Wall Street Journal: New Orleans Has America’s No. 1 Murder Rate; City in Crisis

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New Orleans Has America’s No. 1 Murder Rate. ‘We’re in a Crisis.’

Violent crime has overwhelmed the city’s police and is motivating some residents and business owners to leave



Wall Street Journal

Violent crime in New Orleans has grown to the point that Ibrahim Rabee no longer feels safe at his auto shop.

At least seven people have been killed within blocks of his store since the beginning of the year, according to police records. Customers bring in cars for repairs with handguns and semiautomatic rifles piled on the seats, Mr. Rabee said. A man with a gun recently threatened an employee who wouldn’t put air in his tire. After someone walked in with a gun and threatened to shoot up the store, Mr. Rabee called 911. An officer finally showed up the next day.

“I’m thinking I’m not going to work another year here,” said Mr. Rabee, who came to the U.S. from the Palestinian territories and is now considering moving near his brother in upstate New York.

Violent crime has surged across the U.S. since the start of the pandemic. Although it has flattened in much of the country this year, the numbers have continued to rise in several cities including Dallas, Phoenix and New Orleans, according to data compiled for the first half of this year by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a professional organization of police executives.

New Orleans had the highest homicide rate of any major city so far this year, with about 41 homicides per 100,000 residents, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the organization’s data, collected from most of the nation’s largest law-enforcement departments. The homicide rate was 11.5 in Chicago, 4.8 in Los Angeles and 2.4 per 100,000 in New York City for the same period.

This year to date, the New Orleans homicide rate is up 141% compared with the same period in 2019, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission Inc., a nonprofit that works to reduce crime in the city. Shootings are up 100%, carjackings 210% and armed robberies up 25%. The homicide rate is on pace to surpass last year’s rate, which was the worst since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Criminologists and law-enforcement officers have cited several potential factors in the rise in violent crime across the U.S., including stress from the pandemic, police pullbacks after racial-justice protests and a proliferation of guns.

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“The criminals are more bolder and more brazen,” said New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson. “They do not believe they will face any consequences for their actions.”

The police department is stretched so thin that the average 911 response time is 2½ hours, according to a recent report by an analytics firm presented to city council. The department says the time is much shorter for very serious emergency calls.

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New Orleans has in many ways been struggling to recover since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city’s current population at 377,000, down 24% from 2005 and about 1.8% from 2020.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, the police department had about 1,400 officers. Today, it has about 950, with the number dropping weekly.

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In March, thieves stole the car of a 73-year-old woman, who was dragged to her death as they drove away. Four juvenile teenagers have been charged with the crime. In June, an 80-year-old woman was killed by random gunfire at a high-school graduation. Several children have been hit recently by stray gunshots.

Michael Casey, owner of Liberty Cheesesteaks, was on a date in a wealthy area of the city when he witnessed an older man being beaten during a carjacking. He rushed over to help and the attacker fled, but then returned twice and threatened to shoot the man and Mr. Casey, 38 years old.

The police arrived relatively quickly, he said, but when Mr. Casey pointed out the attacker, they wouldn’t go after him. An officer advised the victim to buy a gun, Mr. Casey said.

Afterward, Mr. Casey decided to close his shop in New Orleans, leaving him with one location in the suburbs. “I can’t put a 16-year-old kid at the register and he’s going to get two in the head,” Mr. Casey said.

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Scott Fanning, 23, made local headlines when he quit the city’s police department a few hours into his shift in July out of frustration with the staffing shortage.

“It’s dangerous stuff every single day,” said Mr. Fanning, who moved to Covington, La., to work as a handyman. “I just had to get out of that before something happened.”

James Martin, 48, left the department last fall after witnessing extensive looting on his patrols following 2021’s Hurricane Ida. The stress became too much, he said. He now works as an artist. “It’s a numbers game and we don’t have enough,” he said.

A chief complaint among police officers, echoed by the mayor, has been a 2012 agreement between the city and the federal government to overhaul the department.

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Jason Williams, the local district attorney, said he has been pursuing more prosecutions while also trying to revamp the justice system, but disruptions caused by pandemic closures have made it difficult.

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In July, a group of more than 100 area businesses, nonprofits, church groups and the local NAACP said they were frustrated by city leaders’ inability to reduce crime and pledged $15 million over the next three years to tackle crime and promote youth services.

New Orleans remains one of the country’s top tourist destinations, but many worry that growing violent crime could change that. Tourism is an economic linchpin that has rebounded since Covid-19 lockdowns but is still behind prepandemic levels.

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Mr. Herzog said he just moved to Mississippi after living in New Orleans for more than 50 years—mainly to escape crime.

“Man, am I glad to get out of here,” he said. “I don’t see it getting any better.”

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