New Orleans crime wave intensifies, and is on the way to making New Orleans the 2007 murder capitol, per capita

[Terminator]

NEW ORLEANS - A crime wave is intensifying in this city already beset by a flagging recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and Hispanic immigrants helping to rebuild are common targets, according to police and to statistics released Thursday.
Despite an infusion of money and manpower into the justice system, the number of homicides is climbing, and armed robbers are preying on Hispanic day laborers flush with cash from rebuilding jobs, the Police Department says.
The city, which led the nation in murders per capita in 2006, is on track to do the same this year, according to data presented Thursday for April through June.
The report shows a 14 percent increase in murders and 44 percent leap in armed robberies for the first half of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006.
"It's obviously not good," said police Superintendent Warren Riley.
Crime has gotten so out of hand that Louisiana National Guard troops continue to patrol streets and the U.S. Justice Department has taken on a bigger role in fighting street crime, one that had largely been left to the city before Katrina.
The increase in armed robberies correlates to a spate of muggings of Hispanic workers, many of them undocumented, in the city's devastated eastern section, Riley said. Much of the area, flooded by Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, remains a wasteland and is difficult to patrol.
The workers are easy prey because they often don't have bank accounts and carry large amounts of cash, Riley said. A team of officers has been working on catching the robbers, he said.
Katrina's damage to jails, court buildings, police facilities and a shortage of police officers have been blamed for the rise in crime. In January, a march on City Hall by as many as 5,000 people demanded action to stem a wave in killings. Police responded by putting more officers on the street and setting up checkpoints at high-crime hours.
But Peter Scharf, a criminologist with the University of New New Orleans, said Katrina-based arguments are harder to make now that the city has had time to repair damage and received so much support.
"The hurricane theories, morphing of drug groups, or that the NOPD is in a trailer, really don't make sense," Scharf said. "You look at the leadership in this city to the leadership in cities that have been reasonably successful, and it's night and day."
Recently, Mayor Ray Nagin reignited complaints about his leadership when he said news of two killings, while sad, "keeps the New Orleans brand out there."
Nagin's office did not return a message left after business hours Thursday

[Jenna]

Best of luck to the Swamp Mafia.

[Twan007]

lol thanks Jenna

N.O. was bad prior to Katrina... I've heard NOPD compare it to a "mini-Iraq" since =/

[lewisipso]

That cities problem is entirely to large and complicated to have a solution easy or anytime soon. This will be years in the making.

[smokey703]

lol thanks Jenna

N.O. was bad prior to Katrina... I've heard NOPD compare it to a "mini-Iraq" since =/

One of our Lt. was in the guard and had to do some time in N.O.. He said he would have rather gone back to Afghanistan for another year because it was just that bad down there.

[countybear]

Speaking as a New Orleans native, (lew knows what I'm talking about), very little of New Orleans even resembles the town I grew up in, and the reconstruction of New Orleans has taken on an almost sinister outlook. Its depressing at times. Perhaps most saddening is to watch the powerplays (politically and criminally). The drug lords, street gangs, and thugbums, (running out of free lunches and racking up warrants elsewhere), are beginning their pilgrimmage back home, and finding other entities have settled into their former "turf" in the meantime. What's heartbreaking to me, is that as bad as Katrina was, it did provide an opportunity for a rennaisance and a renewal in New Orleans. I believe the window for that to happen has closed by now.

At least Harry Lee is a constant in Jefferson Parish. To many of us, Jeff Parish is what New Orleans used to be as far as the people go, but then again that was a trend long before Katrina. I think the storm just magnified that attitude exponentially.

[kjlaw]

This is also a problem in the surronding areas who still have the people who decided not to go Back to New Orleans.

[gopherpuckfan]

Maybe they should send notices to all the law-abiding citizens of NO to leave the city for a while. Then, fill it with water again and flush out the crap.

[Ducky]

You know, I keep thinking that if people would just work to rebuild their own futures, then it would straighten out - but the people there that are causing the problems never worked to begin with. They lived by sucking the government teat or by criminal behavior. And those types are making it nearly impossible for the honest, hard working people to make any headway. Those who honestly want to start over already have.

I don't see an easy answer.

[lewisipso]

Maybe Harry Lee needs to be a Metro Chief of Law Enforcement.

[Star Man]

Figures.

I know there are alot of good people there, and these are the scum of society,,,,, but it's been the typical story there to bite the hand that feeds you then DEMAND more be done. They bitch that the recovery is taking too long, but then they rob and beat the very workers that have come there to do the rebuilding. I say fence it off and leave them to fight it out. The last guy standing gets the free pass to jail. Then start rebuilding.