Update July 16th: We had a small but dedicated crowd this morning. Karen and Meg did interviews post rally, Karen was contacted by many people, she did Garland and Brown’s show. The LA Times called. The local media was supportive. We all took turns doing interviews for the local stations. Click photo to see the Flckr set.

Meg sent along this link, it seems that Nagin was asked for a response at some point. He is giving Jordan one more chance. We think he’s had enough chances. One more?

Our phrase du jour turned out to be: The verdict is in . . . Jordan is Out.

Thanks to everyone who helped us make signs and for waking up at 4:30 am !

Resign Now, Jordan!

July 15, 2007

Contact: resignnowjordan@yahoo.com

NEW ORLEANS CITIZENS TAKE TO THE STREETS TO DEMAND
THE RESIGNATION OF DISTRICT ATTORNEY EDDIE JORDAN

New Orleans citizens, fed up with the resurgence of violent crime in their city, will stage a peaceful protest in front of the Cabildo on Jackson Square on Monday, July 16 at 6 a.m. to demand the resignation of District Attorney Eddie Jordan.

Although every component of the city’s criminal justice system has been in disarray since Hurricane Katrina, the district attorney’s office is widely seen as the biggest obstacle to reform because of its pattern of not pursuing charges.

In just the past two weeks, the D.A.’s office has dropped murder charges against suspects in two high-profile murder cases: that of Dinerral Shavers, gunned down in his car, and last summer’s quintuple murder in Central City. In both cases, the D.A.’s office cited lack of witnesses as the reason for the dismissals. However, in the Shavers case, there were other witnesses and evidence, inexplicably not used; and in the Central City murders, New Orleans police were able to locate the supposedly un-findable witness within a matter of hours of learning about the dismissal.

These incidents come on the heels of a protest march in January, in which 5000 New Orleanians took to the streets to demand that city officials address the rampant violent that had taken over the city. Notably, although mayor Ray Nagin and Superintendent of Police Warren Riley attended, Mr. Jordan did not. At that time, Mr. Jordan claimed a 92% conviction rate, although he declined to provide statistics on the number of cases he chooses not to pursue, raising questions as to the validity of that figure.

In the past, Mr. Jordan has shown disdain for anyone questioning the actions of his agency. Most notably, he stormed out of an Nightline interview with ABC’s Brian Ross when Ross pressed him about whether his office had performed as it should ( http://hotair.com/archives/2006/08/29/video-new-orleans-da-throws-tantrum-walks-out-on-nightline/).

It appears that Mr. Jordan has lost the confidence not only of the citizenry, but of his fellow politicians as well. Mayor Ray Nagin released a statement last week condemning the D.A.’s office for its “a disturbing pattern in which the DA dismisses charges without securing assistance from NOPD or any other entity in the criminal justice system.” Councilwoman Shelley Midura has publicly called for Mr. Jordan’s resignation, saying, “I no longer believe you have the consent and support from the public required to perform your duties adequately.”

http://vatul.net/blog/index.php/1388/Shelley Midura has issued a public request that D.A. Eddie Jordan resign. The release of Dinneral Shavers murderer, David Bonds and now this most recent Witness Found After DA Dismisses Case. I’ve had it. I’m making moves to go someplace where things work and drug-running isn’t the foundation of the local economy.

Thanks, Shelley ! ( Text of Letter Below)

Update: Friday, July 13th.
In addition to the letter, the online petition started in February seems to be getting new activity. It may actually work. It’s worth a try.
Signal 26 New Orlean’s Police Website

There is also a call for a National Boycott of New Orleans

Editor B. has a good post about his level of frustration, one we all share.

Schroeder exhibits his signature voice of frustration as well People Get Ready. By the way, I sent a very respectful email to the Mayor requesting Jordan’s resignation, I got a similar response from his blackberry today.

Maitri’s covered it too! and as she points out, Varg’skeeping a running tab.
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Is Paris Hilton out of jail yet? I’ve been a little overwhelmed lately, backed up on the “News” of this country sometimes.

I read in an article about recovery at an Essence Festival forum that OUR MAYOR, C. Ray Nagin stated that he was “getting worn out ” dealing with the recovery. Hmmm, we’ve got 3 more years of this kat and he’s worn out. That’s just too fucking rich. Like a dark chocolate Hershey bar.

Essence weekend was a blast. I sat at the third floor window and just watched the mass of people streaming through the French Market. Thank goodness for a crowd in New Orleans summertime. Too bad the towing trucks were out in full force. Interesting how vehicles with Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas license plates were towed before ANY local one was. Especially considering that 95% of the cars were parked LEGALLY. Maybe that’s wearing C. Ray out, taking tourist cash in what basically amounts to a towing scam.

Senator David Vitter. Man you were supposed to be one of the good guys. Even though your “family values” stance made and continues to make me puke. It is nice though that the Madam of the Canal Street Brothel says Mr. Vitter was a very nice John. Isn’t that special. Good to know he could treat his whores right.

Beware those who want to legislate the way YOU choose to live YOUR life. On either side of the political spectrum. Let me live my life the way I want politicians. Keep your runny ass noses out of my biz, spend my tax money decently and we’ll get along fine. Tell me who I should sleep with and I’m gonna slap that Giddeons bible right outta your hand.
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This is complete bullshit. At first, the Katrina thing was a blessing in disguise. Most people including myself, received a little FEMA check and was able to purchase a used car because the one I had was on fire in a parking lot. It helped out when I needed it. We heard the stories of people going bankrupt and losing everything. It happened to some of my relatives but it never realy hit home. Well, now some people very close to me are about to be flushed down the drain after working their asses off for the last 40 years. Everything here seemed to be getting better, but it is finally starting to destroy the ones who had decided to hang on. The financial burdens of this shit hole have been quietly eating away at families until there is nothing left.
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….there was a day when this kinda thing made a difference. When the moral character of a politician meant something. When we could see this kinda thing and stand up and express our outrage and throw this hypocritical SOB out of….

wait a minute.

It’ll be interesting to watch.

Jelly Roll Morton’s House on Frenchmen St.

In addition to his day job as a photographer at the T-P, John McCusker does an in-depth Jazz History tour of New Orleans. He’s been doing this for years. Today, I finally got to go.

John and I have been trying to get together for months to begin gathering information and photos of sites in the city where our great Jazz musicians lived. I touched on this in a previous post about Kid Ory’s House. We visited just a few more today. Each of these individual sites requires more research and reference checking. I am trying putting together a website dedicated to this information.
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I was bored so I tricked out this refrigerator. I wish I could say I saved it from Katrina but it was in my brothers backyard during the storm. See, now I can sell it at some artsy gallery and say I’m making the city beautiful again.

….so TBK and I are in the Save-A-Center on Tchoup late this afternoon. We go in the place and there’s a couple of young guys horsing around — one’s wheeling around in one of the motorized carts and another has a video camera. There are two others along with them and we just figure they’re going the usual act-dumb-on-YouTube kinda thing. No harm, right? We don’t pay much attention.

We’re in the store about 10 minutes, get our stuff and leave. As we’re backing out and then driving through the parking lot, there’s some 40ish guy walking through the empty part of the parking lot toward Tchoup, toting his plastic grocery bag. He’s a little ways ahead of us and suddenly a grocery cart comes wheeling out of nowhere at a high rate of speed and hits him from the side. He recoils, looks over and…

…turns out the cart was pushed toward him by these four jokesters we just saw in the store. They’re yukking it up and punching each other and having a grand old time, since they’re the ones who pushed the cart into the guy from about 30 yards away so they could video his reaction when the cart hit him.
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TBK and I will be rising early tomorrow morning for this event, which is our own, local rendition of the annual Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

Roller girls. A bar. Empty streets. Indeed a true recipe for specialness.

Alas, I have no white pants. But I can locate a bandana and, given the early hour, I might be inclined to run anyway. For at least a while. No promises. But it’ll be fun nonetheless.

Be there.

”good, honest, law-abiding citizens who are not involved in illicit activity…[are] pretty safe.”

but then there’s this