Posted on 02/04/2006 6:26:41 AM PST by Flyer
You may have heard a neighbor say that crime seems to be up and word is it's Katrina evacuees who are responsible.
But is that true?
In southwest Houston there is block after block of big apartment complexes.
They house the city's highest concentration of Katrina evacuees, and they are ground zero for a rise in violent crime.
Southwest Houston has a large concentration of Katrina evacuees.
"Things have gotten pretty bad out here," said city councilmember M.J. Khan.
Long-time residents say its gotten scary.
The residents were terrified, but the interviews we have were done back in June of last year, three months before anyone had ever heard of Hurricane Katrina.
So what is the reality? Crime was high here before Katrina, but how much worse is it now?
Fred Bhandara owns a complex off Bissonnet. "We have about 500 evacuees," he said.
It was here this past Christmas day that an evacuee allegedly shot a resident to death.
But Bhandara and the city councilman for this area say you need to look at the big picture.
"The overwhelming majority of them are decent, law-abiding citizens," said Kahn.
"The Katrina people are just like the rest of us. It's just that we've added more people," said Bhandara.
But, they are people who came from a city with a much higher murder rate than Houston.
So we calculated New Orleans' murder rate before Katrina. We then used that to estimate how many more murders there would be among 150,000 new residents, the estimated number of evacuees now living here.
We then compared that to how many murders there'd be using Houston's lower murder rate.
The result: if evacuees were involved in murders at the same rate in Houston as they were back in New Orleans, Houston would register about 80 more murders a year, or about seven more a month.
Using Houston's lower rate, there'd be only about 2 more murders a month.
The reality is that since September, HPD says there have been 26 Katrina-related murders, or about five a month.
In other words, Katrina evacuees seem to be involved in murder at a rate not quite as high as back in New Orleans, but higher than Houston's.
If the murders continue, Houston's overall murder rate would rise.
But will that really happen?
Consider what has happened at Fred Bhandara's complex.
Since the murder there in December, HPD has flooded this area with task force officers.
The complex added its own security patrols and Crime Watch program.
They've had no more murders at the complex.
Also consider what we found happening at a complex just north of the big airport.
Apartment manager Linda Brown said they have had not Katrina-related murders at her complex, where over 300 evacuees are living.
She says families like these are the good eggs the media don't report on.
"We have a lot of people here who are very nice, haven't done anything," said evacuee Rosalind Murdoch.
Many of these complexes had a lot of vacancies before Katrina, opened their doors to evacuees and are now are filled up.
Councilman Khan encouraged it, saying it was the right thing to do. He has no regrets about doing it.
But he says now that the population in these neighborhoods has increased by thousands, much of it in areas that already had the city's worst crime rates. Houston can not shoulder the burden alone.
"So we need some help and I think the Federal government should help us," said Khan.
HPD will be asking Uncle Sam for $40 million to fund 400 new officers.
And crime stats will be used to make it's case: Houston needs help.
Long-time residents say its gotten scary.
No good deed ever goes unpunished.
One of the reasons that the murder rate has not risen to the levels of New Orleans is that violent predators probably take a while to become comfortable in their new territory.
In the old territory, they understood "the rules". How things worked, so to speak. In new territory, they are more uncertain. Most criminals tend to stay in the same area, year after year.
I wonder if that guy that got stuck in a vent the other day was a katrina transplant. Tough questions that need to be asked never are.
Your's too? My cherokee back window got busted too, and the thief had my toolbox half way out (until the chain which keeps it from being stolen reached it's limit) before a passer-by yelled at him and scared him off. These buggers case out parking lots watch who is comming and going. I was only gone 5 minutes. I'm glad it was my weekend work truck and not my new one. Nothing is safe anymore.
words to live by.
Somehow I still do good deeds but they always get punished
"Have Katrina Refugees..."
(1) lifted a finger to help themselves?
(2) gotten out of bed before noon?
(3) (insert your favorite "REFUGEE" question here)
TT
And they're milking our state's welfare system for all it's worth. With all those evacuees, property taxes will be raised and school taxes will skyrocket to build new schools. The minute Perry said they could all come here, I was screaming at the tv, NOOOOOO!
It is this and stories like this that makes people ignore the NO problem.
I lived in New Orleans (Washington Ave near Tchop) for almost 10 years...this is completely belieavble...The criminal element in that city was very large and dangerous...I PERSONALLY KNEW at least 10 people who were mugged at gun point.
My complex had 28 cars broken into when the Hurricane came here. My car has been broken into twice since then and my girlfriends has been broken into once. It is rediculous...if you really want to know what is going on with the new crime rate, talk to the cab drivers...so many of them have been robbed and refuse to service certain areas of town any more.
All I can report is that nearly every day I read in the Houston Chronicle where either a Katrina evacuee is killed or is doing the killing. Sometimes both.
And we had to segregate one high school in order to keep a New Orleans gang to itself.
So, it's not really in doubt whether crime has increased since their arrival.
but the interviews we have were done back in June of last year, three months before anyone had ever heard of Hurricane Katrina.
Interesting you mention cab drivers. The third or fourth year I lived in NOLA, there was a rash of taxi cab murders/ muggings, beatings...by the "good" people of the city.
And the liberals will say, "HOW AS A COUNTRY DID WE ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN?"
Let me just say DUH!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.