Lead or get out of the way, Ray

I'm pissed (like everyone else in this area). I'm angry because of how I felt yesterday when
my 18 year old daughter told me she was going to New Orleans today to visit a school of
cooking (she's getting a culinary degree at NSU in Thibodaux). I was scared. My stomach
started fluttering all over the place. She thought I was being over protective and perhaps I was.
But with the senseless murders going on 30 miles south of our home, I didn't want to take the
chance of losing my only child to the cold hearted thugs running around New Orleans.
I let her go despite my feelings and she's back home safely.
I'm pissed because I felt that way. It's a feeling of helplessness.

Jarvis DeBerry
wrote a piece that describes the way I feel . New Orleans is still in a state of storm-induced desolation and darkness. Those two characteristics alone are enough to give one the heebie-jeebies. But throw in the idea of murderers running amok and a Police Department that has yet to announce a plan of action, and what would otherwise be a run-of-the-mill stop for gas is dreaded.


Readers from around the country are voicing their opinions on the run away crime rate in New Orleans.

One in particular cites what I believe is one of the biggest causes of this atrocity
Call it profiling, targeting or Fido. The name doesn't matter. Unless the police and judicial system takes extremely agressive action against the group predominantly responsible for the assaults and killings in the next thirty days, you're not going to get a chance to hold hands, sing Kumbaya and have a bake sale to teach little Johnnie to read.
Specifically, this means random frisking by the police of young black males who dress and behave like thugs for weapons. Stopping vehicles driven by young black males who dress and behave like thugs for weapons searches. Generally putting young black males who dress and behave like thugs under a security microscope.
Sorry about that, young black males who dress and behave like thugs - but if Scandinavian grannies who dressed and behaved like Conquistadores were committing these crimes, I'd suggest going after them. To papaphrase Dave Chappelle: "If I were to wear a police uniform for fun, you'd probably come to me for help in the street - but if you dress like a whore it's ok for you to get mad at me for thinking you're a whore?"


On the idea of a curfew police said the recent killings were brazen acts, often happening in broad daylight and, in one case, within a block of police officers. No witnesses have yet come forward, and police begged them to do so. Officers say they believe many of the killings were retaliatory and committed by people with violent pasts, but they refused to go into further detail

Where oh where are the black leaders when the young people so desperately need their guidance?
Al Sharpton's thinking of running for president "
Jesse Jackson's busy at the 10th Annual Wall Street Economic Summit and Conference.
Or are those two only interested when some "redneck" sheriff from St. Tammany parish profiles people based on clues from a crime????
Where is Andrew Young, who was born in NOLA?
Where's Angela Davis?
Where are the rap stars these little thugs idolize?
Making sleazy videos for MTV, building outrageous "cribs"?
Where's the president of the NAACP? I don't
believe he thinks what's happening down here is "advancement" for these youths.

Where the HELL is the freaking ACLU? Don't care what color it is, but there
are SERIOUS civil rights violations going on down here. Or is it that murder isn't considered a violation of one's civil rights?

It's time to throw away the "political correctness" bullshit that so many people subscribe to. It's time to demand that
people who were allegedly elected to office perform the duties they swore to. It's time for these little bastards that are
heartlessly killing people, tearing apart families, ruining lives to pay for their crimes. They don't need juvenile detention
centers. Send the little shits to Angola for a month.

This area has been thru hell and back and it's time for the healing to take place. The good people of New Orleans - the ones
who made the decision to stay here and rebuild their homes and their lives - deserve it.

Craig G. over at metroblogging
details the angry/hopeful/helplessness feelings running rampant in the city

People are scared. Listening to a call-in radio program I hear a lady who has trouble sleeping now. She said she cries
all the time. She's frightened for her children.

These bastards are holding the city hostage. It's time to do something, RayRay. Lead or get the fuck out of the way, you son of a bitch.

New Orleans Crime Times dot com.
bookmark it.

Murder and the City that Care Forget

ENOUGH

A "stop the violence" march is slated for January 11th in NOLA.
Unless you've been in a cave, you know what it's all about.
if you have been in a cave,
Peter explains the reason for the march here. Good reading.

If you can't march, you can do your part by emailing the "powers that be"
who really should the "the powers that WERE".
Celcus has posted the following:
here
The march is set, and the momentum is building; it looks like it will be a big one. If you can I urge you to participate in whatever way you can. If you cannot march, plaster the appropriate officials with emails, letters, and phone calls. Here are a few contacts.

Ray.Nagin@mayorofno.com - email for Mayor Nagin

wriley@cityofno.com - email for Chief Warren Riley

ldupre@cityofno.com - Leatrice Dupre' is the Public Information Director for Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddy Jordan's Office

http://www.neworleanscitycouncil.com/contact.asp City Council Members email addresses can be found here. Remember to email the at-large members as well as the Council person for your district.

judges@criminalcourt.org is a group email address for the Criminal Court judges.

Chris Rose writes
We are a community held hostage by our teenagers. What the hurricane couldn't do, what the flood couldn't do, what political chicanery and incompetence could not do, a random and soulless group of children can do.

They are children of violence, not nearly as smart or as rich as anyone else in town but I ask you: What good is your Lexus and your Tulane MBA when your time comes to go face to face with a child of New Orleans armed with nothing more than a Glock and no fear of prison or death?

Scuzzbucket of the Week

Hat tip to Oyster


Dollar Bill Jefferson
I cannot believe the cojones of this man!!! According to the article at the new 995FM, Last week, House Democrats were shocked to receive a letter from Congressman Bill Jefferson on his official Congressional stationery asking colleagues to donate money to help him retire his campaign debt.

Hope all you morons to re-elected this crook are proud of yourselves.

Change MUST take place

While young kids run wildly around the city, shooting up anything in their way for money or whatever it is that is special to them, New Orleans natives are questioning their choice to stay in the city.

Read what natives are saying

Loki wonders about staying in light of this crime spree. While our "Mayor" and "Police Chief" remain conspicuously absent from view, popping up only occasionally to mouth platitudes before sinking from sight, the death toll rises. It now includes people we know personally. Local filmmaker Helen Hill was murdered in her own home at 5:30am, her husband, Doctor Paul Gailiunas was wounded but survived as did their 2 year old son.

Adrastos
rethinks the hope that many, many people had in the immediate aftermath of the storm. As long as there are people with guns who think that life, including their own, is cheap, blood will stain the streets of New Orleans.

Editor B, friend of Helen & Paul mourns his loss. But I believe that Helen would have wanted us to keep fighting for justice and a better city. If you are reading this in New Orleans, and you’re not actively involved in working for the future of this city, I challenge you to get involved, now. We are, quite literally, fighting for our lives.

Stuck_on_stupid Ray Nagin penned an editorial in yesterday's paper. Talk about Pollyana!
Even though we continue to face challenges, the city is getting its house in order, so that our citizens can come home to a safer, smarter, stronger city.

Warren Riley....what can I say? He is too busy dealing with Endymion logistics instead of crime NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley would be wise to strike a similarly cautious note when it comes to 2006 crime statistics. Superintendent Riley called the murder tally of 161 the lowest in 30 years, setting the figure against the backdrop of a rebounding population and officer shortage.

The there's Eddie Jordan. What's he been doing, hanging out with Ray?

Tragic Crime Wave

Too many good people are getting taken away in New Orleans horrific crime problem.


Blues notes '07 tells about the cause of the murder of
the founder of the "Hot 8 Brass Band", Dinerral Shavers.


b.rox discusses what he pens "a horrible tragedy" in the murder of Helen Hill in her own home on Rampart Street

NOLANik has created a site where Helen Hill's friends are collecting memories of Helen here.
She must've been a very special lady. Prayers for her loved ones' strength are going out.
Here is another moving tribute to Helen.


The Chicory calls for Warren Riley's resignation. I'd say it's a good start.

PaulP posts at Metroblogging about seven days, twelve murders He shares my
feelings about how bad things are in NOLA, crime-wise.
Yep, it's pretty bad when third world countries are laughing at you.

The WaPo reports on - as of yesterday - 5 shooting deaths in 14 hours Since New Year's Day, when the police chief declared New Orleans' murder rate under control, the city has logged six homicides, including five shooting deaths in a 14-hour span.

Another reason to love SE LA

King Cake!!!!

just had my first piece of kingcake of the season.

KBB & God

dambala discusses Kathleen Blanco's morning conversations with the Supreme Being.......

The Thieving Scum Sugar Bowl

one of my favorite bloggers discusses how Louisianians should
react to the presence of Allstate as sponsor of the Sugar Bowl...

snip...
should we be ready to treat thtem to some of the triple decibel noise we know 70,000 plus angry fans can generate, showering the field with our true feelings and perhaps the odd loose projectile?

I like that idea!

Thanks, Mark.

Postivity

Heather Buck penned a positive look back at
good things that happened in 2006 in NOLA.

Thanks Heather!

Is this nerve or pure idiocy?

PUL-EEZ
New York Times
3-Jan-07
~
By John F. Burns and James
Glanz
~
Iraq’s Shiite-led government said Tuesday that it had ordered an investigation into
the abusive behavior at the execution of Saddam Hussein, who was subjected to a battery of taunts by official Shiite witnesses and guards as he awaited his hanging.


here's a list of Mr. H's crimes

The Danzinger Incident

from NPR

excerpt
The Danziger Bridge incident needs to be understood in the context of a major American city that had disintegrated.

"The New Orleans Police Department was overwhelmed," says Anthony Radosti, vice president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission and a former 23-year veteran investigator with the New Orleans police.

"Radio communication was at a minimum. [The police] felt isolated, abandoned. They had no place to live or sleep. Rumors were just wild. Sniper fire, armed individuals on the street. And in some cases, that information was true," Radosti says.

An Arkansas paramedic who rode to the Danziger Bridge with police that morning told NPR that officers were involved in a five-minute gunbattle. He heard people shooting back, but he says he was hiding and he couldn't see who they were.

Radosti sympathizes with embattled officers who were trying to take back their city -- up to a point.


Varg discusses this and the CCC bridge incident