By Michael Perlstein, Staff writer
The Times-Picayune
Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
The shootings and stabbings haven’t stopped. The street corner crack-slinging, opportunistic looting and rough-trade prostitution continue to surface in the city’s darker corners.
But the infusion of National Guard soldiers and State Police troopers two weeks ago has put law enforcement on the offensive, freeing New Orleans police to swamp high-crime neighborhoods with aggressive patrols, Police Superintendent Warren Riley said.
The Police Department released arrest figures Monday showing promising crime-fighting results since federal and state support was brought in as a backup to city cops.
Task forces in the two most active police districts -- the 2nd and the 6th -- made 288 arrests in those Uptown and Central City districts, Riley said. While 62 percent of the arrests were for misdemeanor, municipal and traffic offenses, the overall effect is greater police presence and considerable heat on would-
be lawbreakers, Riley said.
In addition, 53 juveniles have been scooped up for curfew violations since the 11 p.m. curfew was reinstated and a holding area for the youngsters opened June 23.
“The citizens are feeling a big impact,” said Capt. Bob Bardy, commander of the 6th District. “The homicides are detracting from the glory of it, but generally speaking, it’s having a significant impact.”
Bardy’s district is dominated by Central City, a storm-
swamped but increasingly populated area that has become the city’s most recent epicenter for violent crime. The neighborhood, between Louisiana Avenue, Earhart Boulevard, Claiborne Avenue and the Mississippi River, has been hit with 15 homicides this year, more than 25 percent of the city’s 2006 total of 58. Patrols there have been beefed up considerably since the June 17 massacre of five teenagers in an SUV at Daneel and Josephine streets, but even the added police presence couldn’t prevent yet another Central City shooting, in which one man was killed and another was wounded Sunday night.
Brandon Thompson, 24, was standing with a group of people in the 2500 block of Clara Street about 6:45 p.m. when a gunman stepped out of a white Mitsubishi and fired into the crowd from about a half-block away. Thompson died at the scene.
“It’s believed to be the result of one-on-one confrontations,” Bardy said. “There isn’t much we can do about those.”
Overall, though, the new enforcement strategy has suppressed criminal activity in the most heavily populated areas of the flood-ravaged city, Bardy said. The National Guard has 300 soldiers patrolling for looters and other suspicious activity in the areas hardest-hit by Katrina’s floodwaters, primarily Lakeview, eastern New Orleans and the 9th Ward. About 60 State Police troopers are helping the NOPD in the French Quarter and Central Business District.
The extra feet on the ground have freed up New Orleans police officers for aggressive patrols in crime hot spots, Bardy said. He said the redeployment has provided him with about 20 additional officers, a major boost when compared with the typical infusion of five or six new officers when a recruit class graduates from the police academy.
“It allows us to shift our pro-
active officers into areas where they can be better utilized,” he said. “It’s also allowing us to pay attention to other issues, such as Magazine Street vendors and other quality-of-life issues.
State Police troopers have made 67 arrests since they arrived, the statistics show. National Guard soldiers have been involved in 111 arrests, although their rules of engagement require them to wait for NOPD assistance.
That doesn’t mean the guard troops aren’t capable of handling hot situations, spokesman Lt. Col. Pete Schneider said. The Humvee patrols are rolling 24 hours a day, he said, and soldiers are confronting everything from traffic violators to dangerous fugitives.
“Most of these guys are either veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay,” Schneider said of his troops. “They’re not like weekend warriors. All of them are either MPs (military police) or they’re police officers back home. They’re experienced professionals and they know what they’re doing out there.”
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