One day after Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams vowed to conduct an extensive review into why charges were dropped against 16 men arrested on guns charges during Mardi Gras, Louisiana's lieutenant governor is calling for dismissal of the assistant district who made the decision.
Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser told WWL's Tommy Tucker that this latest controversy is another example of how the New Orleans criminal justice system fails the city's residents, businesses, and police officers.
"This is an embarrassment, and to say somebody didn't follow policy? Somebody needs to lose their job over this," Nungesser told WWL's Tommy Tucker. "We need to give the police officers that are risking their life everyday some confidence that somebody's going to do their job."
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Nungesser lamented that this is nothing new.
"The commander in the Eighth District that quit and went to work in Alaska told me he arrested a 17-year-old 61 times before he spent anytime in jail--with a gun."
Nungesser says his office has done everything it can to assist the city in fighting crime, especially in the French Quarter.
"We put a lot of time into trying the commanding Eighth District and working with the mayor to try to get a grip on the crime and cleaning up the French Quarter," Nungesser said. "We've offered tourism money. We've done a lot of things."
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Nungesser says decisions like the one made by assistant district attorney Emily Maw will only keep people away from the New Orleans. In fact, he already has heard from visitors who said they won't ever come back to the city because of its crime problem.
"I feel for the these people that have invested: Galatoire's, the restaurants, the shops on Royal Street. These people are barely hanging on, and we're not giving them the support they need," Nungesser said.
Nungesser also said he has received letters from residents saying they refuse to drive on Interstate 10 through New Orleans because they are afraid of being shot while driving on the highway in New Orleans East. He said those people said they prefer to take the Causeway and I-12 to avoid the city.
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