Tuesday, October 30, 2007

So Has New Orleans Cleaned Up Its Act...

Not a chance, brother, not a chance...

New Orleans District Attorney to Resign

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - "District Attorney Eddie Jordan, criticized for his response to New Orleans' growing crime problem and stung by a $3.7 million discrimination verdict against his office, announced his resignation Tuesday.

"I'm resigning not because I'm a quitter," Jordan said at a news conference, "but because I honestly think that this painful act will help prevent further disruption of the district attorney's office, the criminal justice system and our city's fight against crime." He said he will resign Wednesday.

Anger over Jordan's performance, fed in part by his decisions to abandon two high-profile prosecutions and his apparently inadvertent sheltering of an armed robbery suspect, rose again this week when a federal judge refused to delay payment in the discrimination case. That opened the door to the possible seizure of assets of his office.

"I'm hoping my departure will end the threat of the seizure of the district attorney's office's assets," Jordan said.

Jordan lost the discrimination lawsuit against dozens of his former employees in 2005. The white former employees said they were fired by Jordan, who is black, because of their race.

Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday reiterated that the city would not pay the judgment, saying that it could not afford it and that it would set a bad precedent."

A bad precedent. Following a court order is, in Nagin's mind, a bad precedent. Same bad precedent as his refusal to return the firearms stolen by the NO-PD. Orders, you see, are only for poor white folk to pay attention to when rogue cops come a knockin'.

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