Life in Chocolate City returns to normal

*In the latest slayings, a 24-year-old man was shot 11 times Monday night.*
Time for another hurricane, only this time leave the savages right where
they are.


Murders Soar in New Orleans Suburb

By MARY FOSTER
August 15, 2006

HARVEY, La. (AP) - Murders are up more than 50 percent this year in suburban
New Orleans' Jefferson Parish, and the sheriff blames drug dealers who have
set up operations here after being driven out of the big city by Hurricane
Katrina.

Thirty-five people had been murdered in the parish as of Tuesday night.
Through mid-August of last year, the number was 23. Sheriff Harry Lee
released statistics showing that 18 of this year's killings were
drug-related, compared with six at this time last year.

"What happened is we cannot get a handle on the drug traffic," he said
Tuesday.

Jefferson Parish includes the bedroom communities of Metairie and Kenner, as
well as blue-collar towns and rural areas.

Various estimates put New Orleans' current population at around half its
pre-Katrina level of 455,000. Jefferson Parish suffered a smaller population
loss - from close to 453,000 before the storm to about 440,000 now. With
less damage from the hurricane, the parish has a larger housing base than
New Orleans, and Lee said many people wanting to return to the area have
settled here instead of New Orleans.

"I think the population shift has caused the drug market to shift," Lee
said.

Most of the victims and the accused were under 30, and some were as young as
14.

In the latest slayings, a 24-year-old man was shot 11 times Monday night. On
Tuesday night, a man was called out of his house by a teenager on a bicycle
who demanded money for crack he had sold the man, the sheriff said.

"The guy didn't have the money, so he shot him in the top of the head," Lee
said. "I think over a $40 debt. How do you explain that? How does a
15-year-old find it necessary to carry a gun?"

The sheriff's department has lost 45 of its 1,200 deputies since the storm.
Lee said that is because construction jobs in the area are paying higher
wages.

Lee said overall crime in the parish is down 20 percent.






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