On September 25^th a man was stabbed on a levee in Kenner just outside of New Orleans proper. On October 10^th a man was shot to death in the Irish Channel while driving, at that same time a 19 year old man was gunned down in Algiers. On October 9^th 3 men were shot on Frenchmen and one of the three was an innocent bystander having a stroll with his wife. Another man was shot to death on the morning of Saturday, October 21^st in the lower Ninth Ward.

  All of these seemingly not-connected post-Katrina deaths leave many New Orleanians wondering why the violence that plagued New Orleans before the storm wasn’t washed away along with the other Hurricane debris. Many residents had high hopes for the city’s crime rate after the storm. It was long believed that most of New Orleans’ problematic criminals relocated to other major cities with the help of FEMA and the Red Cross. If that indeed was the case, then what could be the cause of all of the city’s current criminal activity? There are many hypotheses to this question. One claim in particular is that new-New Orleans crime is the result of new-New Orleans residents.

  The make-up of the New Orleans population has shifted somewhat and the result could be that the new residents brought with them new problems. Another hypothesis on the subject is that the same old New Orleans criminals were met with many obstacles in trying to relocate and as a result have returned to the Crescent City. Whatever the case may be, it is inevitable that this problem will in the short-term as well as long-run cause problems in the rebuilding effort of New Orleans. This also will have a crippling effect on the city’s tourism.

  In recent months the New Orleans Police Department was quoted as saying that the crime problem in the city is very self-contained in that it only involved specific people who were already a part of a somewhat criminal lifestyle. However, as I reported in the beginning of this article a man was shot while having a romantic stroll with his wife, this doesn’t seem to mirror the police department’s theory. It is believed that since the NOPD has fewer residents to protect and serve that it should be easier to put a hold on the crime in the city but that hasn’t been the case thus far. We can only hope that the rates improve and do so very quickly, if not, New Orleans will have a tough time convincing tourists and residents to return.

Contact Bri at  BAllen-Trufant@b-now.com