This week’s hearing of the New Orleans city council’s criminal justice committee was, as a Times-Picayune reporter aptly put it, like a visit to the principal’s office for the city’s two leading crime-fighters. On the hot seat were New Orleans Police Department superintendent Warren Riley and New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan, whose respective departments have lately been at odds over how to deal with the city’s post-Hurricane Katrina crime wave.
The argument centers on the hundreds of accused criminals who have been released because charges were not brought on a timely basis. Prosecutors say they aren’t getting police reports in time. Police counter that the D.A.’s office is demanding more work than is necessary to bring offenders to trial. Citizens and the council members are fed up with the finger pointing, reports Time.
Link: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1590089,00.html