Crescent City’s murder rate, violent crime rise despite progress

1st June 2015   ·   0 Comments

It’s summertime but the living appears to be anything but easy in the Big Easy as the city’s undermanned police department contends with a rash of murders, robberies and rapes.

As temperatures continue to rise in New Orleans, violent crime has also began to increase at a time when the short-staffed NOPD is ill-equipped to handle the rise and as summer tourist events like the Essence Fest get closer.

WWL reported Thursday that in just the past six days, six people had been killed, including two double murders in New Orleans East and the murder of HANO police officer James Bennett, Jr.

“There is no other higher or more important priority than making our city safe,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said during Thursday’s State of the City address. “This is why we are growing the police department now. Our police officers just got a 15 percent raise. Now, the NOPD is the highest paid police department in the region, if not the whole state.”

While the city is doubling its efforts to bolster its police force, the murder rate continues to climb. Murders are up roughly 31 percent, with a total of 71 murders this year compared to 54 the city had this time last year.

“Our murder rate is higher than Baltimore, a scary thought,” LSU criminologist Dr. Peter Scharf told WWL. “We really need to analyze why our murder and crime risks are going up at a time of prosperity.”

Scharf said more officers won’t reduce murders and violent crimes, but he said an educated force and proactive policing will.

However, he admits the city needs the manpower in order to execute a proactive strategy, and with officers leaving the NOPD faster than they can be replaced, he said there is still more work to do.

“Salaries and morale are two different things,” Scharf said. “Can you pay someone enough to take the risks you have to take?”

One of the most disturbing facts of the rising tide of violent crime is the occurrence of violent crime throughout the city.

One of the recent rapes involved a woman who was abducted by a man on Canal Street last week and forced into a car where she was sexually assaulted by two men.

Police are also investigating a rape that was allegedly committed in City Park last week. Police said the alleged victim was found early Tuesday morning near the intersection of Filmore Avenue and Wisner Blvd.

“I come out here around the same time every day,” Tonia Kennedy told WWL last week. Kennedy said she walks along Bayou St. John at least three times a week.

The Wisner Blvd. stretch along Bayou St. John is a popular spot for walkers,, joggers and cyclists as well as those seeking a scenic view or a casual stroll.

“It’s scary,” Kennedy told WWL. “We come out here and try to get our exercise on, whether it’s day or night, and you don’t think if you’re coming out to exercise, you’ll be assaulted that time of morning anyway.”

Police confirmed that a 37-year-old woman was found in a grassy area not far from the intersection of Wisner and Filmore.

Police would not tell WWL News if the victim knew her alleged assailant or if the NOPD has a description of the person.

Although there was no word on the victim’s condition, police did say the case is still under investigation.

Police are still searching for leads in the murder of a Housing Authority of New Orleans officer, James Bennett, Jr., who was recently killed while working alone overnight in Central City.

Bennett, 45, was killed May 24 while working an overtime detail at a construction site at Guste Homes. Another HANO officer found Bennett’s body Sunday morning, May 24, shortly after 7 a.m. inside his patrol car, which struck a curb before coming to a stop at the corner of Erato and Freret streets.

Police said they had not identified a motive or suspect in the slaying.

Police said Thursday that two men were found shot to death inside of a car in New Orleans East, WWL reported.

According to NOPD spokesman Garry Flot, the bodies of two men were discovered inside of a black Kia Cadenza shortly before 6 a.m. after neighbors said they heard the sounds of what they believed to be shots fired.

According to police, the incident occurred in the 4800 block of Bright Drive. Police were called to the scene around 5:45 a.m. after getting a call saying that shots had been fired in the area.

The identities of the victims,18-year-old and 22-year-old males, will be released by the coroner after family members have been notified.

Earlier this spring, local crime experts Dr. John Penny and Dr. Peter Scharf told WWL that they expected the city’s murder rate, already on pace to eclipse last year’s 150 homicides, to increase as temperatures rise.

By Memorial Day, the 2015 murder total had already neared 70 with at least four more months of sweltering temperatures before fall weather returns.

“It’s not looking good right now,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, a community activist and president of National Action Now, told The Louisiana Weekly. “It isn’t safe to be out and about right now and it’s not much safer at home with criminals not hesitating to break into people’s homes to rob them.”

Brown recommended more vigilance and cooperation among neighbors, substance-abuse treatment programs and efforts to find gainful employment for young Black males in the New Orleans.

In other NOPD-related news, police are looking for a brazen criminal who robbed a UPS delivery truck at gunpoint in broad daylight on Magazine Street last week.

“I was a little in shock and I still am in shock,” Cindy Galliano, who works at the Magazine Antique Mall, three doors down from where the robbery took place, told WWL.

The entire incident was captured by a surveillance cameras from a nearby business on Tuesday afternoon about 1:30 p.m.

The video footage shows a gray SUV tailing the UPS truck. When the truck parks at 8th Street and Magazine, the SUV stops in the middle of the block and the alleged robber gets out of the front passenger seat.

Later on in the video, a masked and hooded man can be seen forcing the driver into the back of the truck. A few minutes later, the robber jumps out and runs down 8th Street carrying two packages.

He jumps into the getaway SUV, driven by another man, and takes off.

“This is emotional for me,” Galliano told. “This is just too close. These SOBs aren’t going to take our street.”

“I am really shocked that it happened, because I feel like things have been very good on the street,” Joey K’s Restaurant owner Cindy Farnet. “We really have not been having any incidents.”

Police said the robber took the packages and money from the driver’s pockets.

Farnet said the robbery seems out of place in the popular New Orleans shopping district.

“It’s amazing. I mean, we can’t believe that could happen in broad daylight,” she told WWL. “It’s pretty brazen.”

Police described the suspect as a Black man in his 20s, about 5’11” tall and about 140 pounds, with a black bandana concealing his face. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black jeans.

UPS sent this statement: “A UPS driver was involved in an incident yesterday in New Orleans. UPS is glad that our driver is now safe. We are participating with local authorities throughout their investigation.”

This article originally published in the June 1, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.