Once again, our city is dubbed, the ‘murder capital’ of the US
26th September 2022 · 0 Comments
Shots rang out from a car driving by. When the smoke cleared, one young woman died, and the other was seriously injured.
A grandmother was shot at a graduation ceremony.
An older woman dragged to death by carjacking teenagers.
Every day there are reports of another murder, more violence, and more shootings.
Residents are afraid, businesses are leaving, and some residents are too. The city is just not safe for citizens or visitors.
The designation of “Murder Capitol of the U.S.” which New Orleans is being called – again – is literally a grave issue for the city. Unlike the polemic, ‘words will never hurt me,’ these words are a gut punch to this top vacation destination, where tourism is the main economic engine.
In the mid-1990s, New Orleans held this title, head held high, and pressed forward as city leaders grappled with solutions. For a while, crime diminished. But 17 years post-Katrina and the COVID pandemic, the crime wave is unrelenting and a clear and present danger to all.
New Orleans’ murder rate is not just senselessly burying its citizens; it’s killing its cash cow – tourism. According to the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, visitors spent $3.8 billion last year, according to a national news report.
This month, a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article featured New Orleans analyzing violent crime in the U.S. The newspaper account pointed to Dallas, Phoenix, and New Orleans as areas of surging crime, according to data compiled for the first half of this year by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a professional organization of police executives.
Unfortunately, New Orleans had the highest homicide rate of any major city this year, with about 41 homicides per 100,000 residents, based on data from most of the nation’s largest law-enforcement departments.
The Metropolitan Crime Commission (MCC), the locally based crime watchdog, reports 218 carjackings, 343 shootings, and 397 armed robberies thus far in 2022. To see the full report go to: http; //crimebulletin.metrocrime.org/Orleans-crime-bulletin-as-of-september-18-2022/.
Starbucks is shuttering its Canal Street location because of crime, and some residents are planning to move.
If we’re being honest, New Orleans is not a safe place for residents or visitors. Last week, a bystander saw teens try to steal a parked car in the eighth ward. They smashed the back window of a KIA Van, the owner ran out of his home, fired a shot at them, and the perps took off running.
This happened just after midday. The owner flagged down a patrol car after trying to call the police on the non-emergency number. The Fifth District officers wrote the incident report. When asked why the NOPD is not stopping the car theft ring that has terrorized the area for decades, one officer replied, “We are two of the five officers assigned to this area.
And therein lay the rub. It’s common knowledge that the NOPD is woefully understaffed. Depending on whom you believe, the force is numbers 1200 strong or just 971 officers. Whichever is true, there are not enough for a city of nearly 400,000.
“The city has about 50 to 60 percent of the officers it needs to offer adequate protection for residents, Ronal Serpas told the WSJ. Serpas was the city’s police superintendent from 2010 to 2014 and is now a criminal justice professor at Loyola University New Orleans.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell failed in her effort to end NOPD’s federal consent decree. The federal mandate for oversight of the NOPD was ordered nine years ago after an investigation into police brutality and corruption allegations.
Mayor Cantrell says the consent decree ‘handcuffed’ NOPD officers, “pestered” them with punitive punishments (over minor infractions), and burdened them with paperwork. Cantrell is a democrat.
Federal Judge Susie Morgan denied Cantrell’s request to end the Consent Decree in a case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice precisely because the Consent Decree Monitor reported that the NOPD was non-compliant with the agreement’s orders to improve the recruitment and retention of officers.
All of the measures in the NOPD’s Consent Decree offered ways to improve the department and achieve accountability for law enforcement’s actions. So, the Consent Decree may be unpalatable to some officers, but the Court found keeping it in place necessary.
The city and Mayor Cantrell are now taking steps toward recruiting and retaining officers. This year’s NOPD budget is $215 million, up from $178 million in 2021. That’s about $570 per resident. New York is spending about $653 on policing per resident this fiscal year.
The city received positive media reports for its commitment to spend $80 million to recruit and retain officers. Pay raises for all officers and a $30,000 incentive payment for new hires are among the policies announced in New Orleans as city officials seek to reverse a steady loss of police officers, the Associated Press reported.
More changes in policies and procedures have been proposed. The police department may transfer some police calls, such as non-emergency calls and mental-health emergencies, to other city departments. It has extended shifts from eight to 12 hours, and the department is also working to ease the ability of officers from elsewhere in Louisiana to take jobs in New Orleans.
The nonprofit New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation supports immediately transferring 212 officers assigned to special operations, investigations, and other units to uniformed patrols to get more police on the streets.
While putting 200 plus officers back on the street may not be feasible, Police Chief Shaun Ferguson is committed to placing homicide detectives in the neighborhood once a month. More officers will return to the streets from administrative duties.
We can only hope that these solutions will arrive tomorrow. Our lives depend on it.
This article originally published in the September 26, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
