They came with individual issues like infrastructure and trash but one that united everyone at a District C townhall in Algiers Tuesday was crime.
In the 24 hours between Friday and Saturday mornings, there were five shooting deaths in New Orleans, four of them in Algiers, where Jermaine Lewis has lived since 1957.
“You can’t go anywhere. You’re afraid to go to the grocery store, you’re afraid to come out to meetings,” said Lewis.
“Statistically here in Algiers we’re safer than anywhere else in New Orleans, but you’re right, it’s still high and unacceptable,” said Algiers resident Evans Thibodeaux.
It’s not just an Algiers problem. By the time the weekend was up six people were shot to death and 12 injured citywide. Shootings continued through the week.
“We’re averaging almost two people shot per day over the past two years and that’s a really dramatic increase,” said crime analyst Jeff Asher
Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics, presented a report to the city council’s criminal justice committee Tuesday. It shows murder has increased by nearly 40 percent since the beginning of the year, compared to this time last year.
“[In] 2021, murder was up relative to the first quarter of 2020. So, it’s basically two straight years of increasing murder numbers,” said Asher.
Asher says more people now moving around since the start of the pandemic plays a role and while the hope is for things to get better, there’s no evidence they will.
“The trend is still up,” said Asher. “We had a horrific weekend last weekend. We’ve had yesterday, I think was bad, the day before was bad. When you’re averaging two shootings a day, it’s bad pretty much every day.”
Folks in Algiers are tired of bad days.
“That’s just not acceptable but the police can’t control some of the crime,” said Lewis.
According to Asher, as of Monday the NOPD had 1,011 commissioned officers. Asher says that’s the lowest level ever.
“With the amount of manpower they have, with the resources they have, I do believe they’re doing everything they can,” said Thibodeaux.
This meeting is part of a series from Councilman King who says he’s personally working at the ground level with things like job fairs and outreach to try and curb overall crime.