We are THIRD in the WORLD!
New Orleans, United States Third Place. Behind Cape Town, South Africa and Caracas, Venezuela.
"New Orleans, United States
Population: 220,614 to 312,000 (2007); estimates vary due to displacement of people after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Murder rate: Estimates range from 67 (New Orleans Police Department) to 95 (Federal Bureau of Investigation) per 100,000
What’s happening: With its grinding poverty, an inadequate school system, a prevalence of public housing, and a high incarceration rate, the Big Easy has long been plagued with a high rate of violent crime. Katrina didn’t help. Since the hurricane struck in 2005, drug dealers have been fighting over a smaller group of users, leading to many killings. On just one four-block stretch of Josephine Street, in the city center, four people were murdered in 2007 and 15 people shot, including a double homicide on Christmas day. A precise murder rate is hard to pinpoint because the population is swelling quickly, approaching its pre-Katrina numbers. Whether you use New Orleans’s own figures or the FBI’s, however, the city remains the most deadly in the United States, easily surpassing Detroit and Baltimore with 46 and 45 murders per 100,000 people, respectively."
Read Full article here
A friend of mine who used to work as an engineer on large cargo freighters once told me of how he survived in Cape Town, South Africa. He said that as long as the local pirate boys who patrolled the dock with AK-47's were provided with Heineken, they wouldn't shoot you. In New Orleans, however, bargaining tools most often do not apply. You could be shot for far less than a Heineken. You can be murdered in your house while you sleep. You can be a child who is shot in a drive-by gang shooting which is the result of teenage jealousy. At 5 months old you can end up being murdered by your baby sitter who placed you into the dryer and turned it on to shut you up. You can be shot while riding your bicycle home from work. You can end up one of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of unsolved murder cases.
I can't imagine what my mother would say to me if she had read this recent study. I don't even know how to begin to justify my attachment to a city full murderers to her or to anyone else for that matter.
I hope this study will prompt an FBI training office in New Orleans or something similar. I mean, if we are number one, I would think they would want to "study" and research here.
A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction. *Rita Mae Brown
The Big Easy does NOT exist!
Being the Murder Capital of the United States is NOT an honor.
It is up to us, as citizens of this great cultural mecca, to change our reality. From our roots to our elected officials, murder can no longer continue to break our souls with each victim if we are to continue to rebuild and create the greatest American city.
SilenceIsViolence! And the breeder of more crimes and break down of communities. New Orleans nursed a weak and powerless generation through neglect and a corrupt and ineffective welfare system, yes. But, the poor are not the only ones committing murder in this town.
My example I will site is personal. My friend, Jessica, was not murder by thugs looking for cash or drugs. We don't know who murdered her, but the person who committed this senseless act of violence is still roaming the streets of New Orleans, sitting next to you as you eat diner, shopping with you at the market, and otherwise living their life out while this crime goes unsolved and unpunished! The Gustav scare put the investigation back several weeks and it took us several weeks to line-up the Memorial and Anti-Crime March. Now more than ever it is time to shout out against murder in our beloved city!
Jessica Hawk was 32-years-old when she was murdered in her Bywater home early in August. She came to New Orleans in 2003 to be with her fiancee and to pursue her education and career in Botany, biology and entomology. In 2007 she and her fiancee separated, and Jessica moved into her house on Chartres St., where she was stabbed and beaten to death.
Jessica was an author and a scholar, having published botany articles in top scientific journals. A deep lover of nature, Jessica made a tremendous contribution to the city she came to love. She volunteered at the Tulane herbarium, attended the masters program in Biology at UNO, where she was awarded the first post-Katrina graduate fellowship and was a highly regarded teacher, worked as an entomologist at the Audubon Insectarium, which she helped to open, and was scheduled to begin work at the New Orleans Botanical Garden the week after her murder. She was a mainstay at Harold's Plants and beautified many yards, courtyards and balconies around town. She also loved literature, especially Virginia Woolf, and philosophy. A prized possession was a facsimile of T.S. Elliot's "Wasteland" with annotations by Ezra Pound.
Everywhere she studied, worked or lived, Jessica was a star. Born and raised poor, fiercely independent and without a snobbish bone in her body. Jessica was liked and loved by so many and had become a bright light n the Bywater, greeting happy neighbors and friends as she biked or walked through the neighborhood.
Her loss is incalculable! A murder assaults more than the victim. Pray for her devastated family and friends, all of whom are searching for strenght in the face of horror.
On Saturday October 4th, there will be a memorial parade and Anti-Crime march in Jessica's memory.
The parade, led by The Storyville Stompers, leaves Schiro's in the Marigny-corner of Royal and St. Roch- at 4p. We parade through her neighborhood up Esplanade to Ernie K-Doe's Mother-n-Law Lounge, where all who wish will speak in the garden.
Free food, cash bar, and music to follow.
Rides back to the Marigny will be available.
Th investigation is ongoing. As of yet, there are no breaks to report. ANYONE WITH INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CRIME SHOULD CALL Detective Nicholas Gernon at 658.5308
The only way New Orleans can reduce the murder rate is if we speak out and act!
I encourage all who are outraged by this statistic to make a stand by joining us in our march against violence.
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