Since I addressed you here last year, certain elected officials in

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1 Good afternoon I m honored that you have invited me back. Since I addressed you here last year, certain elected officials in New Orleans are taking frighteningly dangerous steps backwards in this city s fight against violent crime. AND, MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT They have now turned their guns on the District Attorney s office because we will not subscribe to certain radical policies. In November, the City Council cut the operating budget of my office $600,000 a 10% cut in city funding because my office accepts too many cases for prosecution. This attack was orchestrated by certain councilmembers who think my office prosecutes too many cases and who believe my office prosecutes too many 15 and 16-yearold armed robbers in Criminal District Court. On November 11 th in a recorded City Council hearing, I was shocked as I heard a councilmember describe my office as quote a bad actor due to its high 1

2 acceptance rate. He went on to say quote, If we think a 90% acceptance rate is too high, then one way to maybe curb that bad behavior would be to cut [the DA s office] and bring that money to the public defender s office... CERTAIN ELECTED OFFICIALS IN THE CITY ARE NOW PUBLICALLY BOASTING ABOUT CUTTING THE BUDGET OF THE DA S OFFICE TO PUNISH IT FOR ACCEPTING TOO MANY CASES. Does my office accept too many cases? Don t ask me ask Mr. Goyneche and Mr. Humphries. They spend a great deal of their time and your money on compiling accountability reports that monitor the functionality of the criminal justice system in this city. According to those reports, the felony arrest to conviction rate under my administration is the highest that it has ever been. 2

3 Just yesterday I had to authorize a 15-year plea deal for two defendants in a homicide case. You better believe that I was not happy about this, but the key eyewitness the victim s cousin fled the state rather than cooperate. His family, which was also the victim s family, assisted him in this endeavor. My point is simple in the old days this was the type of case that would have simply been refused and forgotten about. With respect to these two defendants, I could not completely stop the revolving door, but we were able to significantly slow it down. Attacking my office for accepting too many cases is an example of city leaders placing politics above public safety. These city leaders have direct control over the NOPD. If they believe that my office is prosecuting too many of a certain type of case, then publically ask the NOPD to quit making arrests in those types of cases. But, in a city that is literally drowning in gunfire, such 3

4 a request is not politically popular, so they starve the agency responsible for prosecuting these cases so that they absolve themselves of the blame when things go wrong. These same city leaders are subtly attempting to present the false narrative that my aggressive prosecutorial policies are driving the city s sky rocketing rate of violent crime. Given the war on law enforcement agencies, this is an appealing argument on the national stage. However, to make it in New Orleans, one must assume that the history of the criminal justice system began the day I took office in November of In 1994, when the DA s office had a policy of refusing 50% of its cases, the murder rate was over 400. Under my administration, our policies were working Violent crime rates were steadily decreasing until the lack of NOPD 4

5 manpower overwhelmed the city and criminals figured out that they could more easily roam the streets with impunity. No, this budget cut is punitive, but it punishes the law-abiding citizens of this community more than me. You see ladies and gentleman last year at this function I gave an address you might remember it I advocated for the city to allow the sheriff to build a jail of an adequate size. Apparently this enraged some city leaders so much so that they are getting their revenge on me by placing your public safety in jeopardy. I want to be as clear and unambiguous as I can be THESE CITY LEADERS ARE PLACING POLITICS ABOVE PUBLIC SAFETY But before I go on, I want to thank Mr. Goyeneche, Ms. Darlene Cusanza, Ms. Melanie Talia as well as the agencies they represent the Metropolitan Crime Commission, New Orleans 5

6 Crimestoppers, and the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation for their authoring of such a strong public letter of support for the District Attorney s office. I still believe that we can strengthen public safety in this city, but not without the support of good government groups such as yours. From the bottom of my heart THANK YOU! What will this cut mean for the DA s office? Let s begin with the understanding that the Orleans Parish District Attorney s office is one of the worst funded prosecutor s offices in the state. For example, Jefferson parish a parish whose crime rate pales in comparison to Orleans gives its DA s office twice what Orleans appropriates to my office. We will be required to cut 10 to 15 positions. This has already begun. The cuts will be made across the board, so we will have fewer attorneys in the courtrooms as well as fewer diversion 6

7 counselors. Now think about that My Diversion program functions better than any non-punitive program in this city to keep potential defendants out of the criminal justice system and the jail. Now, however, we will be forced to restrict access to this program. Furthermore, I will not allow these leaders to extort my office into placing your public safety at risk. As such, WE WILL NOT ALTER THE WAY WE SCREEN CASES. As Mr. Goyneche has theorized, it will now simply take us longer to dispose of them. At a time when the city is struggling with an increasing murder rate and a decreasing clearance rate, we were forced to pull our resources from murder scenes. At a time when the city is trumpeting a $40 million public safety initiative, I must ask will my office be punished further if we have the audacity to prosecute the cases that result from this public safety initiative? 7

8 Despite what you hear, safety in the city of New Orleans is declining and in the past year it has gotten demonstrably worse. This is the direct result of the city s ill-conceived criminal justice policies. Let s begin with the jail. Certain city leaders are so consumed with keeping its size at 1438 that they lash out at anyone who disagrees with them. Last year, the sheriff was proposing the construction of a facility which would increase the jail size by 200 to 375 beds. The city has and continues to stubbornly insist that it does not need a single bed more than the However, in the past few weeks, the Federal Consent Decree Compliance Director the expert approved by a Federal Judge authored a plan in which he stated his belief that the jail needed nearly 300 additional beds. 8

9 Certain city leaders perpetuate the myth that the jail is overflowing with defendants charged with the simple possession of marijuana. However, according to a report recently released by the MCC, as of January 3 rd, simple possession of marijuana accounted for 2 THAT S ACTUAL INMATES NOT PERCENT! While the DA s office was a leader in the initiative to increase the use of summonses for nonviolent offenses, the city, however, is now apparently using summonses for individuals charged with firearms related offenses. NO, YOU DIDN T MISS HEAR ME! Last week a resident in the 3 rd district was issued a municipal summons for the crime of illegal discharge of a firearm whereby a perpetrator fired a handgun into the home of a neighbor. The neighbor was at home in her kitchen where the bullet lodged into the wall barely missing her. Certain elected officials are so obsessed with the size of the jail that 9

10 they are placing politics above public safety. They will continue do this until enough concerned citizens demand that they stop. Where does it go from here? Do they intend to issue a summons to drug dealers? What about to defendants who only shoot but do not kill their victim? YOU POSSESS THE POWER TO MAKE THEM END THIS FOOLISHNESS! As of January 3 rd, 62% - nearly 2/3 s of the pretrial population of the jail consisted of defendants charged with violent felonies or weapons related offenses. Consider that defendants charged with other serious felonies such as burglary or the distribution of narcotics as well as defendants with lengthy violent records are not even included in that 62%. At a time that NOPD manpower levels and enforcement are at all time lows, the city is attempting to quietly enact plans to 10

11 reduce the jail population by as much as 33%. If these policies win the day, the revolving door of the criminal justice system will be put on overdrive and dangerous defendants will be placed back on the streets. Since I brought up the issue of NOPD manpower, let s look at that for a second because it so plainly demonstrates the city s shortsightedness when it comes to meeting its public safety obligations. The city refused to hold an NOPD recruit class for years and allowed the NOPD to shrink to a historic low number. They did this despite warnings from the upper echelon of the NOPD that this was a bad idea. Are we surprised that this caused a dramatic increase in violent crime? When the public realized that the lack of police manpower was resulting in a dramatically unacceptable increase in response times as well as increases in violent crime, 11

12 the city comes up with a costly plan to travel across the country to recruit new police officers. Nevertheless, the rate of growth last year was nil. At the current rate of growth it will take the department decades to get back to its 2010 numbers. This is so despite recent reports that the city disregarded its own hiring standards when filling its recent recruit classes. NOW WE GET TO THE FRIGHTENING PART - While some elected leaders want to tell you that the city is safe and that public safety is their number one priority, objective facts simply do not agree. As of this morning, 50 people have been shot in the city of new Orleans and there have been 15 murders in the first 23 days of this year. Make no mistake about it those are staggering numbers! 12

13 Why should you find this alarming? Consider at this time last year that the city had experienced only 17 shootings. And, while the city saw a dramatic increase in the number of shootings in 2016, if it stays on its current 2017 pace, then the number of shootings could reach almost 700 a significant spike above last year s dramatic increase. If you caught the press conference yesterday, then you know the city has come up with a $40 million plan to combat this. Again, however, it is reactionary and places politics above public safety. What does the plan include? As you might imagine, it does not include any resources for a systemically underfunded DA s office, but it does apparently contain money for increased parking enforcement. Is there some correlation between armed robbery and shooting and people who park too close to the corner that no one told me about? 13

14 While these leaders claim the plan includes funding for increased patrols and enforcement, who is supposed to prosecute the arrests these officers make? These same city leaders slashed my meager budget and they did so because I accepted too many cases. THEY CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS! Do not allow this to go unquestioned. While these objective facts are alarming, it is not my intention to scare you to INACTION. We could simply bury our head in the sand and allow this to continue to spin out of control. Then we will wake up one day after the tourism industry has abandoned this city, and New Orleans will become a cautionary tale of urban failure. But, I think now is a time that we should make our stand. Too many people worked so hard to rebuild this city after Katrina please do not let it go violently into the night. The 14

15 future of this great city the entire region is in your hands. And, to those of you who live in Jefferson, St. Tammany, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard, you are not immune from this. So goes New Orleans so goes the entire region. More and more we are seeing that criminals do not respect parish borders. Just last week my office convicted 4 16-yearold armed robbers in a spree of 20 armed robberies that passed through nearly every police district in New Orleans, but they did not quit there. They went into Jefferson parish and committed more armed robberies there. If New Orleans continues down this spiral, then it will eventually place at risk not only public safety but also property values and businesses in surrounding parishes. We are rapidly approaching a tipping point, but it is not too late. Municipal elections are less than a year away Demand that candidates give you substantive answers regarding public 15

16 safety issues and hold them accountable for their prior decisions. Do not accept platitudes demand detailed explanations. DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CANDIDATES TO PLACE POLITICS ABOVE PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOLD ACCOUNTABLE THOSE ELECTED LEADERS WHO ALREADY HAVE! It has been said, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it s the only thing that ever has. I don t need you to change the world just this city. Do not allow them to give you some canned answer based on the false narratives by those who collect six figure salaries to implement their radical jail reduction strategies. 16

17 If we are not willing to draw a line in the sand and say this far no further, then we become accessories to the bad decisions of politicians who if left unchecked will destroy this city. PLEASE DON T BE COMPLACENT. PLEASE GET INVOLVED. Please make a difference if for no one else Do it for your children and their future. Thank you for your attention and support. (PAUSE) I will now take my seat so I can be upstaged by sheriff Normand! 17