We made it to the top again! New Orleans is the murder capital of the United States. As of Friday there have been 148 murders in New Orleans this year. The city is averaging 36.8 murders per 100,000 people. Baltimore is second with 29.1, Birmingham at 28, St. Louis with 27.5, and Milwaukee at 19.
New Orleans is seven murders per capita ahead of Baltimore and it’s only getting worse. This is not what we want to be proud of. This is not cause for celebration.
We've heard there's a national trend of elevated murder rates and so maybe we shouldn’t worry so much. Well, I don't do that folks. Virginia Beach is down 2.9 murders and Las Vegas is down 3.7 murders per capita. I bring those two cities up because they are not happy having 13 murders and 63 murders for the year. They're trying to figure out how to decrease the number of murders. Yet, Cantrell wants to hang her hat on the murders being up across the country. I don't know what message she's trying to send. I'm completely mystified and irritated by it!
I'm gonna continue to talk about it until somebody does something. Our business community needs to step and hold our elected leaders accountable. The City Council needs to put pressure on the mayor and the rest of the local government. The neighborhood civic associations should be crying and screaming from the top of their lungs. I talked to some folks who are getting bombarded with crime in their neighborhood. Never thought I'd see the day where filling up your car with gas would be a life threatening event. Same with just driving down the interstate.
I was mistaken when I criticized the mayor for talking to these leaders in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, as she said, she was trying to learn how to fight crime. I thought those cities were much worse than New Orleans, but I was wrong. And maybe there’s still more for Mayor Cantrell to learn!