Comments on: Houston Police Chief Ties Homicide Increase to Katrina Evacuees

By: Frank Zavisca

Frank Zavisca — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 15:27:05 +0000

La Shawn:

Shreveport Bossier has also had an increase in crime from New Orleans evacuees.

In truth, the evacuees from the other areas of the Gulf Coast have NOT behaved in this manner. New Orleans, unfortunately, was a city paralyzed by antisocial behavoir.

But who can be surprised that evacuees were placed in the worst possible apartments? This is strictly economics. And FEMA is part of the problem, not allowing people to pay extra for a safer place.

I lived in Houston 1982-87. I drove through these endless apartment developments. Construction was shoddy, and I knew then that they would soon be slums.

So Alan Turner’s observations are not surpsising.

By: RepJ

RepJ — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 22:28:28 +0000

I’ve read about that, too, La Shawn. There have been many fights between N.O. and Houston teenagers in Houston schools, too. I guess I’ve heard of about four or five different rumbles through the local news. It’s very sad.

By: Wizbang

Wizbang — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 20:52:18 +0000

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In a historic first, all three candidates for the House Majority Leader position are conducting interview sessions with bloggers as part of their campaign to win the votes of their fellow House Republicans. This post is a a roundup of…

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 17:43:42 +0000

The homicide rate in Houston has actually increased by 50%. 23% of the victims or perpetrators have been NO evacuees.

Atleast, thats what they said on the local news here in Houston.

The people aren’t going to be changed just by moving. The ghetto mentality is still there.

By: Heliotrope

Heliotrope — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 16:42:23 +0000

When that many people land all at once in a metropolitan area, they are going to immediately swamp the infrastructure in finding housing, work and personal attention.

The Houston Chronical article said they gravitated toward the worst neighborhoods. I doubt it was anything like the magnetism implied in the choice of the word “gravitated.”

The largest supply of affordable and available housing is almost always in the troubled areas where other people are struggling to leave.

Not that all of the N.O. evacuees are saints and all the people in their new neighborhoods are thugs, but the dynamics at play in a situation like this are enormous.

By: TexasFred

TexasFred — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 16:39:01 +0000

I can’t speak to the situation in Houston, but here in the Dallas area there appears to have been at least a brief increase in criminal activity immediately following the relocation of some of the NOLA evacuees…

And I am a Louisiana native, I have a lot of family and friends in Louisiana, in the New Iberia and Lafayette area and several of them are law enforcement folks and according to them there has been a marked increase in crimes, especially in New Iberia, a *smallish* town that’s not use to a lot of crime in the 1st place…

Like you, I can’t verify the *figures* but I know what I’ve been told… Just not going to rip off any opinions I can’t back up…