Katrina week marked by upswing in violence
31st August 2015 · 0 Comments
As the city of New Orleans paused last week to mark the payday loans in jasper tx 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and its chaotic aftermath, some crime experts have predicted that the city would see 200 homicides by the end of 2015, eclipsing last year’s three-decade total of 150.
The Katrina anniversary and all of the conferences and panel discussions about the city’s resilience and progress did little to slow down a crisis that dates back several decades and has repeatedly earned New Orleans the dubious title of the nation’s murder capital;.
NOPD officials reported that over the course of a 24-hour period last week, 10 people were shot.
Among the victims killed and/or wounded last week were a young mother killed in a hit-and-run incident in eastern New Orleans, a toddler shot in the 7th Ward and four people shot in the Carrollton area.
On last Tuesday, someone killed a 39-year-old man and wounded his two-year-old nephew while they were playing outside in the 1700 block of LaHarpe Street in the 7th Ward, police said.
According to police, someone pulled up to the house where the victims were playing Tuesday afternoon, got out of the car and started shooting.
The toddler’s grandmother told WWL News that she heard the gunfire.
“I was inside watching TV and I heard payday loans no faxing no teletrack the gun shots,” she said. “We go outside and see what happened and my stepson is laying on the ground, then turn and my grandbaby got shot.”
According to the grandmother, the two-year-old was shot in the leg.
“The two-year-old, he just wants to know how his uncle is doing, just his uncle, his uncle and his girlfriend,” she told WWL. “He was asking about them.”
During his visit to his hometown last week to attend a Katrina-related conference, National Urban League president and former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial talked about the senseless act of violence.
“The violence issues that the city faces have to always be front and center,” Morial said. “It’s a nagging, gnawing, difficult problem for this community that it’s got to continue to face.”
With the world’s eyes on the Crescent City for the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and three U.S. presidents visiting to mark the occasion, some residents told WWL that they are fed up with the rampant crime and senseless violence that plague New Orleans.
“A lot of people just want to leave here,” the toddler’s grandfather told WWL. “They want to move from the city. You know, it’s not the city, it’s the people.”
The NOPD martin lewis loans with bad credit said last week that it is also investigating a quadruple shooting that claimed the life of a 19-year-old man and left three other males injured. The shooting occurred Wednesday evening at the intersection of Olive and Fern streets.
Just after 7 p.m., NOPD Second District officers responded to reports of multiple shots fired in the uptown New Orleans area. When officers arrived, they found the unresponsive victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the body. The 19-year-old victim died at the scene of the shooting.
During the course of the investigation, officers learned that three additional victims suffering from gunshot wounds were taken to the hospital before police arrived. All three of the surviving victims were listed in critical condition.
Witnesses told police that they saw a dark-colored Ford F150 pickup truck fleeing the scene at a high rate of speed.
Investigators are still gathering evidence and working to identify the person or persons responsible for the crime.
Homicide detective Maggie McCloud is in charge of the investigation and can be reached at (504) 658-5300.
Anyone with information about the incident can also place an anonymous call to Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.
Police are investigating traffic fatality in eastern New Orleans on Sunday, Aug. cash loans in alabama 23, that took the life of a 35-year-old woman who was riding a motorcycle. The fatal hit-and-run occurred at the intersection of Downman Road and Chef Menteur Highway.
Police say the victim was driving a motorcycle about 9:20 p.m. on Aug. 23 down the Downman Road exit ramp toward Chef Menteur Hwy. when she was struck by someone driving a silver Kia Rio that was traveling eastbound on Chef Menteur. The crash caused the motorcycle victim to be ejected from the bike. The Kia Rio then struck another vehicle, injuring a female inside that car. After coming to a stop, the driver of the Kia Rio and a passenger fled on foot.
EMS workers transported the motorcycle victim to the hospital where she died a day later.
Investigators have since learned that the silver Kia Rio was reported stolen in Jefferson Parish.
Fatality investigator Michael Baldassaro is in charge of the investigation and can be reached at (504) 658-6205.
Community leaders said the city needs to clean up its act if it hopes to stem the tide of violent crime and murder.
“During the mayor’s first term, I repeatedly said that if the problems are not addressed properly in the Black community, the problems would spill over nimble smart little loans ad into the white community,” W.C. Johnson, a member of Community United for Change and host of the local cable-access show “OurStory,” told The Louisiana Weekly.
“New Orleans would not be experiencing the chaos in both the Black and white communities if the mayor had listened to the people of New Orleans and involved the citizens with the direct oversight and implementation of the federal government’s NOPD consent degree, both Black and white citizens could trust the NOPD.”
Johnson said the crime problem that existed before Katrina has only been made worse by greater economic injustice and local elected officials’ refusal to share decision-making power with the majority of the city’s residents.
“First and foremost, the murder rate is a by-product of some very emotional and disenfranchised people who believe the world is coming to an end,” W.C. Johnson told The Louisiana Weekly. “Without a support mechanism in place, bringing down the murder rate is extremely difficult if not impossible. The people must be involved and feel engaged. The city cannot flaunt wealth in the face of despair. You cannot give employment to friends and family and pink slips to bread winners in the name of austerity. It is a proven fact that poverty creates homelessness, crime and murder. You short term loans st marys cannot cure one without the other.”
“As I’ve said a thousand times, there are no easy solutions to the scourge of crime and violence that have this city in a state of constant crisis,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, a community activist and president of National Action Now, told The Louisiana Weekly Thursday. “We need better schools that meet all of the needs of young people and teach them effective conflict resolution, more action-oriented pastors and congregations, more economic opportunities for struggling families and job-training programs that provide opportunities for young men and women who slip through the cracks of the city’s school system to turn their lives around.
“What affects some of us eventually affects all of us.”
Johnson had a message for local elected officials who are serious about reducing the number of murders in New Orleans and addressing racial injustice.
“Simply look at the citizens as one would look at a board of directors and stockholders in private business,” Johnson said. “Have their interests at heart as well as your own. You will be amazed at the results.”
Additional reporting by Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.
This article originally published in the August 31, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
