NOPD zeroing in on illegal guns
3rd April 2017 · 0 Comments
Between two multiple shootings, one in the 7th Ward last month and one in eastern New Orleans on March 18, the NOPD is urging residents to get involved in efforts to reduce gun violence.
At a town hall meeting held March 16 at Central St. Matthew United Church of Christ, city officials encouraged residents to lock their car doors as part of a strategy to reduce gun thefts.
The meeting was hosted by New Orleans City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, head of the Criminal Justice Committee, who told those in attendance, “You’ve expressed fear of crime in your neighborhoods, on your blocks… This is a time for you to have communication with the police and for them to provide you with tools to help prevent crime and to protect yourself.”
Nola.com/The Times-Picayune reported recently that NOPD records showed that 604 firearms were reported stolen in 2016, a 19 percent hike from the previous year. Authorities said those weapons have fueled the city’s rise in violent crime and homicides in 2016 and early 2017.
Since many law enforcement officials and criminologists believe that more than half of gun thefts are never reported, the situation is likely far more grave than those numbers indicate.
WWL News reported in late March that there had already been 42 fatal shootings this year, fueling speculation that this year’s murder totals will likely eclipse last year’s murder total.
Illegal guns are at the heart of the city’s rising murder totals and overall rise in violent crime, authorities say.
“We are fighting illegal guns every day,” NOPD Deputy Chief Paul Noel told Nola.com. While Noel acknowledged that “people get guns a bunch of different ways,” he said that stolen firearms are “a huge conduit.”
NOPD records show that nearly half of at the firearms reported stolen last year were left in vehicles.
“We cannot leave firearms in our vehicle, and we absolutely cannot leave firearms in unsecured vehicles,” Noel told Nola.com. “If you’re a gun owner, you need to be a responsible gun owner. The responsibility of owning a gun — properly locking and securing that firearm — not leaving it loose in your vehicle.”
An incident that underscores that point occurred last week when an uptown resident was shot in the leg by someone who was breaking into a neighbor’s car.
Police records show that 41 percent of the firearms stolen in 2016 were taken from inside a car. Authorities said that in a number of cases, multiple firearms were stolen from a single vehicle.
The City of New Orleans passed a law last year that requires residents to report stolen firearms within 48 hours. Failure to do so results in fines starting at $250.
In other crime-related news, Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Rouse released an alarming report last Monday that shows how prevalent deadly drug overdoes became in 2016.
Rouse said in 2016, there were more than double the number of deaths in that of 2015 and it is likely the first time that drug-related deaths have surpassed homicides in the history of New Orleans.
According to the coroner’s report, there were 211 drug-related deaths in 2016 as compared to 92 drug-related deaths in 2015.
In 2016, opiates were discovered in 166 drug-related deaths, twice as many as 2015’s total of 81.
Within that particular group of accidental opiate-related deaths in New Orleans, Rouse said there was a more than threefold increase in the frequency of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.
In 2016, 48 people died accidentally with fentanyl in their system, compared to 13 in 2015 and cocaine was present in 105 accidental drug-related deaths in 2016 as compared to 34 in 2015.
Methamphetamines were present in 18 accidental drug-related deaths in 2016 as compared to 4 in 2015.
Dr. Rouse said there was no significant change in gender distribution between the years, with males representing 80 percent of the drug-related deaths.
FOX 8 News reported that while the absolute numbers of drug-related deaths in both Blacks and whites increased in 2016, a statistically significant increase was seen in the proportion of African Americans in 2016.
“New Orleans is in the midst of an accelerating public health crisis of drug-related deaths, driven chiefly but not exclusively by the ongoing national opiate epidemic. Medically, expanding access to all levels of addiction treatment is the solution, before persons end up in my office,” Rouse said.
“Regarding criminal justice, I call upon leaders at all levels to support and expand drug diversion programs and drug courts that prioritize treatment rather than punishment for users. Finally, I call upon all those who seek to lead this city as our next mayor to heed these grim statistics and to articulate their plan to stem this growing tide of preventable deaths.”
This article originally published in the April 3, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
