Texan Hosts Arm Against Crime Wave (Katrina - Houston)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 8-27-2006 | Philip Sherwell

[blam]

Texan hosts arm against crime wave

By Philip Sherwell in Houston

(Filed: 27/08/2006)

Hurricane Katrina may not have pounded Houston, but a year later the city is reeling from an ugly aftermath of the storm - a surging crime wave.

The murder rate in the Texan city has soared by almost 20 per cent since 150,000 Katrina evacuees arrived in August last year. According to police statistics, they are involved - as victim or killer - in one of every five homicides.

In the gun stores and on the shooting ranges of America's oil industry capital, business is booming as fearful locals take their defence into their own hands and buy concealed weapons licences that allow them to travel armed.

Although 9mm semi-automatic pistols are the easiest gun to carry, Jim Pruett, an arms salesman, says that his "looter shooter" - a pistol-grip, pump shotgun retailing at $370 (£200) - is also a big seller. "We've seen a 50 per cent increase in people taking our concealed weapons courses since the Katrina evacuees arrived," he said. "They are scared and they want to be able to defend themselves." Audrey Nelson, 63, a native of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, who moved to Houston 30 years ago with her Texan husband, Phil, knows all about the reality of the chilling crime statistics.

Despite the violent reputation of some American cities, the school headmistress never imagined that she would be too scared to take her dog for an evening walk around the affluent Houston suburb of Westchase. That was before thousands of Katrina evacuees were moved into nearby blocks of flats, which had previously been scheduled for demolition to make way for luxury condominiums. Just a few minutes' walk from the Nelsons' well-kept home, a 64-year-old man was shot dead at a car wash earlier this month when he refused to hand over money to four young men armed with a pistol. Three teenagers from New Orleans have since been arrested and the murder weapon was also traced to the Louisiana city.

"We opened our arms to these people after what they had experienced," said Mrs Nelson, who has lived in the area for 24 years. "At my school, we collected clothes and toys and sleeping bags; anything we could to help them. But now we've seen what's happened to our pleasant community and realised that many never plan to leave, the mood has changed."

The Rev Walter Ellis, the vicar at the Church of the Ascension in Westchase, said: "There was a tremendous groundswell of goodwill and support for these people, but that is fast drying up. "This was a nice place to live with a community atmosphere before, but now car-jackings and homicides are a way of life around here. "People are scared to walk alone at night. Some are getting guns, some are getting dogs, some are getting new security fences, many just want to leave. It's a great shame."

In Westchase, residents do not want to talk about buying guns, fearful it will only make them more of a target. But a local business-woman said: "I always hated guns and would never touch one. I could not understand the mindset of the women I knew in Houston who not only owned and handled guns but drove around town with one in the car. "But never is a word we should not use. Six months ago, with my blessing, my husband bought a gun and went, with our 23-year-old daughter, to a class to learn how to use it, clean it and learn the laws that go with it. After another recent murder, I now have one too, although it still freaks me out." Texas offered shelter to nearly 400,000 evacuees from Louisiana at one stage, including thousands ferried by bus from the squalid nightmare of the New Orleans Superdome. About 250,000 are still scattered across the state.

Many lost everything in the storm and are now dependant on government subsidies to support them in Texas. Sixty per cent of the evacuees are unemployed and two-thirds say they expect to make Houston their permanent home.

New Orleans has set up an office to help exiles head home, but many Houstonites suspect that there is no concerted drive to organise their return. It is a sad twist that some long-term locals are now planning to evacuate Westchase instead.

[hsalaw]

Oh, man. About six months ago, I accidentally insulted someone from Louisiana when I said something on a thread like this about the "liberal utopia mindset" of New Orleans contaminating Houston. So I'm not going to say anything now.

[shankbear]

sixty per cent are still unemployed. what a joke. everybody is hiring throughout texas. even houston. these are lazy slobs living off our taxes and using up good air. ship their butts back to the cesspool that they came from.

[SaveTheChief]

So I'm not going to say anything now.

I will.

The liberal utopia mindset of New Orleans is contaminating Houston. Poor schools and bad cops and socialism have prepared these people to ruin yet another American city.

[Bahbah]

business is booming as fearful locals take their defence into their own hands

They are not "fearful." They are sensible people taking sensible precautions. Fearful people cringe, forceful confident people act.

[isthisnickcool]

Mayor Bill White of Houston had no business pissing away tax dollars to help people that just spit in our faces.

[NorCalRepub]

....now you know how many of us feel in Calif who have lived here for more then 40 years....alot of the liberals and their offshoots came here from the east coast in the 70s and 80s and populated alot of the coastal regions. It is not all "home grown"

[sgtbono2002]

No good deed goes unpunished.

This was pretty predictable, They had to see it coming.

Houston isnt the only city where crime has gone up , Thanks to the New Orleans refugees.

[freedumb2003]

I accidentally insulted someone from Louisiana when I said something on a thread like this about the "liberal utopia mindset" of New Orleans contaminating Houston.

If Rush can say it, so can you ('cause it's true).

[WildBill2275]

Another good reason for the Second Amendment. To protect ourselves from the people we try to help.

[ConservativeMind]

It helps show just how many deadbeats there were in Lousiana.

Welfare should be eliminated for everyone. If people want to give to those who need it, let them do it themselves with personal accountability involved, one-on-one.

[WoofDog123]

i think everyone not in city governments doing this saw this coming. It is an interesting moral question which is probably proscribed by the press - Does charity include taking in a population that will turn on you and do these things? The city of Gretna, LA had no illusions when they blocked the bridge over....

[annelizly]

Next time lets just see how many cities jump up with open arms to help the inner city welfare rats.

[ncountylee]

When Houston became an amnesty city they might have considered unintended consequences.

[potlatch]

We had them here in my city, 140 miles west of Houston. They wore some garish clothes and would walk down the middle of the main highway at night.

Stood in front of convenience stores doing MIME. Strange people!

[blam]

"The city of Gretna, LA had no illusions when they blocked the bridge over...."

Alabama required background checks...we eventually took 23,000. No problems here that I've heard about.

[Scotsman will be Free]

Yup! Call the Orkin Man to deal with a cockroach infestation.

[Disambiguator]

P.J. O'Rourke described spending time in New Orleans as "vacationing in a high-crime drainage ditch."

How right he was!

[Lurker]

Although 9mm semi-automatic pistols are the easiest gun to carry

Being a 'reporter' these days must carry the requirement to have at least 2/3 of their frontal lobes removed with a small hand blender......

Stupid, lazy, ignorant reporter.

L

[blam]

I went to the World's Fair in New Orleans. I swore I'd never go back to New Orleans.

"Plagued with attendance problems, the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition has the distinction of being the only exposition that has declared bankruptcy during its run."

[Smartass]

Katrina Victims Blamed for Houston Crime Aug 14 2:02 PM US/Eastern Email this story

By PAUL J. WEBER
Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON

A letter to inmate No. 1352951 and a cell phone bill for $76.63, both found in a soggy New Orleans duplex ruined by Hurricane Katrina, led Louisiana bounty hunter James Martin to Texas.

Again.

It marked the seventh time since Katrina that Martin, whose pursuit of bail jumpers often begins with clues salvaged from abandoned New Orleans homes, has followed a trail to Texas.

"I don't think Texas really knows what they got," Martin said.

Katrina sent a lot of bad guys to Texas, as Houston is finding out.

Houston took in 150,000 evacuees _ the most of any U.S. city _ after Katrina struck on Aug. 29. Houston police believe the evacuees are partly responsible for a nearly 17.5 percent increase in homicides so far this year over the same period in 2005.

About 21 percent of Houston's 232 homicides through July 25 involved an evacuee as either a suspect or a victim, according to police, who attribute much of the bloodshed to fighting among rival New Orleans gang members.

"New Orleans allowed a lot of these guys to stay on the street for whatever reason or be picked up and released after 60 days," said Capt. Dale Brown, who oversees Houston's homicide division. "Texas law, I don't want to say it's tougher, but we take these offenses very seriously."

Judge Robert Eckels, chief executive of Harris County, which includes Houston, said Katrina evacuees arrested in the Houston have cost the county's criminal justice system more than $18 million. In June, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent $19.5 million to Houston to help pay for additional officers and overtime to police the city after Katrina.

The police and the Harris County sheriff's department said they have no figures on how many Katrina evacuees have been arrested. Houston police said misdemeanor and felony arrests overall actually dropped last fall from the same period a year earlier. But the sheriff's department reported a 41 percent increase in felony arrests in November from the year before.

"I think some saw (Katrina) as an opportunity," Martin's bounty- hunting partner, Michael Wright, said of evacuees who fled New Orleans with criminal records. "No one knows who they are over here."

Katrina evacuees received fair warning when they arrived in Houston. Days after the storm, Mayor Bill White went on television, flanked by Houston police, and welcomed Katrina's bedraggled survivors with a stern warning that a jail cell was waiting for anyone who crossed the line.

Evacuee Vincent Wilson, a leader of the Katrina Survivors Association, was impressed. He said that in New Orleans before Katrina, "everyone knows that if the jail's crowded you get a slap on the hand and get released."

Eckels predicted the county's worst guests will go home once their federal assistance dries up. And if many choose to stick around, the county will be ready: "We don't put up with it here. If you break the law, you're going to be prosecuted."

___

On the Net:

Houston police: http://www.houstontx.gov/police

Louisiana Capital Assistance Center: http://www.thejusticecenter.org/lcac

 

 

 

[potlatch]

Bump! That's it!!

[Dov in Houston]

I saw an article a few weeks back where the crime rate in NOLA was rising. And the people in NOLA were carrying signs that read "Will the evacuees please go back to Houston"

They have destroyed parts of Houston and I doubt it will stop here.

[Tahoe3002]

The Weather Channel is showing Katrina tonight. Maybe in a year or so, History Channel will show Houston's Westchase area.

My wife and I went to lunch today, as we got in the car I told her I had two fully loaded .45's and a SP Armory HD 9mm in our car. Yo bad guys....go mess with someone else.

[ConservaTexan]

The handful of intelligent, decent people left N.O. before the hurricane. What was left were the people that were either too stupid, too lazy or too reliant on government for their well being. There were also those that thought they would hang around to get 'free stuff' when the pre-planned looting officially commenced. The liberal entitlement society of LA created societal leeches that expect to be taken care of, no matter the circumstances or cost and with little or no inconvenience or expectations put on them.

As a Texan I demand that we seal our borders immediately, both with Mexico and Louisiana! I also demand that 50% of hurricane relief for Louisian go directly to The Lone Star State so we can begin to push the crap that overflowed into our state from the outhouse of Louisiana back where it belongs.

[Dov in Houston]

Bad thing is. You didn't have to do that 14 month's ago. I went to the original "House of Pies" a few month's back at 4:AM (On my way to GW's dads for pics of Sheehag at his church) and when I went in I was sorry I didn't go in with a Browning.

I doubt we will recover from the Evacuees but I hope so.

[Redbob]

"In the gun stores and on the shooting ranges of America's oil industry capital, business is booming as fearful locals take their defence into their own hands and buy concealed weapons licences that allow them to travel armed."

Listen, you effete British pantywaist:
It's no more "fearful" to arm yourself in a hostile environment than it is to carry an umbrella if rain is forecast.

BTW, how's that British excuse for law enforcement, where you coddle the criminals and imprison those who dare to defend themselves, working out for you?

I read where for example rapes per 100,000 population have skyrocketed 60% from1995 to 2003 in Britain, while in THIS country, they've dropped 13.5%.

[Redbob]

"...a 64-year-old man was shot dead at a car wash earlier this month when he refused to hand over money to four young men armed with a pistol. Three teenagers from New Orleans have since been arrested..."

And those three are very very likely to get the needle.

What would they be looking at in NO?
Slap on the wrist?
A little actual prison time if it'd happened to a tourist in the French Quarter?

That's OK, New Orleans, we'll take out your garbage.

[monkapotamus]

[deport]

House of Pies...

Sounds interesting..... Which one do you recommend. They show three in Houston, Westheimer, Kirby and Antoine

[1066AD]

Westchase.. not been in Houston for a few years but isn't that the area around Westheimer & just inside Beltway-8 ?

Pretty decent area as far as I remember, nice stores, restaurants and housing.

[texgal]

What this article says is true. I worked in the Westchase area until 3 months ago. It was a nice area, expensive homes and nice shopping areas. I live about 40 miles from there and no longer go out at night by myself and I make sure I'm home before it gets dark. I carry a 9mm on me when I leave the house.

There's been a lot about Katrina on TV this week because of the 1 year anniversary coming up next week. Every evening on the news we get to hear that the evacuees will have to start paying rent and utilities within a few days. Then they go to the clips of what appear to be able bodied men and women complaining that they can't get a job and shouldn't have to pay rent or utilities yet. If not now, after a year, then when?

[Bommer]

Rick Perry = Phucking idiot! These jackasses should have been shipped to Massachusetts!

[YCTHouston]

Yep. like a lot of Houston neighborhoods, changing quickly w/ the influx invited by our wonderful Mayor Bill White, who has been only too eager to register a host of new voters.

[YCTHouston]

Time to roll up the carpet.

At least Eckels has made some sense lately.

[MonroeDNA]

Don't let them get to you.

NOLA was a utopian liberal place, after all. 60 years of democrat rule.

Look at them now. The only export NOLA has is crime.

[processing please hold]

You were absolutely right in saying that. My heart goes out to Texas. They did a good deed and was spit in the face for their troubles.

[pax_et_bonum]

So I'm not going to say anything now.

I will.

The liberal utopia mindset of New Orleans is contaminating Houston. Poor schools and bad cops and socialism have prepared these people to ruin yet another American city.

You're right.

Here's a hearwarming conversation which I had with MineralMan on the following FR thread

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1666344/posts

in July of this year:

Mineral Man: While it is of some interest that a Katrina refugee did something bad, the vast majority of them are doing their best to recover from a disaster.

Me: I don't know how you know that the "vast majority" of these folks are contributing in a positive way to their new communities, but I wish we here in the Houston area had gotten those Katrina evacuees instead of the ones who have brought ever more crime and violence to us.

MineralMan: Count up all the crimes committed by Katrina evacuees in the Houston area, then compare that to the number of Katrina evacuees in the Houston area.

Do that, then get back to me.

Me: No.

Do it yourself.

MineralMan: "No.

Do it yourself."

It's not my battle. I know that most of the Katrina evacuees are not criminals. They are displaced due to a hurricane. We have a bunch of them here in Minnesota, too. A few have committed crimes. Almost all have not.

I know what the statistics will show. I have no need to go and get the details in Houston. I don't live there. I know the stats here where I live.

You may be afraid of really finding out about the people who were displaced by a natural disaster. I am not. Yes, some percentage of them are criminals. Some native residents of Houston are criminals. There are criminals everywhere.

But, it doesn't really matter to me. You live in the Houston area? Go check it out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm all for seeing the good in people and giving people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe MineralMan knows thousands of Katrina evacuees who are contributing positively to his community, but we know our city and, sadly, that's not the case in Houston.

[A CA Guy]

Wow, they destroy and perform crime where ever they go.

[WoofDog123]

background checks would probably filter out most of the gang and otherwise lawless ghetto element, I imagine the majority of such people have something that should show up on NCIC.

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

All I know is that it is no longer safe to allow your 14-yr-old daughter and her friends go to the mall unescorted. The Katrina thugs harrass them, making vulger sexual comments.

[5Madman2]

I had the "opportunity" to work an off duty job at a hotel these animals were staying at. (San Antonio) The regular security guard was out of his league because they knew he could do nothing but call the cops and he had no weapon.

After the hotel hired off duty cops, the stupidity went down quite a bit. They knew if they acted up, they were going to jail immediately.

First thing I noticed was that none of them looked like they ever missed a meal, all had cell phones, personal stereos, beer and cigarettes.

Saw one lady rant and rave at the desk about how her mother needed to stay there because of her health, that she didn't understand why she couldn't be taken care of in America. Then she took her designer clothed, 50 dollar hair do carrying a## out to her 40,000 dollar SUV and drove off to her house.

There were a combination of Katrina and Rita evacuees. The Katrina scum were content to sit on their a## and collect bennies. The Rita folks all spoke of wanting to get back and get back to work. And they were true to their word.

The Rita people left the rooms relatively intact. Katrina trashed everything they touched. Pure filth. I always considered myself jaded and cynical. This experience didn't change my mind.

[School of Rational Thought]

Residents just don't appreciate the strength of their new diversity.

[SaveTheChief]

I'm sure there are many who ARE contributing positively to Houston. People who follow the laws and lead normal lives simply go unnoticed. Sadly, the ones who created the staggering rise in Houston area crime are the ones getting the press.

But this is what we get when a society tolerates and excuses this kind of behavior, and this is what we get when we hold our hands out to them. Kindness does not prevent them from committing criminal acts. It only encourages them.

[Tenyaka]

Houston graciously took a significantly larger number of refugees, but San Antonio was also (legitimately) glad to help. A good number of the refugees were appreciative and either went home or to relatives' homes as soon as they could. Unfortunately, too large a number of the ones that stayed were only here for the free lunch (and convenient crime targets). Our genius city leaders spread these folks out in apartments across the city. In areas around these apartments, crime has spiked.

If these folks have nothing to go back to and want to be a part of our community - welcome. You don't have to behave like everyone else, but you do have to obey the law.

[savehouston]

HOUSTON FIGHT BACK! DON'T LET KATRINA RUN THIS CITY LIKE THE 9TH WARD AND RAY NAGIN, THE THUG.

here is BILL WHITES EMAIL ADDRESS: mayor@cityofhouston.net

I suggest we all bombard him with emails and tell him how we feel... this guy just doesnt' get it... it's going to take for crime to come to his doorsteps before he listens.

[humblegunner]

business is booming as fearful locals take their defence into their own hands

Excuse me???

[savehouston]

I want permanent birth control for these evacuees... they cannot populate when they are on welfare.. and that is exactly what the evacuees are doing... getting pregnant!!! A disgusting fact. Houston needs to provide permanent birth control and put their fat asses to work. They are lazy bums who wanna get laid and spit out these little monsters, that'll grow up to be just like the mothers, and the fathers whomever they may be, or if they even knonw who the fathes are. All welfare mooches and criminals.

[Labyrinthos]

sixty per cent are still unemployed. what a joke. everybody is hiring throughout texas. even houston. these are lazy slobs living off our taxes and using up good air. ship their butts back to the cesspool that they came from.

This "sixty per cent" has never been legally employed and never will be legally employed. These are the same people that Bill Cosby chastized -- the "I ain't got no job" losers who were born to unwed teenaged dropouts, raised without fathers, and dependant upon welfare for generations despite the fact that they have received billions of dollars over the years for education, job training, housing, food, and medicine under the misguided belief that giving them an endless supply of benefits would somehow make them less dependant upon society.

[pepsionice]

There is a simple method to fixing this problem...put the criminals in jail and hold them. Its not a city problem...its the job of law enforcement to catch the criminals and the city attorney to take them through the system. These idiots don't know what laws are for...fine...just let them rot for 15 years in a Texas jail...its that simple.