Far from NOPD to admit it while they themselves are gunned down, but violent crime is on the New Orleans front-burner once again. As a friend escorted me to my car late Friday night, he recited a litany on safety and said, “You have to understand one thing about New Orleans. The poor really hate the rich here, and you will probably never see as much distrust between blacks and whites anywhere else.”
“Yeah? In that case, why does the majority of violence in New Orleans involve people killing their own?” I asked back.
The next morning, five kids were killed at the corner of Danneel and Josephine. My knee-jerk reaction was to demand the military – our police force is way beyond over-its-head and drowning, and the city is open to new types of criminal activity – and immediately realized the even-worse situation that can turn into in the long run.
- We had the military here for a while and things reverted once they left
- More police = more police to shoot at
Enough police state, i.e. treatment of symptoms, and on to a longer-term solution, i.e. prevention of problem.
If the money is indeed coming and New Orleans ought to have a plan ready, it should be one that talks mainly of youth enfranchisement. The most common way for a local youngster to feel pride should not be through the use of a firearm in petty vengeance, much less his martyrdom in another drive-by.
That a young man may not live to see 21, lacks viable choices, isn’t as productive as his potential and will never know the real meaning of power makes me ask the following:
- For whom will this city be rebuilt?
- Of what use is a jazz district, a new city hall, razing this and erecting that if we don’t grow and treasure the human resources who stand to inherit New Orleans?
- When do the rest of us turn into collateral damage if the situation worsens?
- Will this cause people to leave?
- What do we do to stop it?
What is our problem?
Talk to me, internet. Tell me what you think our planning priorities ought to be from a youth safety and empowerment standpoint? While I understand that history, previous mistakes and race relations figure into it greatly, please don’t turn this into a political shootout or a race rant. Let’s work with the current situation and towards the future. Discuss ideas that may be placed on a city plan, compiled and sent into the Mayor’s office.
Rebirth, rejuvenation, revival – just words until a real and worthwhile overhaul.
and here you go
Editor B suggests legalizing drugs. Even if that would hlp (and I’ve considered the idea before) it won’t help us next week or next month. Hell, my mom and dad used to go into speakeasys in the late 1930s. the business continued because they sold untaxed liquor and made (more) money that way, so legalizing drugs won’t immediately solve the black market problem.
I’m a libertarian at heart, but I have to ask when do we start setting up checkpoints in this city and searching everyone until all of the idiots are off the street.
For now, more boots on the street might make a difference, if the bangers are afraid to move around because their neighborhoods are crawinlg with the law.
If this post looks funny, its because my XP IE and this site don’t like each other. This test box control is wider than the column it’s in so I can’t see part of what I’m typing.
I was driven crazy by the city council’s response–picking on the corporations that are rebuilding New Orleans. Do they think that these businesses owe them something? The mayor needs to woo these companies. New Orleans has no economic engine at all, and the city council blames businesses currently in town for not doing something about crime — laughable!
The person to blame is THE MURDERER. I think that the culprit for this crime needs to be called out. Midnight basketball leagues might be great, but absent those, should we accept kid do go out and murder instead. When you were 18, were you in danger of killing someone in the middle of the night if you were not at an organized activity?
These kids need something that liberal politicians simply do not understand. It is called PERSONAL RESPONSABILITY and it works.
Lori, when I was 18, I merely wished to read a book, play on my computer or go to the arcade and away from any organized activity or other people. :-)
FYI, there are plenty of cities up north (where I come from) that are run by liberal politicians and abound with
personal responsibility. In fact, I think we should take the conservative vs. liberal out of the discussion – it really takes away from the facts that face us.
That said, I agree with you. The person to blame is the murderer. However, in order to instill accountability and conscience in a society, we need to make sure that it comes from within each individual. How do we do this?
Keep the money in schools. Pay their mentors, such as teachers and counselors, as much as the drug dealers with cars and bling that these kids respect so much.
Keep the money in great male role models. If these kids see that being a father (not just a sperm-donor) is a thing of value, then they will not try to prove their manhood by re-enacting Godfather on the mean streets of New Orleans.
Keep the money in discouraging the drug trade and in drug rehab programs. If we didn’t have so much addiction and concomitant crime, we wouldn’t have this kind of violent crime either.
All things to think about while in full agreement that personal responsibility is key.