I'm sorry but did people think New Orleanians were going to stop murdering people

[RB TexLa]

because of a hurricane? 27 murders in the first two months is on track for 160 to 200 murders this year. If the city has 40% of it's population as everyone tries to say it does, the murder rate is about where it has always been. And they have people living in the city saying they don't want to live in a city with such a murder rate? Exactly when did these people think "lack of crime" was a stated reason to live in New Orleans?

[Trajan]

1. I suppose there is a point in here somewhere ....

Perhaps how awful people from New Orleans are ?

[RB TexLa]

2. Just I wonder if these people think they were living in some other state or city

for the last 30 years.

[KamaAina]

19. Actually, N.O. murders dropped 65% from '94 to '99

granted, all that did was to bring it down to semi-reasonable levels, but still, it was quite an accomplishment.

At the rally following the Silence is Violence march on Jan. 11, I (who happened to be in town) learned that this was the result of effective community policing, a first for New Orleans. Maybe if they brought that back.... naaah, that'd make waaaay too much sense. :sarcasm:

Happy Mardi Gras, y'all! :hi:

[aquart]

3. No, he's actually saying the crime rate is the same as ever

So why are people making a big fat fuss?

[DBoon]

4. Overall, a disaster makes people neither better nor worse

Though in times paste, large scale disasters were thought to be the result of God's anger. If a city was devastated, it was because the inhabitants were sinful and deserved God's wrath.

Today, people who believe this call themselves "republicans", and believe poverty is God's way of punishing those who do not believe in capitalism. Some of the "republicans" may believe that the wicked ways of New Orleans caused the city's devastation.

[roguevalley]

5. New Orleans has been abused beyond anything I can recall happening

to an American city. Nothing is getting better because the corporations want everyone to leave so they can disneyfy the city and own it dirt cheap. Poor people. They have suffered and still are. That is the biggest problem there. Nothing is getting better and the suffering only gets worse.

[Bluebear]

6. Is this street crime? Domestic crime?

Familial homicide? Are the murders in the areas still not rebuilt, is theft involved, any insight into the numbers? Or are you saying New Orleans is just a horrible place?

[RB TexLa]

8. I'm not saying it's a horrible place, just it's the same city it was before

and I think anyone that thought Louisianians would for some reason not be violent in the aftermath of a hurricane is just playing games with themselves.

[JVS]

7. But why bother put up with crime when the city is a wasteland?

NO used to have things to offer that might have offset the nuisance of crime, but it doesn't anymore.

[devilgrrl]

9. I would think the crime rate is even worse than before Katrina...

from what I've heard the place still fucked up from the storm, nobody has done squat as far as rebuilding the area and I hear it is way worse in Mississippi.

[AZBlue]

10. High crime is found in areas where poverty is widespread and there are few resources

to lift onself out of that poverty. Given the fact that this very situation has only worsened since Katrina, I would have expected the crime rate to go higher after the hurricane.

If this country or this government gave a damn about the people of New Orleans, it might not have happened this way - but the public don't care any more and the government never did.

[XemaSab]

11. In 2003 NO had 57.7 murders per 100,000 people

Making it WAY more violent than Oakland, Detroit, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Philidelphia, and Baltimore.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004902.html

[RB TexLa]

12. 12.7 per 100,000 for Louisiana, it's what we do. We murder one another.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004912.html

[Selatius]

13. Areas of poverty lead to areas of high crime.

New Orleans, before Katrina, wasn't a stellar example of the fight against urban decay and poverty and the resulting crime.

[sandnsea]

14. It's 4 per 100,000

in Seattle and Portland. Murder may be what y'all "do" in Louisiana - but I can't see why you're nonchalant about it.

[RB TexLa]

15. The post isn't about the actual violence

it's about the people who seem to think the city was supposed to be some kind of entirely different place after the storm.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Gee, take a city already dealing with poverty and violence...

then destroy wide portions of it, subject it's citizens to PTSD, gut public infrastructure, do away with any sort of order, and of course the violence rate would shoot up. It makes perfect sense.

People who harp on the violence in New Orleans are just trying to justify their own inaction.

[RB TexLa]

17. The rate actually hasn't shot up, it's on par with historical levels

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. Well than that's a minor miracle.