“The governor is the top law enforcement official in this state. He is the only one that can order this assist with the state police to come down here. And we need it. We need it very badly.”
—Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, commenting Wednesday on the irony of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s call to arms against Islamic “terrorists” in so-called “no-go” zones in England and France when he is not allowing state police to assist local authorities in fighting what Cannizzaro called “urban terrorists” in New Orleans. A recent survey ranked Louisiana’s violent crime rate as the worst in the nation.
Louisiana Voice 
That first sentence explains a lot of things.
What, ever, has the leadership or populace of Orleans Parish and the New Orleans metro area done to stop the perpetuation of crime? “Urban Terrorists”, Mr. District Attorney? Or maybe just homegrown city thugs? I fail to see how it is the responsibility of the LSP to disproportionately police New Orleans. I certainly don’t think that the rest of the Parishes in this State should have to sacrifice their State Police representation to achieve that goal. Apparently the head of the NOPD union agrees with me. Per NOLA.com…
“It’s unrealistic to expect the state to continually use their resources when the city is responsible for itself,” said Capt. Michael Glasser with the Police Association of New Orleans. “I’m sure every other city would like state police. They are not entitled to it, and neither are we.”
Until the administration of New Orleans is held responsible for the safety of residents as well as visitors, and until the voters elect administrators who can and will ensure that resources are allocated properly to provide that protection, New Orleans will continue to be ground zero for violent crime in our state.
I believe you’re missing main point here, or maybe two main points. Yes, New Orleans crime is the responsibility of New Orleans law enforcement but candidates, both Republican and Democrat, love to run on a tough “law and order” platform and they both promise to clean up crime. If they are going to make the promise, they should be ready to back it up with action, even if that means going into New Orleans and helping with the cleanup.
More important, though, I believe the Orleans DA was trying to point out the hypocrisy of going to London and decrying terrorism over there when there is plenty of “urban terrorism” right here at home to worry about.
NEW ORLEANS has some of the finest police officers I have ever met. The problem is that they also have some of the worst I have ever met also. This is a supervision problem. No leadership from the top down. Hire the right people for the right job and you would clean up the problem. Fire the trash. Sending 50 Troopers down there for a month might help but that’s not the answer. Guys be safe I know one of these days someone will have your back.
State police don’t want to leave the interstates where they spend almost all their time. Easier to go after speeders seatbelt renegades and occasionally set up drug stings that are seldom worth the resources they waste to do so than to deal with violent criminals. Give them another 20% pay hike and then perhaps they’ll go be real cops in New Orleans.