AP: Checkpoints to Combat New Orleans Crime

[Eugene]

Associated Press
Checkpoints to Combat New Orleans Crime
By MARY FOSTER 01.10.07, 12:20 AM ET

Police plan to set up checkpoints beginning Wednesday to help curb a crime wave
that has claimed nine lives since the start of 2007, Mayor Ray Nagin said, stopping
short of imposing a curfew on this tourism-dependent city.

The checkpoints will operate between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., when about a third of the
city's violent crime occurs, and will target drug and alcohol violations as well
as motorist insurance. The first one was to be held in a crime-ridden area of the
city.

Nagin said the police force would also increase foot patrols, sheriff deputies would
supplement the force, and authorities would increase the number of surveillance
cameras in high-crime areas. Speeding homicide cases through the court system is
also part of his plan.

-snip-

A curfew had been opposed by the city's tourism leaders, who said it would further
hurt businesses struggling since Hurricane Katrina. While Nagin did not declare a
curfew, he said the message to citizens was to stay off the streets in high-crime
areas and in early morning hours.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/01/09/ap3315782.html

Earlier LBN thread: New Orleans eyes curfew after 8 slayings

[krispos42]

1. Awww, look, our own little model Sadr City! n/t

[saigon68]

8. I wonder if the Blackwater mercenaries will help

Keep the peace?

[cboy4]

2. Sigh. My heart aches for New Orleans.

The cynic in me can't help but make one wonder if this is going to turn into a big racial profiling operation.

Yah know?

[lligrd]

3. Just What We Need

Checkpoints to ensure our "freedoms". Thank God, the repukes have shown us the way. :sarcasm:

[pokercat999]

9. May I remind you that the Mayor has a D behind his

name. Nobody dislikes repugs more than me. I rarely speak to my sister because of her support for the American Taliban, however for accuracy I thought I'd point out that the Mayor is a Democrat.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. How much longer

before Bush orders airstrikes to keep down the insurgents?

[ReadTomPaine]

5. Depends on the number of subpoenas that arrive at the WH over the next two years. n/t

[ixion]

6. this is pathetic and sad

New Orleans is now a third-world city.

Thanks BushCo. :grr:

[ima_sinnic]

7. so bushco's experiment in social engineering continues ...

they managed to scatter the rightful occupants to the four winds (reminiscent of the treatment of the original rightful occupants of "America") to pave the way for the wealthy oil-drilling reconstructing white men; those who have resisted and are still so annoyingly in residence will now be subjected to curfews and checkpoints.

[High Plains]

10. New Orleans police set up checkpoints in bid to curb violence

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070110.worleans0110/BNStory/International/home

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — Police set up checkpoints Wednesday to help curb a crime wave that has claimed nine lives since the start of 2007, Mayor Ray Nagin said, stopping short of imposing a curfew on this tourism-dependent city. The checkpoints will operate between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., when about a third of the city's violent crime occurs, and will target drug and alcohol violations as well as motorist insurance. The first one was to be held in a crime-ridden area of the city.

Mr. Nagin said the police force would also increase foot patrols, sheriff deputies would supplement the force, and authorities would increase the number of surveillance cameras in high-crime areas. Speeding homicide cases through the court system is also part of his plan.

“This city will focus on murders,” Mr. Nagin said, flanked by Police Superintendent Warren Riley, District Attorney Eddie Jordan and others speaking at the bloodstained site of the city's first murder of 2007. “We're drawing a line in the sand, and we're saying, ‘We've had it.'”

A curfew had been opposed by the city's tourism leaders, who said it would further hurt businesses struggling since hurricane Katrina. While Mr. Nagin did not declare a curfew, he said the message to citizens was to stay off the streets in high-crime areas and in early morning hours.

Mr. Nagin acknowledged the criminal justice breakdown extended beyond the police force and said a corps of volunteers will be recruited to monitor homicide cases moving through the courts. “We're sending a signal that the system that used to allow you to commit a murder and there were no consequences is over. It has been easier to commit a murder than another crime in New Orleans,” Mr. Nagin said.

<snip>

There are also a couple of paragraphs snipped about New Orleans officials pressuring FEMA to provide them information on residents of FEMA trailer parks.

[High Plains]

11. Public safety or creeping police statism?

Hmmm, the Supreme Court has ruled that checkpoints to stop people and look for drugs are illegal. The cops get around that by calling them driver's license/alcohol checkpoints. But here, it's getting a bit blatant.

I wonder if New Orleans would be better off if they just legalized the drug trade.

[daleo]

12. "Comrade, where are your papers?"

"Show me your Homeland Security papers."

[denverbill]

13. WTF?

So the big concern is 'murder', but the patrols will focus on 'drug and alcohol violations' and 'motorist insurance'?

[High Plains]

14. Baghdad on the Mississippi...