
LOL....I still think it could be annexed by Iran! Sorry for not clicking on the link.
New Orleans murder rate continues climb
NEW ORLEANS -- Through the first six months of 2006, New Orleans had recorded 56 murders and was on its way to a total of 161 homicides _ the highest rate, per capita, in the nation.
This year the city hit July with 98 murders on the books.
"Last year the murder total doubled in the last half of the year," said Peter Scharf, a criminologist and professor at Texas State University. "If it doubles again this year we're looking at 300 murders. It's a truly frightening thought."
Since July of 2006, New Orleans has averaged 17 murders a month.
In June, the FBI declared New Orleans the nation's murder capital. With 161 murders in 2006, the city was far bloodier than any place else in the country _ even surpassing such deadly cities as Gary, Ind., and Detroit.
Using the most generous estimate of about 255,000 residents in 2006 _ almost certainly higher than last year's population _ would mean a rate of 63.5 murders per 100,000 residents. Gary's was 48.3 and Detroit's 47.1.
But it's wrong to get caught up in the per capita murder rate, said James Bernazzani, special agent in charge of the FBI's New Orleans field office.
"Many of our law-abiding citizens have yet to return," Bernazzani said. "The people who are returning are the criminal element, the legacy criminals that really did not enjoy the law enforcement heat of Texas and Georgia and Florida."
The ratio of hard core criminal to regular citizens is much greater now than before Hurricane Katrina, Bernazzani said.
"Look at the murders, it's not the criminal population preying on the general population," he said. "It's the criminal population preying on the criminal population."
Still, the numbers are alarming, Bernazzani said, and one step could quickly lead to lowering them _ stop New Orleans from being the "land of the 701."
The "701 release" is a state law that says that a jailed felony suspect must be charged by prosecutors within 60 days of his arrest. If not, he is released. Being allowed to walk after 60 days led those around Orleans Parish Prison to coin the term, "misdemeanor murder."
The problem has been so great that police superintendent Warren Riley and district attorney Eddie Jordan held a joint news conference in March pledging to close the "open door" that allowed some of the city's most violent offenders a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Between January and June of this year there were 2,328 of the 701 releases, district attorney's spokesman Dalton Savwoir said. But he said that number was cut from 580 in January to 375 in May. The figures from 2005 were not available, he said.
That number is still too high, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said.
"We still have to make the local criminal justice system more efficient," Letten said. "That means faster charging decisions by the district attorney's office, better communication between the DA and the NOPD, better technology. The 701 releases have to come to a halt."
Meanwhile, the Legislature recently passed a bill to ease some of the pressure on law enforcement. It would extend the "701" provision from 60 to 120 days. As of late last week, the bill awaited the governor's signature or veto.
As part of a federal push to help the city get a handle on violent crime, the FBI and DEA have been working with police, and Letten's office is pressing federal charges when possible. The effort has fast tracked prosecution, he said.
Since Feb. 5, in Central City there have been 81 federal arrest, leading to 65 indictments and 30 convictions," Letten said.
The 701 release problem is a big one, said Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of Greater New Orleans.
He sees the fear and mistrust that keeps citizens from testifying or even cooperating with police and prosecutors as much more significant.
"The big problem is how do we change the public perception of the system so they begin to trust it?" Goyeneche said.
That will take a grass roots effort similar to two others that Hurricane Katrina apparently sparked _ changing New Orleans to a single assessor and a single levee board.
"That was impossible before Katrina," Goyeneche said. "But that's the type of grass roots involvement that will be needed to fix the criminal justice system. But I believe Katrina has awakened the people of this community to some of the systemic problems that have to be addressed if we are going to solve our crime problem."
Goyeneche pointed to the citizen's march on city hall in January that led to the formation of a group dedicated to anti-violence, and a group of business and community leaders who joined forces to find ways to reduce violent crime in New Orleans.
"That's the kind of thing that will allow us to stop these murders," Goyeneche said. "It has to be a citizen effort."
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Mary Foster is a New Orleans-based news reporter for The Associated Press