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A Citizens' Army in New Orleans
...many New Orleans residents, alarmed by a rising post-Hurricane Katrina murder rate and the city's struggling criminal justice system's failure to stop it, haven't been dissuaded and are following through on the urge to arm themselves. The media is often accused of sensationalizing crime. But that's hardly necessary in New Orleans, which has logged at least 53 homicides since the beginning of the year the highest murder rate, per capita, in the nation. There were seven unrelated killings in one recent four-day stretch, including four on April 2. National Guard troops and state police have been patrolling city streets since last June. But there appears to be little law enforcement can do to quell the violence... ...a skeptical public is increasingly looking at ways to protect themselves. The topic comes up often in casual party chat and on Internet forums; a typical post on nola.com, the New Orleans Times- Picayune Web site, bears the heading "Armed Citizens Rule!" and reads, "would-be predators flee when a legally carried gun is presented instead of a wallet." Predictably, such chatter has law enforcement officials concerned. New Orleans population is currently less than double the population of US servicemen in Iraq. Doing the arithmetic, it is roughly 10 times more hazardous to be a soldier in Iraq than to live in New Orleans. Posted by: Glenmore 2007-04-05 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=185022 |