“Whatever group of teenage thugs you want to blame your crimes on are all in their mid-thirties. If fourteen years in Houston hasn’t changed any of them, Houston must be as bad as New Orleans for it’s effects on people. I would be willing to bet that most of those folks have made it back to New Orleans by now. Continuing to place blame on the New Orleans refugees even after all these years is moronic. Houston itself has grown in population and it’s politics have gone straight to hell.”
I’ve observed it all first-hand. I certainly do not place all of the blame on the migration of people from New Orleans, but it is clear that New Orleans was even more violent (per capita) and wicked than Houston.
Yes, those teens grew up, and the adults got older too... if they didn’t die. We all did, of course. But a lot of the crime they brought with them stems from the breakdown of the family. The problem is endemic. You’ve got a lot of kids growing up in homes with no fathers. And their fathers had no fathers to lead them. And the church has not stepped up to help bridge the gap.
And you are incorrect to think that the ones who moved here went back. Some did. But hundreds of thousands made the move permanent.
Houston was already a very wicked city before. We have a giant Planned Parenthood building just on the south side of downtown, right by the University of Houston main campus. They do big business here. The city is also 100% Democrat. The Katrina imports certainly did not diminish the Democrat stranglehold.
Regardless, violent crime had a sudden uptick after Katrina. And murders have also had a big increase in the past few years. In addition to Katrina, we’ve had a lot of folks come here for work and also to get away from more violent cities like Chicago. While these people are no more violent or criminal than those who already live here, large cities seem to attract more and more crime. And Houston has had its share of growth.
So, Katrina is simply one factor. The ones you mentioned are factors as well.
Until Katrina Tomball was a halfway decent place. Not after.
There were MANY other cities with far worse numbers than these two, St Louis was number one in violent crime with 1817 per 100,000 and number two in property crimes with 6316 per 100,000.
From the 2015 statistics, these cities were all more violent than Houston or New Orleans: St Louis, Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Oakland, Kansas City, Stockton, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Washington D.C., Toledo, Atlanta, Buffalo, Nashville, Newark, Anchorage, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Miami, and Wichita. Not many of these cities had any refugees from Hurricane Katrina. Were there folks who came to Houston from New Orleans that committed crimes? Absolutely. However, based upon where these cities ranked in 2015, almost even with each other, the type of people living in each city are of comparable character and are far nicer than many others living in cities across this nation. Stop giving New Orleans a bad rap for being basically the same type of city as Houston, crime-wise.