The housing issue is a big part of the situation. I saw truckloads of Hispanics, most probably illegals, trolling East Bank Jefferson parish neighborhoods. They were out picking up the duct-taped refrigerators from areas that didn't flood. I later saw refrigerators with remnants of duct tape still attached, around those nasty old motels on Airline Hwy. They didn't care about the stench, so long as the fridges still worked.
Here's the part that has local law enforcement officers very concerned: they are seeing evidence that Hispanic gangs are trying to get a foothold in New Orleans. Before, the home-grown thugs were sufficiently violent to keep out the "big" gangs - but most of our previous criminals are gone to Texas, so to speak.
If these gangs do gain traction and then the resident criminals come home and try to re-assert their territory, there will be one heck of a bloodbath (with a *major* "good riddance" factor, though).
If these gangs do gain traction and then the resident criminals come home and try to re-assert their territory, there will be one heck of a bloodbath (with a *major* "good riddance" factor, though).
Yeah, MS-13 wants in. Thing is, the old gangs were all connected to housing projects. When they relocated to Houston, they all got together and restarted their gangs.
There was a whole article posted about this a while back... Houston gang members take it as an insult if you ask them if they're from New Orleans. They see New Orleans gangsters as just insane. And these are international drug smugglers we're talking about here.
'course, there's still the question of whether they'll be coming back. Houston jails and morgues are filling up with New Orleans gang members as we speak.