Bayoubuzz

Friday, 27 January 2012 13:09

Even for the Murder Capital of the nation, the first few weeks of 2012 have been especially violent. In the first 27 days of this year, 23 people have been killed and over 70 people have been shot.

On Wednesday, Mike Ainsworth, a Good Samaritan, was killed in Algiers trying to stop a criminal from stealing a vehicle. Sadly, he lost his life in front of his two children in a neighborhood that was supposedly safe.

 Last night, hundreds of people attended a town hall meeting in Algiers to discuss the crime situation. In recent weeks, Algiers has been the scene of violent crimes such as rape, assault, armed robbery, car-jacking and murder. On the night of January 7, Mrs. Clint Coleman was assaulted walking back to her house after taking the Algiers Ferry. She was brutally attacked and suffered significant injury, yet it took police officers more than 80 minutes to respond.  NOPD officers later confided to Mr. and Mrs. Coleman that the vast majority of officers normally assigned to Algiers were in the French Quarter monitoring crowds after the Saints-Lions playoff game.

 It is clear the NOPD is understaffed. While NOPD officials claim there are approximately 1,300 officers currently on the force, a source within the department says there are only 1,200 officers.  On Wednesday morning, when Mr. Ainsworth was killed in Algiers, this department source claims that only five officers were working in the district. With such a depleted staffing level, it is no surprise that the perpetrator of this crime escaped.

 More of a police presence would not solve the problem, but it would help. Until more officers are recruited, the Military Police unit of the Louisiana National Guard should be deployed in New Orleans. The officers can patrol certain areas, handle office duties, freeing up NOPD officers to concentrate on high crime areas and those districts, such as Algiers, which are shorthanded.

 Another key component of the city’s crime problem is the revolving door criminal justice system.  Judges are allowing violent criminals to evade prison and return to the streets of New Orleans.

The problem is so acute that Mayor Landrieu and NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas requested that criminal court judges set a higher bail for defendants charged with possessing illegal weapons. On Wednesday, the Mayor recommended a minimum bail of $30,000 for such offenses, along with electronic monitoring. These measures have worked to reduce crime in St. Louis and other cities across the country. Unfortunately, these recommendations were promptly ignored by Magistrate Court Judge Gerard Hansen. On Thursday, he set bail at only $25,000 for career criminal Thomas Riles, a multiple offender who was arrested for illegal use of a weapon. So, for a more serious crime than possession of illegal weapons, Judge Hansen set a lower bail than recommended by the Mayor and Police Chief.

Along with charges of illegal use of a weapon, Riles was charged with criminal damage to property. His history includes drug charges for possessing crack cocaine and Ecstasy violating his probation.  He obviously learned no lessons from his experience in the criminal justice system and returned to his law breaking. With Hansen’s lenient bail, Riles will surely be back on the streets posing a threat to law abiding citizens. When asked about his decision in the Riles case, Hansen said “I call each case individually as I see them. It is what it is.” 

What a cavalier attitude from a judge! What “it is” stinks and contributes to the revolving door criminal justice system. Violent thugs are continually arrested and almost immediately they are back on the streets to commit more crime.  

To combat the criminals in this struggle for the future of the city, New Orleans needs more law enforcement personnel, more prison space and law and order judges who will show compassion for the victims and not mercy toward the criminals who are terrorizing the city.

DO YOU AGREE WITH THE COLUMNIST?  TELL US BELOW...

--
Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11 a.m.weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email this

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (2)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Untouchable

The Police Department should look at the old movies the Untouchable with Elliot Ness maybe they can get some ideal on how to handle this situation.

Marjorie Thompson Carter , January 30, 2012

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...

Jeff is right on. Certain individual Judges in Orleans are notorious for their laxity when sentencing, and others for not retaining criminals pending trial and allowing modest sized bonds to be set on major crimes where based on the defendant's criminal history there is an obviously very serious flight risk. This has been a part of the "process" in NOLA for my entire life--now approaching 70 years. How many fortunes have been made by these few Judges and their back door deals with jail house lawyers, and how many more innocents will be killed before there is a change. While there are many upstanding persons on the bench, there only needs to be one in each court system to totally corrupt the system if someone on the inside makes sure certain lawyers' "clients" are assigned to their favored judge and a back door deal is cut. And the beat goes on.

NotSoFastEddie , January 27, 2012

• 
• +1
• 
• 

Write comment

Name

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment