Race and Crime in New Orleans
Disarray in the district attorney's office, which faces a discrimination lawsuit.
BY DOUGLAS MCCOLLAM
Sunday, November 25, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
NEW ORLEANS--It was a little after 12:30 last Saturday afternoon when they carried the body of New Orleans Police officer Thelonious "Tank" Dukes out of the St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in the city's Sixth Ward, just outside of the historic French Quarter.
Dukes, 47, had been shot twice in a gun battle in October that erupted after would-be thieves broke into his home in eastern New Orleans. He hung on for weeks but succumbed, becoming the city's 188th homicide victim this year, and making New Orleans one of the most dangerous cities in America.
Unlike most murder victims, Dukes, a 19-year veteran of the force, was buried in front of hundreds of mourners and with honors that included a flag-draped casket and a 21-gun salute. His case was unusual in another respect: The day before the shooting, 20-year-old Elton Phillips, an early suspect in the case, briefly took refuge in the home of the city's top crime fighter, District Attorney Eddie Jordan. According to police reports, Mr. Phillips, a friend of Mr. Jordan's girlfriend, went to the DA's house after allegedly committing another armed robbery.
Mr. Jordan has said he didn't know then that Mr. Phillips, who has not been charged in the Dukes murder, was on the lam. But the incident came after a long string of failures within the DA's office that led to Mr. Jordan's resignation late last month. In recent years, Mr. Jordan, the city's first African-American DA, headed an office that repeatedly released violent criminals onto the streets because it was unable to prepare indictments within the 60-day period mandated by state law.
That issue seemed to come to a head in June when, in short order, Mr. Jordan dropped murder charges against David Bonds, a suspect in the murder of Dinerral Shavers, a popular local teacher and jazz musician, and Michael Anderson, the chief suspect in the murder of five teenagers. In both cases, Mr. Jordan cited a lack of cooperative witnesses as the reason for releasing the suspects. The police disputed the claim and quickly found people willing to testify who were apparently overlooked by the DA. Murder charges have since been refiled in both cases.
For many critics, the disarray in the DA's office can be traced to a decision Mr. Jordan made shortly after being elected to a six-year term in 2002. During the campaign, Mr. Jordan pledged to make the DA's office look "more like New Orleans," code words, many assumed, for hiring more black staffers and attorneys. Using a "cultural-diversity report" compiled by his transition team, Mr. Jordan proceeded to systematically fire veteran white staffers and replace them with African Americans with little or no experience.
A later analysis showed that, after about two months in office, Mr. Jordan altered the racial composition of the staff, going to 27 whites and 130 blacks from 77 whites and 56 blacks. Among the 56 staffers who were fired, 53 were white, two were black, and one was Hispanic. Among the 20 case investigators fired (many retired police detectives), all were white.
The committee making firing recommendations for Mr. Jordan was run by Stephanie Butler, an aide to Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson. This is the congressman who drew national attention when federal agents found $90,000 in his freezer, which led to his indictment this year on bribery and obstruction of justice charges. Mr. Jefferson has pleaded not guilty.
When challenged in court, Mr. Jordan claimed the firings were "random," with no intentional racial component. They were, he said, part of the standard turnover officials are entitled to make under the patronage system.
But in 2005, a federal jury disagreed, finding that 35 of the fired workers had been let go solely because of their race, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The jury awarded them close to $2 million, which ballooned with interest and attorneys' fees to about $3.5 million--more than the DA's annual budget.
Following Mr. Jordan's resignation, attorneys for the plaintiffs seized the DA office's bank accounts and threatened to foreclose on all its property to satisfy the judgment. That threat prompted city and state leaders, who for months had refused to negotiate, to pony up $2.9 million last week to settle the case. The majority of the payment requires the approval of some key state legislators, who are usually hostile to anything that involves spending money to bail New Orleans out of a jam.
After Katrina, it was hoped that state and city leaders would put aside their traditional chicanery to lead the recovery effort. Instead, exactly the opposite happened. In addition to Mr. Jefferson's indictment and Mr. Jordan's resignation, Oliver Thomas, the popular head of the New Orleans City Council, was indicted and pleaded guilty to taking bribes in July.
Mayor Ray Nagin, who managed to win a second term despite shoddy performance in response to Katrina, continues to be ineffective. He makes news mostly by sticking his foot in his mouth, such as when he said the city's soaring crime rate "kept the New Orleans brand out there."
Nevertheless, despite the crime, corruption and incompetence, demographic data released earlier this month reveal that New Orleans is getting a second lease on life. The city's population is rebounding, growing 19% between October of last year and this year. It stands at just under two-thirds of the pre-Katrina levels.
With the recent election of a new governor, 36-year-old Bobby Jindal, and new blood on the City Council, there's hope that maybe things have touched bottom. Of course, as anyone who grew up near the Louisiana bayous can tell you, it's often about the time you think you've touched bottom that you start sinking into the mud.
Mr. McCollam, a New Orleans native, is a contributing writer for the American Lawyer and senior editor for Legal Times in Washington.
opinionjournal.com |
