Posted on 01/02/2008 5:05:56 AM PST by cbkaty
Homicides down in '07 in Houston NEW ORLEANS — The bloodiest city in the country in 2006, reeling from crime in its struggle to recover from Hurricane Katrina, got even worse in 2007.
New Orleans registered 209 homicides last year, a nearly 30 percent increase from the 161 recorded in 2006.
The FBI's rankings for 2007 will not be out until much later in the year, but New Orleans' population is thought to be 295,450, which would mean a rate of about 71 homicides per 100,000 people.
Even the most generous population estimate in 2006 put the number of people in the city that year at 255,000. That meant a real homicide rate of 63.5 per 100,000 residents. To compare that number with some other notoriously bloody cities, the rate for Gary, Ind., was 48.3 and Detroit's was 47.1.
The killings are drug-related or retaliatory for the most part, police have said. The upswing comes despite continued patrols by the National Guard and state police and the addition of two new classes of police recruits in the past year.
But beefed-up policing efforts can only do so much, said Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of Greater New Orleans.
"The police and the criminal justice system is expected to clean up the mess, but they didn't create the mess," Goyeneche said. "They aren't responsible for the social problems of the city, the failure of the school system, the degeneration of the family unit. And until the city does something to rectify those problems, crime and murder will continue to be a problem."
There are hopeful signs, however, Goyeneche said, pointing to improved schools in the city since the 2005 storm, grass-roots efforts to tackle crime, and a growing effort to upgrade city life.
"This city is beginning to do some things that I've been waiting 25 years to see," Goyeneche said. "I think there is a renewed sense of purpose; people are focused and demanding more than what was in play before Katrina hit."
New York's and Chicago's 2007 homicide totals were the lowest in more than 40 years, and in Philadelphia, slayings dipped slightly after reaching a nine-year high in 2006. But in several other big cities, homicides increased, including in Atlanta, Miami, Dallas and Baltimore.
Ray Nagin’s dream coming true at last.
Ray Nagin must have meant “Chocolate and Blood Red” city
The chocolate toilet needs to be flushed again.
Chocolate and bloody.
More Americans were murdered in New Orleans last month than Iraq.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
We must get out of New Orleans now. The risk is just too great. We should redeploy the police to Okinowa.
...LOL....good one!
This New Orleans rate of 71/100K is right off the graph.
First one must locate police officers that have no propensity to loot....AKA the Katrina Walmart shoppers in blue....remember the video...? I shall NEVER forget these fine representatives of New Orleans and Ray Nagin....they were the female, overweight, and armed Chocolate Police.
Concentrated DemoLiberal culture on display.
Sure, blame it on social problems, blame it on the school system. Why not blame it on the people who are responsible? Why is it such a taboo to recognize that it is people doing the killing?
Well, first you got to find a flesh & blood NOLA LEO first. Didn't the then-police chief pad the payroll with non-existent personnel?
And speaking of which, didn't he also commandeer, not one, but two Caddies? One for his wife that fled to Houston or Dallas?
Great leadership there, in NOLA. "School Bus" Nagin frozen with fear (anxiety?), allegedly popping pills...
Work harder so that you can send more money.
As a comparison, I heard that Houston's homicide rate has dropped from 17 per 100,000 to 14 per 100,000.
Chocolate covered cherry city, just like Christmas every day.
Ray’s new slogan.
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