NEW ORLEANS - City Council Vice President Jason Williams has released the following statement in response to recent news of District Attorney's (DA's) Office practices amidst the COVID-19 crisis:

NEW ORLEANS - Council Vice President Jason Williams has released the following statement in response to a recently-posted Advocate article quoting him on the subject of car burglaries:  

"I read the recent article by Dan Fagan and, respectfully, found the headline to be intentionally misleading. It is certainly not my position that vehicle burglaries are a mere inconvenience or nuisance. The article correctly included my long-standing position on car burglaries: "New Orleans councilman Jason Williams this week described the vehicle break-in spree to WDSU television as 'the No. 1 thing burdening our citizens right now."

 NEW ORLEANS - In a recent interview, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro blamed high staff turnover and lowered 2019 conviction rates on the City, arguing they were the result of lower budget allocations in the years 2017 and 2018. Councilmember Jason Williams, who chairs the Council's Criminal Justice Committee, has issued the following response:

"It's unfortunate that our DA has chosen to continue this pattern of deflection. The funding he references was restored in his 2019 budget, yet his conviction rates continued to plummet, and more attorneys left in 2019 than 2017 and 2018 combined. If the DA wishes to cast blame, he should look elsewhere. 

"I am proposing the creation of a temporary special committee of the Council's Criminal Justice Committee to thoroughly investigate and begin gathering important information as we await submission of OSHA's findings."

NEW ORLEANS - City Council President Helena Moreno and Vice President Jason Williams have issued the following statement regarding the deportation of Hard Rock collapse survivor Delmar Joel Ramirez Palma: