Dispatch from New Orleans: Second-guessing myself

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By Ariane Wiltse

Every now and then, a story in the local press forces me to reevaluate my decision to move back to New Orleans and buy a house in the Lower 9th Ward. Sometimes the story that jolts me from my idyllic rebuilding spirit focuses on leaks in levees and the recycled newspaper found to be stuffed inside of them. Other times it’s stories about the condition of the swamps to the south and west of the city, stories that describe how the land out there is literally falling into open water, and in doing so is allowing the Gulf of Mexico to creep closer and closer to our fragile city.

But today, I’m not fretting over the potential environmental disaster lurking behind the next hurricane. Today, it’s the city’s rampant violence that makes me question my decision not only to move back here after the storm but to sprout roots.

One recent morning, around 2 a.m., a man in my neighborhood was found dead in his home. He had been shot in the head. The man lived a few blocks away from the house I’m restoring, the trailer I’m living in and me.

Although the police have released the barest of details, it appears that the man was murdered in either a drug deal gone wrong or for some retaliatory reason. Typical tit-for-tat street justice meets the cheapness of human life.

My neighbor is merely the city’s most recent murder victim. By the time the summer finally draws to an end, dozens of other people will be dead. In a city long known for its incessant and often random violence, summertime is the scariest time of year. It’s the time when murders become so common that the city guarantees itself the morbid distinction of becoming the nation’s murder capital for yet another year. I call this time of year the killing season. The killings are a fact of life down here or, better put, a cycle of death.

After two of my friends were murdered last year in separate incidents, and my car was surrounded by drug dealers on a sunny Saturday afternoon –- three blocks from my house -- I decided to get involved in anti-crime efforts. I started asking questions at my weekly neighborhood association meetings, and the next thing I knew, I was co-chair of the crime committee. Ask questions? Get the responsibility. It was that simple and unpopular of a job.

Since then, the other co-chair and I teamed up with local grassroots organizations and launched a petition to keep the Louisiana National Guard in New Orleans. Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco deployed the guard in June 2006 after five teenagers were found gunned down. During the last two years, however, the economic strain of paying, feeding and housing the nearly 300 soldiers stationed here has become extremely unpopular in the rest of the state, placing political pressure on current Gov. Bobby Jindal to pull the guard out of New Orleans.

But for some of New Orleans’ most vulnerable residents, true pioneers rebuilding in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere littered with block after block of abandoned houses, the guard provides their only protection. Dressed in fatigues and riding in military Humvees, the soldiers patrol the areas of the city that took the most water and therefore have been the slowest to recover -- neighborhoods such as eastern New Orleans, Gentilly, Lakeview and the Lower 9th Ward. These patrols allow the undermanned and overworked police force to focus their patrols in the more populated areas of the city. Without the guard patrols in the sparsely populated areas, either the New Orleans Police Department would be forced to pull officers from administrative and intelligence departments, effectively bringing investigations to a halt, or large tracts of the city would be left to fend for themselves.

Sensing the post-Katrina political tide in Baton Rouge was shifting, and not in New Orleans’ favor, Jeffery and I, along with volunteers from Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, collected nearly 5,000 signatures asking the governor to keep the guard in the city. Mayor Ray Nagin, Supt. of Police Warren Riley and City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis endorsed our efforts and made personal requests to the governor.

A few weeks ago, Jindal announced that the guard will stay through the end of 2008. It’s a temporary success that helps me and a lot of other people working hard to rebuild our homes and community rest easier, for now.

But it doesn’t quiet the cacophony of second-guessing in my head. That still comes in loud and clear.

(Photos: Kathy Price-Robinson)

Comments

[HulaGirl]

Wow - you are brave and/or have a death wish.
I LOVE New Orleans. Had a job offer to work at a PBS station and was supposed to start September 6th, 2005. The job was blown away with the storm.

I was offered a similar position in February 2008 and researched the crime, which you acknowledge has always been bad. As you know, it was worse than ever. Among other challenges to the justice system; ourt records were lost or damaged making it hard to convict those with past felonies. New Orleans has a reputation for having a corrupt police force overwhelmed by criminals, a lack of support and low morale. And the worsening economy is making a bad situation desperate.

In 2006, documentary filmmaker Helen Hill, a colleague and acquaintance who went back with her physician husband and three year old son to "Do something" after the storm was murdered in her own home .

Still, I wanted to come and hep revive the city I loved.
It wasn't until I read that New Orleans' murder rate was higher than Compton.that I changed my mind, Compton?!! Would I voluntarily I move to and live in Compton? No. Too Dangerous. (I'm black so please don't insert racist comments here).

I turned down the offer and moved to Austin, TX instead. Do I wish I was a brave as you? Sure.

But clearly I'm not. Good luck and stay safe.

[KG]

Hi Ariane

I admire your strength in deciding to move to New Orleans in order to try and make a difference in the City. I am sorry to hear that there has been such an increase in crime since the Hurricane struck in 2005. I am also sorry that you have lost friends and acquaintances at the hands of criminals.

I would like to say that you should not give up and do not second guess your decision. I believe that you were brought to New Orleans for a reason. Ofcourse if things get a little too tough and/or stressful for you, the best thing for you to do is to relocate from the area. I have been following your blog and am excited by your determination. If more people relocated there with your ideas and attitude, the City would surely change for the better.

I would also like to comment on the other person who offerred you a comment in this blog. I am a Compton resident and have been for the past 5 years. After receiving my Master's Degree I chose to move into the community. I would like to say that a lot of the crime you hear about in Compton is mainly media hype. My neighborhood is composed of working class citizens. In some cases, when crime occurs in the southern portion of Los Angeles, the media automatically says that it occured in Compton just because this is the expectation. The truth of the matter is that there is crime everywhere, including in the affluent communities such as Beverly Hills and Malibu. The difference is that in the more affluent areas, the crime is not readily reported and the police force does not always take reports in order that their crime statistics remain low. We have to begin to stop stigmatizing areas and assuming that areas are bad just because the media says so.

[Greg]

I am a native of New Orleans. Crime has not always been bad.

I worked the 7h District as a cop for one year in 1968-69. There might have been one or two murders a year. I don't recall handling more than one handful of violent crimes or even burglaries or auto theft.

That is now about a week's count in the 7th.

[JOe]

I'm sorry about your situation, but the fact is New Orleans IS below sea level and sinking, another flood will occur and the levees WILL fail again and you have no business rebuilding in that area. And of course you want everyone else to pay literally BILLIONS of dollars so you can be a moron. Sorry again, but if common sense doesn't sway you, maybe the 'crime' will.