On Wednesday, city council members heard calls for action from residents.
New Orleans — Crime is closer to home for many in New Orleans.
On Wednesday, city council members heard calls for action from residents.
“When you have to go to the gas station with a gun on your hip, when you have to go to the grocery store with a gun in your pocket, it’s a war zone,” said one man.
“Where’s the facility?” said the woman. “Where is NORD? We need facilities like NORD. NORD changed my life as a child.
Another neighbor believes education is the key.
“We have gun control,” another resident testified. “There’s this, and there’s that. We’re doing the same crazy, insane thing over and over again.”
A special conference on crime is held at a time when the city is experiencing its highest murder rate since 1996.
Council crime analyst Jeff Asher outlined crime trends for 2022. Assaults, armed robberies, car thefts, and vehicle robberies all point to double-digit increases for him year over year.
“New Orleans has consistently high levels of gun violence and homicide,” Usher said. “Really, in 2022, he’s reached a level he hasn’t seen since Hurricane Katrina.”
Emotions ran high in the chamber as tempers flared in the crowd.
The meeting had to be interrupted several times to get things under control.
One woman was handcuffed and others were removed from the meeting by police.
City council members responded to some of the crowd’s concerns.
City Council Speaker JP Morrell said, “People saw the conflict and the rising voices today as chaos, but what I see is the suffering of communities.” “People are suffering.”
Councilors have proposed a series of measures to address what they call the “crime epidemic.”
They touched on topics such as responsible gun ownership, school truancy, and juvenile curfews.
New Orleans health director Dr. Jennifer Avegno called violent crime a public health crisis for the city.
She said data show homicide is the fourth leading cause of death among black men in New Orleans.
“I don’t think we can tolerate other diseases that have had such deadly consequences by intentionally targeting some of our communities,” Dr. Avegno said. From our point of view, this is no exception.”
Alderman Oliver Thomas made a finer point about the crisis, saying that crime knocks on all doors, including his own.
“There have been 57 bullets in my family, one of our family’s cars, in the last few months,” Thomas said.
Most of the anti-crime measures proposed at the conference will be discussed in various council committees at a later date.
