In what appears to be a departure from the recent New Orleans Police Department practice of releasing criminal records of homicide victims, the department has not released the arrest record of the Good Samaritan killed in an Algiers carjacking Wednesday. Superintendent Ronal Serpas has been widely criticized for releasing the records of victims, in some cases citing arrests, but not convictions, from more than 10 years ago. Critics say the practice tends to blame the victim, but Serpas said there’s a connection that shouldn’t be ignored between a homicide victim and his or her criminal past.
During yesterday's press conference where the Mayor proposed a scheme to funnel more money to bail bondsmen, he also managed to angle for Sheriff Gusman to get a larger piece of the exploding murder pie.
Ryan Berni, a Landrieu spokesman, said the mayor isn't asking that judges specifically adopt the $30,000 cash bond policy, but set higher bonds and use their discretion. In New Orleans, many judges set bonds that can be paid through a commercial bond agents, who charge 13 percent of the bond amount for a person to get out of jail.
Landrieu also asked that any gun-charge defendants who are released be electronically monitored by the Orleans Parish sheriff's office. If possible, the defendant should pay for this service, he said.
All of this begs one question. If future murder victims are found to have firearms-related arrest records, and Serpas is going to release that information to the public anyway, shouldn't we just go the whole nine and require the corpses to wear ankle bracelet monitors too?
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