Posted on 01/02/2006 11:53:19 AM PST by Founding Father
The french had just such a place off the coast of south america.
I meant "fend for themselves" as in they were basically thrown into a Combat Zone when they got here; whether they lived in one in NOLA, I do not know.
I realize that people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. I lost a home and all I owned to fire, once. I got on with it with no government assitance whatsoever.
I'm just pointing out some discrepancies I saw in the article, that's all.
See my post #22 for clarification.
---Round them up , handcuff them and take them to Marys' or Rays' house. Let them deal with what they unleashed on an unsuspecting America because of their incompetance. Or send them back on a chain gang to do rebuliding and NOT pay them. Works for me and saves taxpayers alot of money.
Bingo!
The gorilla in the living room has been exposed yet again!!!
No quick fix for rising homicides
City looking for creative way to combat violence
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
It wasn't the bloodiest year ever for Houston. But with 23 percent more homicides last year than in 2004, Houston police are boosting patrols near large, crime-ridden apartment complexes and considering other steps to curb the violence.
Unofficially, the city had recorded 336 homicides through Saturday, compared with 273 in 2004. Police spokesmen said the final number could change slightly as investigations continue.
The increase follows several years of a relatively steady homicide rate, ranging from 267 in 2001 to 276 in 2003. These numbers reflected a gradual annual increase since 1997, when homicides dipped to a 10-year low of 227.
Police Chief Harold Hurtt has responded to this year's increase, much of it recorded in the past two months, by investing $4 million in additional overtime pay for officers and deploying many of them near five apartment complexes where violent crime has been rampant.
Such steps are helpful, but a long-term solution will depend on the city's "renewed commitment" to train and hire additional officers, said City Councilman Adrian Garcia, a former police officer who chairs the council's public safety committee.
"The budget's really tight, but we've got to be looking at creative ways to get our manpower back up," Garcia said. "It's been proven time and time again that police presence, in and of itself, is a great deterrent to crime."
Evacuees' role
The latest homicides recorded in Houston were the shootings of two men in the 8900 block of Bissonnet about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Police said the two victims, Keith Hayes, 19, and Calvin Clay, 23, and a suspect identified only as "Al" were Louisiana residents who relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina.
The suspect fled afterward, police said.
The killing of the two men brought to 10 the number of Houston homicides this year involving Katrina evacuees. Hurtt and other city officials, however, have cautioned that the evacuees' role should not be overemphasized.
"I don't think that would be fair for us to do," Garcia said. "That would be assuming that Houston was crime-free before Katrina occurred."
Other officials say it's reasonable to expect a spike in crime when an urban area experiences a sudden increase in population — more than 100,000 Katrina evacuees have been housed in Houston-area apartments — without a corresponding increase in resources.
This is the reasoning behind Mayor Bill White's request that the Federal Emergency Management Agency provide $6.5 million to pay overtime to officers in targeted areas. The agency said it is considering the request.
Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, said police officers are feeling the strain, with morale low in spite of progress the union has made in boosting their pay and benefits.
Much of this is based on personnel shortages that require officers to respond alone to violent crime scenes, Marticiuc said.
"It's not safe," he said.
Focus on solutions
Garcia and others say it's more useful to focus on solutions than on trying to pinpoint why the number of homicides has gone up. Identifying the reasons for changing crime rates is notoriously difficult, Garcia said.
"There is no perfect science to crime and what causes it," Garcia said.
In addition to hiring more officers, Garcia said city and county officials should increase their monitoring of registered sex offenders, probationers and parolees.
"We need to make sure we are keeping an eye on individuals who have conditional liberty," Garcia said. "We need to focus on these individuals who already have experience with the criminal justice system."
Officials say it's also important for the public to keep the latest numbers in perspective.
Overall crime drops
While violent crime in Houston was up by 2.3 percent since November from the same period in 2004, the overall crime rate dropped by 2.2 percent.
And the 2005 homicide total was less than half the record number of 701 in 1981. Garcia said he vividly remembers the conditions he saw as a police officer in the 1980s, when a recession deprived the city of revenue to hire more officers and violent crime soared.
Then, as now, a combination of greater police presence and strategic deployment can turn things around, Garcia said.
Chief Hurtt, he said, "is doing very well, given the conditions we're all existing under and the challenges that he's inherited."
"The french had just such a place off the coast of south america."
Keyword: "had".
Alcatraz used to be a good spot but, as its names implies, it belongs to the Native Indians. Something like that would be ideal...only further out.
"Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate."
How do you know, Ms Diana?
"Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate."
This tagline encompasses both my distain for EnviroWackos and my love of chocolate. :)
There are discrepancies in the article as well as the attitudes. The overall crime rate in Houston is down more than 2%. It is the violent crime rate that is up. It was going up before Katrina hit. After Katrina, there were over 120 homicides in the city. Nine of those involved evacuees. The thing that is ignored is that out of those nine, most seem to involve only the victims being identified as evacuees. So you have a Katrina evacuee who was carjacked and murdered by an unidentified assailant who probably is a Houston resident. And this victim ends up contributing to the statistics of evacuee involvement in crime.
Houston's recent crime is linked to the sudden large drop in the numbers on the police force due to retirees not being replaced. That is one of White's failures. It was the increase in the police force that solved the big crime problem in Houston back in the 80s and the current decrease is accompanied by a rise in violent crime.
There was a Marion Barry thread on FR in last couple of days (I think hizzoner was broken into or some such) and somoene quoted the estimable former mayor or once saying "If you leave out the murders D.C. ain't so bad". Your post just made me think of that - I guess you can pretty much make the numbers look anyway you want them too.
where i live it used to be alot more quiet!! since they've moved in car break-ins are constant!! and when u see them.. all they ever do is sit outside of they're apartment smoking weed and fighting with each other. what they need to do is GET A JOB, WORK AND GET A BUS TICKET BACK TO LA and stop complaining so god damn much, like WE owe them something!!!
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