Unbelievable. It took the killing of five people at one time to prompt the city leaders to get the lead out (so to speak):
Mayor Ray Nagin asked the governor Monday to send National Guard troops and state police to patrol his city after a violent weekend in which five teenagers were shot to death.
[snip]
City Council members promised swift action against violence as the city tries to repair itself.
“The crime issue — once it begins to surface itself as a centerpiece again, everything else falls out the window,” Councilman Oliver Thomas said. “It just dampens all our possibilities and probabilities.”
By suggesting that the crime issue might be starting “to surface”, Oliver Thomas highlights one of the biggest disconnects I’ve seen regarding post-Katrina New Orleans: ignoring the violent madness that stained the city for so long.
News flash! Nobody, anywhere — except in New Orleans’ City Hall — ever lost sight of the crime issue. Not once! But it has evidently been a hidden mine in a muddy field for NOLA’s leadership.
Will assistance from the State Police and National Guard stem this tide? Can they even get the Guard?
[…] it is unclear whether National Guard troops can be called into service for foot patrols almost 10 months after Hurricane Katrina. Officials said the governor supports the idea, but is investigating whether she can make it happen.
More to the point, do officials there have any idea what to do with help, even if they get it?
This entire situation just ticks me off! Ten months to get in front of this, but the crime “problem” was a low-key, barely discussed part of the recent elections.
The criminal justice system is still back-logged into the next century, there’s nowhere to put people once they’re arrested, the public defender system is buried… what a freaking mess.
Yup – it’s high time to bring some help into the city. Hopefully, they’ll call officials in Compton, or Boston, or NYC, and ask for advice while they’re at it — cuz this absolutely cannot continue.
The crime in New Orleans has been “the centerpiece” for a very long time, and if the city’s leaders don’t do something drastic right now — if outside help doesn’t rein it in — it’s hard to imagine what the future holds there.