Busy week for Big Chief: Where to begin? Where to begin? Let's see:
- Last Friday (5.29.09), Big Chief Warren Riley (left) throws a hissy fit
after District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro (right) asks him for more investigators so he can more vigorous prosecute old homicide cases. Riley pulls his top cop, Capt. Jeff Winn, out of the DA's office and tells Leon to go find his own investigators. "Pffft! I'm taking my ball 'n going home," seems to be the message Riley was delivering in his usual passive/aggressive response.
Never mind that in the 5 months Winn was under the DA's roof he managed to put together a team and protocol for more successful prosecutions of the murders ravaging the city. And never mind that Riley's sitting on untold millions of dollars budgeted--but not spent--for more officers because he's doing a lousy job of recruiting. What were you thinking, Warren? Anything?
- A few days later (6.1.09), the FBI announces that New Orleans has reasserted its rank as the most murderous city in the U.S. Instead of announcing a plan for reducing homicides, Riley decides to play statistician instead of police chief and tries to manipulate the figures so they don't look so bad.
A NOPD spokesman points out that the city has 2 fewer murders this year than last year at this time--only 80. But at that rate (16 per month), New Orleans will end the year with 192 homicides--13 more than the 179 in 2008. Not good Warren, not good at all.
- Then amid all this, it's revealed the Big Chief wants to be the Head Honcho, and run for mayor like a predecessor did. We already have a blundering buffoon as mayor and can't afford to suffer another such catastrophe.
Riley's obviously more delusional than we thought if he thinks all it takes to be mayor is to be black. What has he been smoking? The evidence in the evidence room? We knew Richard Pennington, and we can tell you, Warren, you're no Richard Pennington.
The camel's nose: It may have seemed alike a good idea last year when State Sen. Edwin Murray pushed through a law to create a district to protect the French Quarter and Marigny Triangle. But now it seems like the proverbial camel's nose under the tent that threatens to make these neighborhoods look like the Dallas Cowboys practice facility.
A new bill by Murray this year, which quietly slipped through the Senate this week, gives the district the power to tax every building in the district for the purpose of "public safety, security, and crime prevention"--and, of course, creates the bureaucracy with which to do it.
Murray's madness will be financed with a minimum tax of $185 per parcel. And all of this without the say of the voters, as was initially promised. And initially, if memory serves, it was supposed to be financed with a portion of the sales tax collected in the Quarter. But now it's a property tax.
And as for Murray, he's another one who would be mayor. He's already showing the kind of official he would be--tax the citizens all you want without giving them a say.
While reducing crime is foremost in citizens' minds, the creation of a private security force seduces the citizenry with the delusion of greater safety. The natural inclination of those who should be protecting us--the NOPD--is to slough off the responsibility, deferring to the district's rent-a-cops.
Do you think the Garden District's safer with its security force? Do you think the Lower Quarter Crime Watch's 4-hour patrol has any impact? Think again.
Murray's madness will be financed with a minimum tax of $185 per parcel. And all of this without the say of the voters, as was initially promised. And initially, if memory serves, it was supposed to be financed with a portion of the sales tax collected in the Quarter. But now it's a property tax.
If the bill gets though the House, it will only take Gov. Jindal's signature to slap a tax on this deluded populace. We can only hope Jindal's aversion to new taxes is more sincere than Bush 41's.
Renters who live in the Quarter and Marigny and felt horribly threatened by the proposed increase in the homestead exemption because they believed it would force raising of their rents, should be very afraid of this bill. It works out to over $15 a month a landlord would be justified in adding to your rent for your "public safety."
Crime? What crime?: As always, when so little crime is reported by the 8th District, the optimist hopes it's because all the NOPD's strategies are working against crime, and not just that it's being unreported.
- One of the only crimes reported in the last week was the theft of a cellphone from a white guy taking pictures in the 600 block of Bourbon Street (between Toulouse and St. Peter streets) a little after 11 p.m. last Friday (5.29.09). A black guy grabbed the phone and took off on St. Peter toward N. Rampart Street.
He was described as 20 to 25 years old, 5'9" tall, weighing 140 pounds with a thin build, dark complexion, shoulder-length dreadlocks, and wearing a powder blue T-shirt and black shorts.
- 8th District detectives managed to make a lot of a little when they put together
a photo line-up based on the scant description given by 4 women when they were robbed at gunpoint of their purses on 5.4.09 in the 1000 block of Chartres Street.
The detectives arrested Jerry Corner, 18, on Monday (6.1.09) and charged him with 4 counts of armed robbery. He's being held on $600,000 bond in OPP.
- Who carries a hammer with them for their morning eye-opener? Police say Jam
es Gibeault, 58, became irate in the Cafe Rose Nicaud, 632 Frenchmen St., around 8:30 a.m. Thursday (6.4.09) and pulled out a hammer and swung it at one guy there and then threw it at another guy.
They charged him with 2 counts of aggravated assault and he's sitting in OPP for want of a $50,000 bond.
But will he show?: One of New Orleans true bad boys is due in court for arraignment
on a charge of 2nd-degree murder next Friday (6.12.09). But Nathaniel Payton, 27, may not be exiting the courthouse as quickly as before.When the grand jury indicted him last week (5.28.09) on a charge of 2nd-degree murder, Judge Camille Buras slapped a hefty $1.5 million bond on the notorious drug dealer who's been skipping around town on wimpy bonds set by magistrate judges.
Last August, after he allegedly pumped 7 or 8 bullets into his victim at Bienville and Decatur streets, Payton was charged with aggravated battery and Magistrate Rudy Gorrell levied only a $75,000 bond, which Payton posted in no time.
Even when Payton's alleged victim died 6 months later and he was charged with murder, Magistrate Gerard Hansen reset his bond at only a measly $220,000, which Payton again had no trouble posting to get out of OPP.
Even when Payton's alleged victim died 6 months later and he was charged with murder, Magistrate Gerard Hansen reset his bond at only a measly $220,000, which Payton again had no trouble posting to get out of OPP.
Now we'll see just how deep Payton's pockets are, how good business has been on the streets of the city.
Your voice heard: Sheriff Marlin Gusman apparently heard your pleas for resuming linking suspects to their court cases and has rejiggered his computer to do the job. Now we'll be able to once again link the suspects on the NOcrimeline.com website.
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As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome at NOcrimeline@gmail.comThom Kahler
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