Many of the country’s “woke” district attorneys have been in the news recently because of a dramatic increase in crime in their cities. Having adopted a mission of protecting criminals rather than the innocent, these DAs have been complete disasters for their cities. Among the worst are Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner and San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin.
Most of these soft-on-crime prosecutors were funded by megadonor George Soros. Jason Williams, DA of New Orleans, is only the latest one.
These Soros-backed DAs have enacted “reforms” that eliminate mandatory minimum prison time, fines imposed on criminal defendants, and jailing juvenile delinquents and small-time drug offenders. More often than not, these policies have corresponded with dramatic increases in crime in their respective cities.
New Orleans is no different. Before Williams became district attorney, New Orleans already faced significant challenges in homicides and violent crime. In fact, Louisiana has long been one of the nation’s worst states in this metric. According to U.S. News and World Report, it had a homicide rate of 19.9 per 100,000 people in 2020. That was the second-highest in the country behind Mississippi. New Orleans was the highest in the state at 21.7 per 100,000.
Yet, given these alarming numbers upon entering office, Williams, just like his Soros-backed DA brethren, decided the best way to combat one of the highest murder rates in the country was to put more criminals back on the street. The statistics from his first year in office are jaw-dropping.
Since he became district attorney, less than one out of every five felony cases have ended with a felony conviction (17%). Approximately 67% result in dismissal without legal consequences for the alleged criminal offender. And about 20% of the felony cases dismissed were crimes of violence.
Additionally, the Advocate elaborated on Williams’s devastating decisions since he was elected. According to the Metropolitan Crime Commission’s latest report, in 2021, Williams rejected 46% of violent felony arrests for such criminal acts as murder, rape, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, among others. That represents an 84% increase over his predecessor.
I emailed Williams’s office to discuss the rise in violent crimes since he was elected DA. I asked him to explain his logic for seemingly prioritizing the lives of criminals over the lives of the innocent. I also asked, given his policies’ failures and the rise in crime, whether he has considered a change in strategy. The inquiry went unanswered.
Sadly, what is occurring in New Orleans under Williams’s watch is happening in cities all across the country. Publicly campaigning as champions of racial equality in the criminal justice system, Williams and his fellow Soros-backed DAs have made things far worse in minority communities. This new avant-garde methodology of fighting crime is destined for failure, and it will endanger innocent people in society. It might be an old concept, but it works quite well; holding criminals accountable makes everyone safer. Fewer criminals on the streets equal less crime.
