Posted on 08/14/2006 12:03:17 PM PDT by My2Cents
Katrina victims blamed for Houston crime
By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press Writer
A letter to inmate No. 1352951 and a cell phone bill for $76.63, both found in a soggy New Orleans duplex ruined by Hurricane Katrina, led Louisiana bounty hunter James Martin to Texas.
Again.
It marked the seventh time since Katrina that Martin, whose pursuit of bail jumpers often begins with clues salvaged from abandoned New Orleans homes, has followed a trail to Texas.
"I don't think Texas really knows what they got," Martin said.
Katrina sent a lot of bad guys to Texas, as Houston is finding out.
Houston took in 150,000 evacuees — the most of any U.S. city — after Katrina struck on Aug. 29. Houston police believe the evacuees are partly responsible for a nearly 17.5 percent increase in homicides so far this year over the same period in 2005.
About 21 percent of Houston's 232 homicides through July 25 involved an evacuee as either a suspect or a victim, according to police, who attribute much of the bloodshed to fighting among rival New Orleans gang members.
"New Orleans allowed a lot of these guys to stay on the street for whatever reason or be picked up and released after 60 days," said Capt. Dale Brown, who oversees Houston's homicide division. "Texas law, I don't want to say it's tougher, but we take these offenses very seriously."
Judge Robert Eckels, chief executive of Harris County, which includes Houston, said Katrina evacuees arrested in the Houston have cost the county's criminal justice system more than $18 million. In June, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent $19.5 million to Houston to help pay for additional officers and overtime to police the city after Katrina.
The police and the Harris County sheriff's department said they have no figures on how many Katrina evacuees have been arrested. Houston police said misdemeanor and felony arrests overall actually dropped last fall from the same period a year earlier. But the sheriff's department reported a 41 percent increase in felony arrests in November from the year before.
"I think some saw (Katrina) as an opportunity," Martin's bounty-hunting partner, Michael Wright, said of evacuees who fled New Orleans with criminal records. "No one knows who they are over here."
Katrina evacuees received fair warning when they arrived in Houston. Days after the storm, Mayor Bill White went on television, flanked by Houston police, and welcomed Katrina's bedraggled survivors with a stern warning that a jail cell was waiting for anyone who crossed the line.
Evacuee Vincent Wilson, a leader of the Katrina Survivors Association, was impressed. He said that in New Orleans before Katrina, "everyone knows that if the jail's crowded you get a slap on the hand and get released."
Eckels predicted the county's worst guests will go home once their federal assistance dries up. And if many choose to stick around, the county will be ready: "We don't put up with it here. If you break the law, you're going to be prosecuted."
>:o
Wasted on this 20something. The cool part was that they sent you a color photo of it for a souvenir if your name was up there.
Being an OU Sooner, I was a tad upset that there was a burnt orange Bevo-like steer among the fireworks that were lit up. Of all the noive!
Me too, my apartments are on the north side of Westheimer. It used used to be so quiet, nice. Now..I am going to have to move...but where?
I saw that on local news. I never understood why the uncle couldn't ID the boy. Did it turn out to be his nephew, after all? I don't remember the outcome.
The thread consensus is: NE Oklahoma - Green Country
PS: Don't even try to wash your car! That is simply too risky now.
Many of those churches since then have folded, and his town is a disaster area.
Unless Until it's extended again.
Will Bush have the 'nads to shut off the tap?
Not true! It was the Dems that extended the federal assistance through 2007! (/sarc)
A few weeks after they arrived, a caller to the Michael Savage show reported that her friends in law enforcement warned her to go nowhere near the area around the Astrodome. The crime increase there has been known for a long while, but rarely reported because the media doesn't want to seem insensitive to Katrina "victims".
I avoid Houston. ;)
Perhaps we can get the UN to negotiate a cease-fire in Houston with HezNOLA?
I haven't read but a paragraph or two, but must respond post haste.
I'm a kid again!
Gene Elston and Lowell Passe were very kind to me in those days. I worked the Loge level (sp?) (also Press Box access) and because of my slacks and shinny shoes, I was outfitted in an orange Nehru jacket and given Skybox access, because all the ritzy folks were complaining that there were no popcorn vendors working the Sky Boxes.
A kid can get away with things that an adult would be denied. Rory Calhoun, the cowboy actor, gave me a twenty dollar tip and bought my entire basket of popcorn one night. That was like a $100 tip in today's money. Just one of many stories I enjoy telling as I enter my dottage.
The 45.'s, 'Stros, Astronauts and movie stars were pure gravy to this kid from Meyerland who was suddenly wisked into the "Majors" and gave up his lawn mowing jobs for good.
Baseball has been very good to me!
What occurred in New Orleans shocked all of us. It was terrible.
But, as a result of the publicity, we learned a lot.
Why should we have to dip into our pockets to provide for those who choose to live "below sea-level", those who elected a "chocolate town" Nagel, (and then re-elected him), New Orleans police caught on camera stealing from stores after the disaster, etc., etc.
We can feel sympathy, but we're not all fools.
Yall move on up to the Fort Worth suburbs, not too many NO thugs made it here and many have left.
I lived in Houston as a kid and feel sympathy for the residents for the trash they took in from NO.
No city should have to carry so much of the burden, no state either. Im still disappointed in Perry on this fiasco, although he probably didnt have much choice...I dont know.
Houston should insist they return now that the hurricane is over...put them in trailers.
"I was outfitted in an orange Nehru jacket and given Skybox access, because all the ritzy folks were complaining that there were no popcorn vendors working the Sky Boxes.
A kid can get away with things that an adult would be denied. Rory Calhoun, the cowboy actor, gave me a twenty dollar tip and bought my entire basket of popcorn one night. That was like a $100 tip in today's money. Just one of many stories I enjoy telling as I enter my dotage."
It is fun to read the posts by you and Rte66, I love hearing fun stories about my home town and the symbol of the future, the 1965 Astrodome.
"Go ahead and say it:
"Bush's Fault!"
One day, one day I'll get to read a thread like this where everybody resists making this lame and tired post. At least I can dream.
It'll never stop, you know. The name will change eventually, but the song will go on.
And all surrounding areas..
Ha ha. Rory Calhoun seemed to get around Texans a lot. I think that's what the name of his TV series was, wasn't it, "The Texan"?
I met him in California; he used to party with us Texans at chili cookoffs out there - and maybe some here in TX, though I don't recall. Hugh O'Brien was always around back then, too. Both larger than life, to me. Carroll Shelby, too.
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