from strong reforms. So would Tennessee, where Memphis district attorney Steve Mulroy is soft on crime. The city’s police chief recently said crime is so bad, it wouldn’t matter “if we have the entire United States Army here in Memphis,” because the same people are committing crimes after being let go. Ditto Missouri, where Soros-backed St. Louis district attorney Kim Gardner let criminals run riot. She resigned in May, after more than a year of local outrage; state officials needed the authority to remove her earlier.
Wherever they live, families deserve public officials who prioritize law and order, not passing leftist fads. That’s clearly true in New Orleans, where Jason Williams [and his mother] has now become a victim of his own soft-on-crime approach. Public safety is a necessity, yet public service is a privilege. It’s long past time that Louisiana held both lawbreakers and their political enablers accountable.
While describing the crime problem in New Orleans (and even the solution) is “not hard” - as suggested in the article’s title - “protecting the people of New Orleans from their own district attorney” and from the criminals who roam our streets will be, unfortunately, harder than Mr Centorino suggests.
I have heard that the district attorney’s office suffers from not just a woke boss, but also from insufficient and incompetent staff. And there’s evidently little political will to solve the crime problem, despite the words, words, words of local officials. Fully absorbed in the social justice grievance industry that fuels so many leftist careers, the mostly black and black adjacent, mostly feminine and feminized politicians in this town create an unsettling municipal insecurity.
A reminder… (full story and details below)
The crime report for the week ending December 10th came out today and there’s some good news…
Some progress, we hope…
As of December 10, 2023:
Homicide Victims: 213
No homicides in the past week – our YTD total remains at 213.
Homicide in 2023 is –19% lower than the same time in 2022, though remains higher relative to 2019-2021.
The homicide total includes eleven victims of vehicular homicide, five negligent, and approximately six which may ultimately be deemed as justified by the DA’s office. These will not be counted as “murders” by NOPD.
Nonfatal Shooting Incidents: 346
There have been approximately 465 victims of nonfatal gunshot incidents in 2023, though this number is subject to change as investigations progress.
At the same time in 2022, there had been 442 shooting incidents and approximately 583 nonfatal shooting victims (an overall reduction of –21% in fatal/nonfatal shooting victims and a reduction of –23% in fatal nonfatal shooting incidents).
As of December 10, 2023
Carjacking Incidents: 142
Four carjacking incidents last week, though we remain -46% lower than 2021-2022, and -35% lower than 2020.
As we have seen during most of 2023, the carjacking reduction coincides with a large (+73%) increase in auto theft (as of December 10, 2022, 3,915 auto thefts vs. 6,756 in 2023).
Armed Robbery Incidents: 341
Armed robbery is -34% lower than this time in 2022 and -16% lower than the same time in 2019.
This is the only category of major violent crime showing reductions compared with the past 4 years.
In 2022, there were 3,915 reported auto thefts as of December 10th.
There have been at least 6,756 reported auto thefts to date in 2023, an increase of +73% since 2022.
This is an average of 20 stolen cars per day, though we have slowly improved since earlier in the year, when the city was averaging 25 stolen cars per day.
As always, we are grateful to the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
Tuesday evening’s gun safety and shooting class with the Home Defense Foundation, details here…
