Study: New Orleans tops crime rankings

[Behind the Aegis]

Source: AP

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — According to a national study released Monday, New Orleans is the most violent city in the country.

Fueled by a murder rate that is way above the national average and even the second most violent city, the study ranks New Orleans — with more than 19,000 incidents of crime last year — number one, ahead of Camden, New Jersey, and Detroit.

In murders, New Orleans had 94.7 per 100,000 population, compared to the overall national average of 5.6 per 100,000 and to Gary, Indiana, ranked second with 73.2 per 100,000.



Read more: http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-44/1227554373160030.xml&storylist=louisiana

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This makes me so angry and sad.

[JackBeck]

1. You can add me as a Plus One, since my attack is not included in those stats.

Attempted armed-robbery this time, last year, right off of Bourbon Street.

[Mudoria]

2. New Orleans has been a crime ridden city for quite

a number of years hasn't it?

[slackmaster]

3. Yes, but it had not managed to surpass Washington, DC until now

:nuke:

[High Plains]

7. Washington, DC, came in only 21st.

Oh, for the glory days of the early '90s, when I first moved there. Bodies everywhere. 400+ a year.

[pitohui]

14. in what year did washington d.c. ever surpass new orleans in violent crime rate?

i'm not saying that it never happened but most years the contenders are detroit, michigan, camden, new jersey, gary, indiana -- d.c. at least has an industry (politics)

new orleans is always in the top two or three if not number one, which has been FREQUENTLY many times over the decades

at least according to our local news media!

i remember a year in the 70s when the news would report on "a murder a day" to see if we could break that record (we could), and then the murders got even worse in the 80s, with 400 a year not being too tough a target to hit -- keep in mind the size of the city, which is a fraction of d.c. -- this ranking is by "per capita" and 95 murders per 100,000 citizens is a tough target to hit

[MountainLaurel]

16. The late 80s/early '90s

D.C. was often referred to as the murder capital of the United States, with almost 500 murders a year at the peak. Most of the murders were gang- and drug-related. And D.C.'s population isn't that far from pre-Katrina New Orleans: 600K compared to 500K, respectively.

[WriteDown]

4. Sad....

Its always been bad in NO. Most people never ever see anything outside the Quarter.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. True...

But the French Quarter is the heart of our tourism industry and NOW crime, violent crime, is spilling into it. I was walking to work on Wednesday, middle of the day (2pm), bright sunny day, and two streets up from where I was walking, (I was on Royal) 6 men were beating the shit of one other man...IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. A few months back they arrested the person responsible for 15 armed robberies in the FQ, including on Bourbon Street, he is 14!

[KamaAina]

12. Got any solutions?

They tried putting in crime cameras. Civil liberties issues aside, the contract got awarded in true NOLA fashion, to someone's crony, or whoever paid the highest bribe. Guess what? They don't work. In fact, two men were just murdered right underneath them. :wtf:

http://humidcity.com/2008/11/21/getting-to-the-end-game

Thickstan was murdered at just after 8 p.m. while walking his dog hear his house in the Irish Channel. Where he died a broken crime camera sat watching, just like the one that didn't catch the murder of Kendrick Thomas.

Maybe the crime cameras aren't supposed to work, not down here. Maybe it's just another experiment, like the one we're conducting on our children and preparing to conduct on our poor, sick and elderly here in our own brave new world of New Orleans.

Perhaps somewhere They are hoping that if enough people die in front of enough broken cameras we will all scream for cameras, demand them on every corner in American, (sic) insist on them in our own homes, scream for them like Winston in Room 101 with the rats clawing at the thin wire mesh.

Who in their right mind would return under these conditions? Even I am starting to have second thoughts.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. I wish there was a simple solution.

I saw the report on local news about the USELESS cameras. I know in my neighborhood, our block formed a coalition. We watch each other's homes, know when someone is out of town, know most of the guests to their homes, and even have an email list. As a result, we were able to shut down two crack dens, and an another house being used for G-d knows what (we weren't even told, but saw several led away in cuffs). We have had problems with cops responding to our calls, but a call to the local media, and that clears it up right quick.

There are several people who are not returning, and after the "1-2" punches of Ike and Gustav, it has becomes even worse. It is so sad because we have such a beautiful city!

[Ex Lurker]

5. NOLA is dysfunctional on a great many levels n/t

[ohio2007]

8. and very dysfunctional on a great many levees nt

[jody]

9. Disgusting that Chicago, IL is ranked "NA" because it does not provide data. Obama will

CHANGE that.

I believe Chicago is about 15.5/100k.

[surrealAmerican]

11. You've got a point.

The last time they provided data, Chicago came out as the worst.

[Doctor_J]

10. Part of letting Katrina happen was turning NOLA into Little Baghdad

One of the reasons that the Cheney Cabal didn't do anything to save NOLA was to experiment with a small anarchistic location in the US. Private contractors were given lots of money with no accountability there, and they wanted to see what would happen if they let it turn into a big ghetto (in the Nazi sense), with nothing but rogue security forces to make sure the fighting was confined to members of the working class on each other.

[pitohui]

13. there was no "turning" involved, new orleans has been the highest or near highest since crack

i moved to new orleans in the 70s and there has never been a time when it did not qualify for highest or near to the highest in the murder rate, except for the few months immediately after katrina when the parish was depopulated

as for as the post-1980 explosion in violent crime, you can blame st. reagan for providing all kinds of price support for cocaine industry with his failed "war on drugs" -- the crack epidemic of the 80s is what really brought in the crime -- people selling weed used to be peaceful but the crack dealers brought their weapons and now all drug sellers are violent drug criminals -- ALL -- not in the mood to hear about someone's nice guy buddy who is mellow, not this time of century -- because to survive in this business you need to be armed or your customers will be taken by someone who is

the thing about crack is the crackheads just won't die, unlike with the heroin epidemic of the 60s and 70s, despite well publicized stories of ODs it is rare -- crack heads and crack dealers die by shooting each other and the rest of us get hurt in the crossfire

my house was fired on by crack dealers in the early 90s

absolutely no news content or conspiracy theory needed here, it's same old same old
business as usual

until we get serious about cutting off the head of the crack business at the top -- with the billionaires and the bankers -- the foot soldiers will keep shooting each other and the citizenry down here on the ground -- same as any other war -- unfortunately a lot of the cocaine billionaires are resident in other countries and seem to be untouchable

[WriteDown]

17. Good analysis nt.