That is BS. These people would behave this way 365/24 if the cops weren't around or the welfare checks stopped showing up. It's a lack of civility, not a lack of hope. To the thugs, this is their preferred 'way of life'. A shame the helpless have to be victimized as a result.
You shoulda seen the city back during the police strike in the 70s...crap games on bourbon street. But that was before the crack epidemic, and things were more civil...
Waited at the bus stop more than once and witnessed purse snatchings.
Lived in a yuppie neighborhood by Bayou St. John and could hear gunfire across the bayou almost any night. One day, some teens decided they were going to play bad guy, came into the neighborhood, robbed one woman and killed a man bicyling on the way to his mil's house about half a block from where I lived.
The year I left, NO had more murders than Houston.