Eddie Jordan

I don't live in NOLA, so I really can't speak from experience about the NOPD. However, the recent explosion in violent crimes tells me that it can't all be put on the NOPD.

Listening to the New Orleans City Council grill Warren Riley (NOPD) and Eddie Jordan (D.A.) on the radio earlier this week, I get the feeling the Jordan is inept and full of whining and excuses.

Now I'm no college educated PHD or anything, but I am a believer in my instincts and they tell me that Jordan is hiding something. Perhaps it's his ineptitude. I KNOW it's not his extreme dislike of Warren Riley.

Hell, just thing morning it was made public that Jordan's office decided not to go forward with prosecuting some little scumbag that has an extremely long arrest record . But he sure has time to go after a doctor and two nurses who stayed behind to be with patients during Katrina for murder even though the coroner found no evidence of homicide.
from the Times Picayune earlier this week:

During this week's City Council hearing, Council members were particularly interested in "701s," shorthand for Article 701 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure. It states that no one can be held longer than 60 days on a felony arrest without an indictment. Prosecutors may refile charges against 701 suspects if they get complete police reports, but often 701 cases fall by the wayside.

In the eight months before Hurricane Katrina, the city released 187 people on a 701, including eight murder suspects, prosecutors' records show. In 2006, the number of releases soared to about 3,000. Last month alone, 580 people escaped legal custody of either jail or a bond obligation only because prosecutors couldn't pull together a case ahead of the deadline imposed by law.

Jordan put the blame for some 701 releases on a lack of lab-tested evidence and incomplete police reports. He said police use probable cause to make an arrest, a lesser standard than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required for a conviction. The council asked Jordan why his office doesn't accept the results of field testing kits, used by officers to test for drugs. He said the field test is not admissible in court even though the federal government has used the field tests for nearly 20 years.

It just seems like the D.A.'s office is not doing their job. Perhaps I don't have all the background, but that is the way it seems to an outsider.

Here is a post from someone who does live and work in New Orleans regarding Mr. Jordan's performance.

Is there anyway that this elected official can be recalled?

There is a petition to "ask" Jordan to step down at the American Zombie website