I do not know from whence the phrase “delicious irony” originated, but we certainly had a recent case of it right here on the streets of New Orleans, which I guess is itself part of the irony. Irony, of course, is a situation which occurs when something intended to have a particular result, ends up having the opposite result. What made it so delicious? Well, read on:
I am speaking, of course, of the recent car hijacking of Jason Williams, one of the most prominent members of the Soros-backed progressive district attorney club. You know, the same Jason Williams who was elected by New Orleanians way back in 2020, when woke progressivism was, however briefly, the spirit of the age. At the time it was all the rage for the New Orleans citizenry, or at least enough progressives and liberal simpletons, to display their affinity for progressive ideological buy-in by electing Jason Williams as the District Attorney of New Orleans.
Mr. Williams left us in no doubt that he was a progressive- it was perhaps the most prominent aspect of his campaign. He promised a complete departure from the policies of his predecessor, Leon Cannizzaro, to whom the city owes a debt of gratitude for running a good shop on his twelve year watch. Nevertheless, during the election Cannizzaro was faulted for his outmoded, presumably racist, “tough on crime” approach which, God forbid, actually sought to incarcerate violent criminals and serial petty offenders.
And so Jason Williams was elected to be the District Attorney of New Orleans, even though he had no prior prosecutorial experience and had only briefly served as a temporary judge many years earlier. In fact, he had never managed anything other than his small law firm (where he continues to work, presumably part-time), and one or two aides while serving on the New Orleans City Council.
The fact that Williams was grossly unprepared for the job obviously did not matter to the progressive wokesters and their useful idiot allies among the city’s elites, and the tragic results predictably followed. Criminals were released in droves and fewer and fewer charges were filed against those arrested by the police. But the rot didn’t stop in the district attorney’s office.
The New Orleans Police Department, already one of the worst performing police forces in the country, was further demoralized by the knowledge that the district attorney now required a very high level of evidence before accepting any case, no matter how heinous the crime. To add insult to injury, Williams had simply stopped accepting charges for most minor crimes like shoplifting, trespass, threats, etc., although policemen knew that they themselves would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law whenever the opportunity presented itself.
And so we arrive at the case of Raymond Rochon, an eighteen year old one man wrecking ball of civilization, and his most unfortunate choice of victims on the night of October 16, 2023. Rochon had numerous outstanding arrest warrants (four as a juvenile and three as an adult, that we know off), and police had been well aware of his penchant for carjacking at the point of a gun. Why, they even had his fingerprints on several of the cars. There was no rational excuse for Rochon still being at-large on the streets of New Orleans, unless you buy in to the progressive ideological claptrap that the criminal is a victim of society.
But at large he was, due in no small part to the intimidation and demoralization of the NOPD, due in no small part to the efforts of the crime victim himself, Jason Williams. And therein lies the delicious irony- even fiction writers can’t make up this stuff. Rochon knew at once why he had finally been apprehended, commenting to the police “I know why y’all are here- y’all’s people…” That is to say, he knew he had carjacked the wrong guy.
Which of course begs the question: What would have happened to Rochon had he carjacked you or me? I think we all know the answer to that one- Rochon would still be out there committing several carjackings a week. It is almost a certainty that sooner or later, he would have killed or seriously injured someone, but in Jason Williams’ world, we are apparently expendable casualties in the cause of woke progressive ideology.
The existential question for the inhabitants of this once great city is how much longer they will permit the present situation to continue?
Louis Gurvich
Louisiana Republican Party - Chairman
