New Orleans Hit by Growing Crime Wave
Feb. 20, 2007 — -- After taking a beating from Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans now is being pounded by another storm: a growing wave of crime.
Just last week, nine people were shot in less than seven hours. Three of them died.
Residents trying to return and rebuild New Orleans wonder whether conditions will ever improve.
Last month filmmaker Helen Hill and her husband, who were determined to stay in New Orleans, were gunned down in their home during a robbery.
Hill died instantly. Her husband survived, but soon after, he moved out of New Orleans with their 2-year-old son.
Few neighborhoods are safe now in this city under siege. There have been 26 murders already this year.
"If we don't have wind knocking us down, we have murderers shooting us down, and that is unacceptable," said City Council President Oliver Thomas.
Just as the New Orleans Police Department battles the growing violence, it is losing officers. Forty have already quit this year.
The department's resources are scarce, too. There is no crime lab, and many officers don't even have bulletproof vests.
Eighteen months after Hurricane Katrina, police headquarters is still in disrepair.
"It's very depressing," said Sgt. Joe Narcisse.
To fight back, the department has stepped up foot patrols, and new surveillance cameras serve as extra eyes on crime.
Narcisse says that what the city needs is for the residents to pull together to fight the crime scourge.
"We need everyone's cooperation to solve a problem this enormous," Narcisse said. "Wetook an oath of office to serve and protect the city, so we certainly can't turn our back on the city just when it needs us most."
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