Mr. Jeff Crouere
Returns As A Guest of The BEC
VIOLENT CRIME TERRORIZING GREATER NEW ORLEANS
By: Jeff Crouere
Mr. Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and creator of the award-winning “Ringside Politics,” which airs nationally on Saturdays (noon to 1:00 central) on Real America’s Voice TV Network. Listen to Jeff every weekday morning from 7 to 11 on WGSO 990-AM or WGSO.com. Read his work at Townhall and The Hayride and pick up his newest book, “America’s Last Chance.” Follow Jeff on YouTube as well as at Crouere.net.
As local citizens observed during the violent Thanksgiving weekend in New Orleans, there is no island of safety in the metropolitan area.
Rampant violent crime in the City of New Orleans is nothing new. For decades, the citizens of New Orleans have endured one of the highest murder rates in the nation. During the first half of 2022, New Orleans earned the woeful title of Murder Capital of the nation.
If trends continue, New Orleans will end 2022 with the highest murder rate since 2004, the year before Hurricane Katrina. At that time, approximately 461,000 people lived in New Orleans, over 90,000 more than the current population.
In 2019, there were 121 murders in New Orleans, a 50 year low. Unfortunately, such relative calm was only transitory. Since 2019, there have been three straight years of a significant increase in the murder rate. By the end of 2022, the murder rate will be more than 100% greater than the low mark registered in 2019.
The reasons for the murder explosion are numerous, including poor schools, broken families, the lack of community leadership, a dysfunctional criminal justice system and inadequate consequences for criminal behavior. Nonetheless, the biggest reason for the plethora of violence now plaguing New Orleans is the paucity of police officers.
Not long ago, it was estimated that New Orleans would be protected with 1600 police officers. Today, the force level for the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) is barely nine hundred officers. There is a massive exodus of officers to surrounding police departments. Others are retiring, some early, or resigning for new and safer career opportunities.
The officers are not leaving due to low pay, as salaries for NOPD officers are higher than what surrounding parishes pay their law enforcement personnel. Officers are leaving due to poor leadership in the city, the constraints of the federal consent decree and the outright danger on the streets of New Orleans.
For example, last week was especially violent for not only New Orleans, but the entire metropolitan area. During the Bayou Classic weekend, there was an influx of needed tourism and economic development for the New Orleans area. Unfortunately, there was also an explosion of crime.
In the French Quarter, another mass shooting sent five victims to the hospital. The alleged assailant was a teenager, who shot his victims after an altercation turned violent. Fortunately, none of the victims died, but the incident was a gruesome reminder that the French Quarter is no longer a safe area for residents or tourists.
Along Canal Street, two people were killed, an 18-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman. It is little wonder why Starbucks recently announced it was closing its extravagant store on Canal Street. The reason for the closure was the constant theft and violence being committed in the area.
During last weekend, there were a variety of other shootings in various parts of New Orleans: Central City, the Warehouse District, and the St. Claude area. These shootings took the lives of three other victims.
The weekend concluded with four separate car jackings throughout New Orleans in the span of a few hours, as well as another shooting in the Gentilly area.
Sadly, the violence was not contained to New Orleans. Early Tuesday morning, in Slidell, a car was found crashed into a pickup truck in the one hundred block of Northwood Drive. Inside the vehicle were two people who had been shot. One of these victims eventually died from his injuries. Authorities have provided no motive for the murder.
In Metairie, a man was found shot to death in the backyard of a home on the 3600 block of Academy Drive on Monday. Again, no motive for the murder was provided by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
On Monday, in a horrific double murder, two people were found burned to death in downtown Covington behind a glass store. As noted by Covington Mayor Mark Johnson, “We’d like to think that Covington is immune to these types of tragedies, but obviously, we’re not.”
One victim was identified as beloved Pastor Otis Young, who had served the parish community at St. Peter’s Church in Covington. His pastoral assistant, Ruth Prats, is the other victim.
Prior to their bodies being burned, both victims were bludgeoned to death using blunt force. Acting quickly, police apprehended Antonio Tyson on Monday. He was booked with first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, obstruction of justice, resisting an officer and illegally possessing stolen items.
Just three months ago, Tyson was released from prison. He served only 30 years of a 40-year sentence he received for the violent crimes of forcible rape, armed robbery, and aggravated burglary. Incredibly, despite misconduct in prison, which caused him to forfeit an even earlier release, Tyson was credited for taking online courses while in prison.
Tyson is not rehabilitated, and the online courses were taken for only one reason, to secure an advanced release from prison. If he had been required to complete his sentence, two pillars of the Covington community would still be alive today.
Advocates of criminal justice reform always call for a reduction in incarceration in Louisiana. They claim that too many people are behind bars in our state and that Louisiana leads the nation in the number of prisoners per capita.
The real issue in Louisiana is not the casual drug user who is spending years behind bars. The obvious problem is that not enough vicious criminals, like Antonio Tyson, are incarcerated.
With violent crime on the upswing throughout Louisiana, but especially in the metropolitan New Orleans area, there must be discussions about expanding jail space for more hardened criminals.
Violent criminals do not face enough deterrence for their behavior in New Orleans. This is also a major reason while violent crime is increasing throughout the metropolitan New Orleans area.
Until New Orleans gets serious about addressing violent crime, including adding a substantial number of police officers, surrounding communities will no longer be safe.
The BEC expresses our gratitude to Mr. Jeff Crouere.
Please check out all of Jeff’s work here, and particularly his newest show, in a debate format, “Well Stated.”