Posted on 06/19/2006 9:27:08 AM PDT by marshmallow
NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin asked the governor Monday to send National Guard troops to patrol his city after a violent weekend in which five teenagers were shot to death.
City leaders convened a special meeting to voice outrage after the killings Saturday in an area near the central business district.
"If we don't have wind knocking us down, we have shooters knocking us down, and that's unacceptable," said City Council President Oliver Thomas.
The shootings brought this year's murder toll to 52, raising fears that violence was back on the rise in a city that had been plagued by violent crime even before Hurricane Katrina drove residents away last year.
Saturday's incident was one of the bloodiest in this city's turbulent history.
Nagin asked the governor to send up to 300 National Guard troops and 60 state police officers to patrol the city. The City Council said it also would consider increasing overtime for police to put more officers on the street.
If it's true that Nagin wants to transfer law enforcement cost to someone else, Blanco ought to just let him twist in the wind. She doesn't like him anyway -- it'd probably be a pleasure for her.
Or hands in someone's pockets.
Or is it - if Nagin and Blanco had LET the gov't do their work?
and - recovery to what? Looks like it is recovering to pre-Katrina status - the same corrupt, lawless swamp it was...
Does it need recovery or burying
Is there any way to stick this on Bush?
LOL!
Yes. It's always been heavily subsidized by the govt, hasn't it? If the city had been on its own to handle its "recovery", I think it's distinctly possible that it would have become a much smaller, more industrialized city, because many govt-dependent residents wouldn't have returned. Maybe not the New Orleans of fame and legend, but a functional town that wouldn't be overrun by welfare dependents and criminals.
what? where are the police? Oh, I forgot, Vegas.
A Freeper put that up on short notice a while back an a NOLA thread. Wish I could remember screenie. It's a beaut, eh?
Several cities/communities in my area got some of the N.O. floodees. No surprise that serious crimes increased.
We need to rebuild N.O. so these perps can go back home.
ROTFLMAO!
Thomas Kincaid does a mind meld with Looter Guy...
Looks like the mayor got the city he wanted. So what's he crying about?
US troops out of N.O! Oh, ooppss... We own that one right???
City wants National Guard to help after weekend killings
12:15 PM CDT on Monday, June 19, 2006
WWLTV.com
An indignant Mayor Ray Nagin and the New Orleans City Council are asking for National Guard troops and State Police to be deployed following the shooting deaths of five teens this weekend and the fear that the high crime rate that gripped the city prior to Katrina may be returning.
"If we don't have wind knocking us down, we have shooters us knocking us down, and that's unacceptable," said City Council President Oliver Thomas, who challenged the community to march on the lawbreakers.
“We can march on the mayor, we can march on the business community, so why can’t we march on the thugs,” he said.
The hastily-called meeting included the mothers of several of the young men who died in the weekend slaughter. One mother begged for witnesses to come forward, saying she hadn’t slept and was preparing to bury two family members.
“No matter what they did,” said Monalisa Hunter. “They didn’t deserve to die.”
With 52 murders since the beginning of the year, people have feared the return to days when weekends with killings of two, three or four people were routine.
Nagin said the city would likely begin implementing a "youth curfew" from around 11 or 12 at night until dawn. He didn't specify what the age limit would be.
Four of the seven council members are newly-elected but each promised to pick up the fight to make the city safer. Many blamed the lack of quality schools and good programs for young people. They also lamented the lack of summer programs for children, especially in the wake of Katrina.
Thomas called for year round schools and said there was no reason for school facilities to be shuttered during the summer months when children need places to go.
Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell echoed those thoughts.
“We as a city have failed when our youth cannot ride through this city without being ambushed,” she said. “We have abandoned our children in this school system for 30 years and now we’re reaping the problems of that abandonment.”
Morrell also took aim at the big businesses in town that are making millions off the rebuilding efforts.
“Step up and put money into this community because this community is making you rich,” she said.
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl061906khcrimetime.9fe14210.html
That really is a perverse thought...
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.