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Drugs, illegal immigrants fueling crime surge, police say

06:38 PM CDT on Monday, June 15, 2009

Paul Murphy

pmurphy@wwltv.com


KENNER, La. – You know it's bad when possible drug deals go down across the street from the Kenner Police Department.


Video: Watch the Story Eyewitness News caught an exchange in progress on tape Monday morning near Veterans Highway and Loyola Drive. Kenner had it's seventh murder of the year over the weekend, not far from there.

The city had a total of eight murders for all of last year.

Police are still looking for the killer in Sunday's murder. Police Chief Steve Caraway said a man on a bike shot the victim after an argument.

"There's just a total disregard for human life today, a total disregard and you're seeing kids, younger and younger, carrying guns today, more so than ever before," said Caraway.

Caraway said narcotics are the common component in most murders he sees.

The Kenner murder was one of three killings and four injuries in shootings this weekend in the metro area.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said the bad economy and high rate of teen pregnancy and medically uninsured are also troubling indicators that can lead to violent crime.

"Those are all criteria that are based around poverty," said Normand. "What I've always said is that poverty drives crime to a large extent."

"We're being successful in reducing crime, but to make New Orleans as safe as it needs to be, it will not happen until the economy gets better and we produce a better quality citizen, overall," said New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley. "We just don't have that right now. We have too many criminals."

Local law enforcers say complicating an already serious violent crime problem in the New Orleans area is the recent introduction of undocumented workers. By some counts there could be as many as 60,000, mostly Hispanic workers who moved to this area after Hurricane Katrina.

"At first, after Katrina they were very much victims," said Normand. "As the population started to grow, now they are becoming perpetrators."

"You look back just right before the storm, we may have had one or two people who are Hispanic who were murdered, maybe two or three rapes, now that number had quadrupled to say the least," said Riley.

Both the NOPD and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office are learning more about how to handle crimes involving undocumented workers.

Normand said his department is getting help from Houston. Riley said the city's police academy is now teaching all new recruits, basic Spanish.


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