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Wednesday morning the 12th murder of the year (On day 17) was recorded in New Orleans.

The public officials in New Orleans, whenever they are asked about the violent crime wave, tell us they are working on it intensely. It’s their top priority.

It all sounds good, but we’ve heard it all before.

Last Thursday, Mayor Nagin said that everything he would do from that day forward will be focused on stopping the murders in New Orleans. As we watched Mayor Nagin, we knew he didn’t mean it. It didn’t take Nagin long to prove we were right. Now, I have been informed that Nagin is in New York City meeting with folks on Wall Street.

Is he meeting with them to borrow money to buy bullet-proof vests for the citizens of New Orleans?

Suggestion

Each time we see the mayor, District Attorney Eddie Jordan or NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley, they are accompanied by big, armed, bodyguards. That not a comforting message for the citizens who can’t afford their own bodyguards. Some of the bodyguards appear to be members of the NOPD.

Perhaps if these commissioned officers were on the streets instead of accompanying these “leaders” to press conferences, lunches, dinners and junkets to New York, there might just be less violent crime in the city. Also, without these armed guards, these “leaders” might learned why the common folks in the city are so worried about the rampant crime wave. Without the protection the “leaders” just might have enough incentive to get tough on crime.

How about it “leaders”? As the criminals say: GIVE IT UP!

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

Last week, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges and released from jail a man charged with armed robbery. The D.A.’s office claimed they couldn’t find the key witness in the crime, an ex-NOPD officer. That despite the fact that the former NOPD detective remains in New Orleans at the same home where he previously received subpoenas.

Contradictions abound

What was merely an outrage has now turned into a case of the Keystone Kops. The D.A.’s office is now claiming that the NOPD failed to give them the address of the former officer. See story here.

The D.A.’s office claims that they talked to the officer, but the officer claims they didn’t.

That begs the question: If the D.A.’s office talked to the former officer, why they didn’t ask his address?

It makes one wonder if the Orleans District Attorney’s Office is that incompetent or simply corrupt. Did they intend for the man charged with the armed robbery to legally escape prosecution?

Victims have rights too

Everyone is due his day in court, including the people of the city and the victims of the crime. In America (and LA) a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, in this case the citizens of New Orleans have been denied their right to know whether a criminal has been removed from the streets or an innocent man has been kept in jail for 2 years.

The man charged with the crime has been free for over a week. That begs the question of whether the man stayed around to await his fate or has he left for other places to perhaps commit other crimes on innocent people. Hopefully, we will know something soon. We do know that at a minimum the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office is less than competent and may even be guilty of lying to the public.

Let’s hope nobody else in New Orleans has been victimized as a result of this outrageous breakdown in the criminal justice system.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

On Saturday night there was another murder in New Orleans. That would make the 10th or 11th murder, depending on who is counting (and what one considers a murder), since the beginning of the year.

This murder is only the first since Mayor Nagin and Police Chief Riley announced their crime crack-down initiatives. This is the first murder since the mayor said he was “re-energized” last Thursday by thousands of his citizens who march on City Hall and got in his face.

Perhaps, the mayor’s “re-energized” efforts are working to some extent. The city now currently suffering from a murder every other day instead of one (or more) per day.

A suggestion to the media

It would put a lot of pressure on all our public officials to address the crime wave, if the media instead of just reporting the murders would include in their stories a running total of them for the year.

I know that it will be difficult because I have learned that all homicides in New Orleans are not murders. It’s a technical thing, but a lot more people are being killed than is reported because some of the killings are classified as “justifiable homicides.” I’m sure will make the citizens feel safer. That is, if one trusts getting their information from the NOPD. But I digress and this is another story with which perhaps one day the media will enlighten us.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am