Well, he’s gone.
He didn’t drag it out and make it a spectacle. He just made mention of spending more time with his family and something else about not being a quitter, then he quit. He finally did an honorable thing and resigned from a job he lacked the heart and possibly even the skills to perform.
Then he stuck the city with the $3.7 million tab. It’s a hefty price to pay. But perhaps it is worth it because no more lives will be lost as a result of his malfeasance. They will be lost for other reasons of course.
And actually, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. Will it make a difference? Was the crime rate any better during the later years of Connick’s administration?
What was amazing to me throughout Jordan’s tenure, especially after Katrina, was how much crime didn’t go up. I would expect that, with no consequences facing the armed robbers and murderers, that the city would be something akin to the City of God. I know our crime rate and its recidivism are sky high but think about it, this is based on humanity alone as a deterrent. That is, the justice system was a failure, so if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who wasn’t a crime victim, it wasn’t because the justice system was working, it was because the morality of the populace kept the crime rate from becoming something insane. In effect, your neighbors didn’t rob you because they didn’t want to, not because they feared going to jail.
What happened in the Jordan era is a good case study of what life would be like with no criminal justice system at all. We were living on humanity there for a while.
I wish I could feel happier about the resignation of a man who I once stood in the 6 a.m. rain and protested. But this isn’t the sort of thing I celebrate.
Perhaps instead I’ll celebrate that we have Keva Johnson to take his place. I wish her luck. I like that she mentioned working with Chief Riley more closely. If she does a good enough job before the next election, I may even want her to stick around. But I’m just not so sure she’s going to make a difference one way or the next.
Connick left the city with a $14 million bill and required his ADA’s to campaign for his associates. Oh, that and the crime rate during his tenure was pretty bad. I hope that Jordan’s resignation will stop the whining and that people will focus on real problems and solutions now.
We were living on humanity there for a while
And our remaining cops, the National Guard, Mace, knives, guns, neighborhood crime watches, added security, grey hairs and staying inside our homes some more.
Kelly,
I don’t think protest amounts to ‘whining.’ Folks get all pissed off when, you know, the friends’ killers walk free. They are given to whining about it. Go figure.
And the ‘real problems’ you speak of (I’m assuming poverty and education) were made worse not by Jordan himself, but certainly due to his cronies, most specifically, William Jefferson, whose schemes ran all the way down to the NO school board. Check “left behind” as my source.
For whatever reason, I recall our resignation efforts earlier this year were consistently called in to question on your blog:
http://www.bloggingneworleans.com/2007/07/15/monday-morning-demonstration/
I understand that there are a myriad of problems that the city is facing. but Jordan’s incompetence seemed to be so blatant and so easily perceived that he would be the most logical place to start.
Oh, and our efforts were a representation of a larger notion among the masses.
I have to admit that I have a bias because I am close to someone who worked for Jordan’s office. This does not mean that I am a fan of Jordan. However, I was privy to information about high profile cases and it came down to NOPD incompetance more than legal prosecution. This is why I feel that the effort to “fire Jordan” will not amount to the sucessful prosecution of criminals without a better police department and bigger effort form City Hall.
Yes, Jordan obviously keeps bad company. Look at his girlfriend and her friends. However, that alone is not enough to blame them for all of the city’s woes.
I am glad that he resigned if only to court public opinion towards supporting the DA’s office.
A lawyer friend said the same thing, Kelly, that NOPD passed along poorly-investigated and prepared cases to be tried by the DA’s office, like the Dinerral Shavers murder for instance. The onus was then on the DA’s office to decline the case and make a public statement saying they would try this high-profile murder if the cops came back with water-tight evidence. That is being a responsible DA’s office.
Granted we don’t live in a CSI episode, but there’s more that can be done to try a case without witness testimony and more appeals for properly-examined ballistic evidence.
Even if Jordan wasn’t solely responsible for NOLA’s woes, we cannot afford a drama magnet like him to be in power during our recovery. It shouldn’t be about the persona of the DA, but instead about how the person serves the city. I’ll go so far as to say that, in some cities, most people don’t know who their DA is but are aware that their cases are accepted and solved in a timely fashion.