Fantastic!
I am E-mailing this right now to some friends.
My family, however, is hopeless. They think Bush is the bogeyman.
Small time bribes went with the flood waters. What's a corrupt cop to do except loot and then split in a stolen cop car to Houston.
My brother-in-law was in graduate school at Tulane, he was mugged leaving a bar in the French Quarter a year and a half ago. On the night he was mugged, there were over a dozen other muggings and several burglaries. About six months before that his SUV had been stolen, the police never made any effort to recover it, it was only found because the theives totalled it and abandoned it a couple weeks later.
Excellent article explaining where the problem really is!!!!!!
BFLR
NO ought to have been sued regularly by tourists who have no clue as to the lawless hellhole they have been lured into by all the malarky about the French Quarter. Seeing a bunch of tattered buildings with wrought iron is not worth one's life. They ought to be forced to include their crime stats on every glossy tourist ad, just as pharmas have to list the side-effects of their drugs on TV ads.
Outstanding!
Ping for later forwarding...
It is a good post. I grew up in new orleans. I do love the city; it does have extremes though.
I was in the french quarter on the martin luther king day a group of african american youths used sticks and bats to randomly hit white people telling them canal street was their street and no white people were allowed.
It does have a heavy presence of some rather nasty characters, whom I agree, felt they could be themselves when they knew the cops werent around.
People from the fischer projects used to snipe at cars crossing over the I10 for kicks, nonblack nurses who went into the fischer projects raped and beaten when going in to give inhome care to elderly in the housing project, and as one of very few whites at most of the schools I went to I was jumped and physically assaulted regularly. I bet the same element had a field day when they knew no cops were around.
N.O. does have its great points though, it is a true yin and yang. For all of its bad, its good is equal.
I also enjoyed this piece incase it hasnt been seen. http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007219
FNC's Major Garrett: Red Cross Blocked by Order of the Louisiana State Government
Actually it is the fact that most of those who are primarily responsible for defending property, the owners, had left.
Thank you. Somebody finally put it in black andd white.
---Why are the cops leaving? They are utterly demoralized. They face low pay to fight a losing war against crime in a city that will not commit resources to the battle. “We have to use our own shotguns," one patrolman was quoted in the New York Times. "This isn't theirs; this is my personal gun."---
This has been the problem for forever there. Back in the 70ss and 80s it wasn't uncommon for policemen with more than three kids to qualify for foodstamps. The city didn't even pick up all of their salary - the state supplemented it and it was still not very good.
And there was an attitude about paying cops. A friend of mine once said, "It's a very good salary for someone with only a high school degree."
People complained about graft and corruption and brutality in the police force. Back when I paid attention to this, which was probably in the 80s, lot of times blacks were hoping white cops would respond because they felt the black cops were more likely to be brutal.
Yet no one was willing to do what it took to get quality people and retain them.
And they didn't have enough to do the job the city needed, anyway.
Slogan for years has been the city that care forgot, but in many ways, it was the city that forgot to care.
Having been to a convention in NO two years ago and now reading how bad this city is and was, I feel lucky that there were no incidents at the time. However, I am convinced that I will NEVER visit NO again and I'll bet their tourist industry is finished.
Incredible !!
This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for the perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author all 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention. You can see the list of articles I pinged to lately on my page.
You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about). Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.
In the late 1980's I was enrolled at the Tulane School of Engineering during the day and cleaned office buildings in Jefferson Parish at night for survival $$$(NOTE:Middle class family, on partial scholarships, NOT rich).
One year I moved closer to campus to save time and $$$. That year there were 8 murders within a 12 block radius of my rented basement apartment and a female classmate was mugged(severely beaten in the face almost to the point of not being able to see). At that time, a 45 S&W was purchased and carried concealed full-time when I went to and from my night job. It probably saved my life one time at night while I waited for a red light on an intersection of Earhart(on the Orleans Parish side) in a not-so-good part of the area. As my car was approached(in an area known to NOPD as a car-jacking light) by three folks who seemed very interested in my 1985 Nissan...the 45 was simply displayed(vertical toward the roof of my car) and a round was loudly racked while I looked in their direction with a "bring it on" face. They quickly scattered to seek the more defenseless.
Glad we moved to Texas. The "bad" memories fade and the good ones stay. I don't want to go back but will remember times like this:
Mac Johnson must be one lonely man up there in Cambridge.