Posted on 08/05/2006 7:31:12 AM PDT by Flatus I. Maximus
SLIDELL, La. — It was just before dawn when the pickup truck arrived at the two-story house in this middle-class suburb, which was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. But unlike most of the trucks here now, it was not carrying construction supplies.
Federal agents, who were hiding in the bushes, say the truck was bringing 50 kilograms of cocaine, worth $5 million, from Houston to the murderous streets of nearby New Orleans. They also say that the shipment, seized on May 18, was at least five times as large as the typical drug delivery before the storm.
The drug trade in New Orleans is flourishing again, after its dealers, who evacuated to the regional drug hub of Houston, forged closer ties to major suppliers from the Mexican and Colombian cartels. They have since brought back drugs to New Orleans in far larger shipments than before, as the seized truck illustrates, essentially creating violent distribution gangs now spread over a much bigger area.
As a result, law enforcement officials in New Orleans and Houston are struggling to keep up with the changes as the region’s drug trade merges to a greater extent than ever before, adding to the murder rates in both cities.
As the drug-dealing returns, its effects are proving deadly for New Orleans, where the police say that fights over turf for distributing the drugs are the main reason for a spike in killings that threatens the city’s recovery. Even though its population is less than half of what it was before the storm, New Orleans recorded 22 homicides in July, the same number that it averaged each month in the three years before the hurricane.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
1. Homicide is very tightly tied to the whole "dealin' drugs in tha hood" lifestyle. If you stay away from the drug trade, your chances of being murdered are quite slim. The population of New Orleans is now half of what it was pre-Katrina, but because of who has chosen to return to the city, the homicide rate remains the same.
2. This lifestyle is a choice. Faced with the choice of going straight and living a lawful life in Houston, these people are choosing to return to New Orleans and the drugs, ho's, and gangs lifestyle.
3. No amount of social spending can uplift people who don't want to be uplifted out of crime and poverty. These people were given everything they needed to start life fresh, and they chose to go back to their old ways.
I guess the old sayings true, "You can only hepl those that WANT to be helped."
Just like an alcoholic that likes to drink, he can not be helped.
Based on that, I take it that you do not believe if drugs were legalized these drug dealers would go out and get a real job.
Neither do I.
Good article, Flatus! I guess it must be Bush's fault, of course...the plasma TVs and the Prada handbags weren't enough "compensation" or "reparation" for the wrath of Katrina upon NOLA.
/sarc
"What this town needs is an enema."
Okay.
We obviously need to significantly raise taxes so we can win the War on Drugs. (sarcasm)
So then 1 kilogram of cocaine is worth $100,000. Currently, a kilogram of gold is fluctuating around the $21,000 mark.
That's one hell of a profit margin.
Neither do I.
Of course they wouldn't go out & get a real job. But, legalizing drugs would remove their source of income. Dealers are the only people in the 'hood with money, power and prestige. Remove that and they become just another group of derelicts, with no power to attract recruits into their fold.
We can preach to inner-city kids all we want about how the road to success is to get an education and a job, but when all the real life successes they see are people who dropped out of school to become criminals and drug dealers, they are smart enough to follow the proven route...
When you say "legalizing drugs" you mean all drugs, including prescription drugs, to all ages. You do realize that any drug not legalized will be sold to all ages by the gangs. Legalizing all drugs is not a real high priority for oh, maybe 99% of the American people.
Assuming we did legalize all drugs, gangs would simply get into the exporting business, reversing the current pipeline, illegally exporting our legal drugs to countries where they remain illegal.
Or they'd get into smuggling cigarettes, people, human organs, guns, whatever. What they will NOT do is get a real job.
According to the article, they're working about as well as our murder laws.
New Orleans has long been a nicely-dressed crack whore, dependent upon welfare and hand-outs. With the end of the gravy train because of Katrina, it will never recover the gloss of niceness to which tourists had become accustomed. NO will from now on be a badly-dressed crack whore who steals for a living. After the next big hurricane there will be neither money nor will to rebuild it.
In post-Katrina New Orleans, maybe. In the nation as a whole, almost two-thirds of murders end in arrests ... a proportion surely several powers of 10 higher than the proportion of drug sales that end in arrest.
Obviously the disparity bothers you, otherwise you wouldn't be pointing out these statistics.
Uh...these drugs are already illegal....
LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Yes they are. Your point?
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