Houston Police chief ties Katrina evacuees to more killings

[jasons2k]

Jan. 18, 2006, 12:56PM
Police chief ties Katrina evacuees to more killings

By ROMA KHANNA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Katrina evacuees in Houston were the victims or suspects in 23 homicides between September and December, Police Chief Harold Hurtt said today, doubling his department's earlier numbers on how many killings have been linked to people from Louisiana.

The 23 homicides account for nearly 20 percent of all homicides in the city during that period, according to Houston Police Department numbers.

HPD previously had reported that evacuees were victims or suspects in 10 homicides in that period. Hurtt offered no explanation for the discrepancy, other than to say police had reviewed their records and updated the totals.

Citywide, the homicide total rose 23 percent last year, with the largest increases coming at the end of the year.

The increase has continued in January, Hurtt said, with the city recording 21 homicides to date, compared with 14 between Jan. 1 and 18, 2005.

"It's not a good way to start the year, but we are also living in a city of more than 2 million people,'' Hurtt said.

While homicides continue at a heightened level, he said the levels of other violent crimes such as robbery also continue to be of major concern.

HPD will begin tracking whether Katrina evacuees are the victims or suspects in all crime categories, Hurtt said. That decision is partly to help secure federal funds to pay for two overtime initiatives launched last year to target hotspots for criminal activity, particularly in the Southwest, he said.

"We did a pretty good job of keeping track when they were in the Astrodome, but did not once they dispersed,'' Hurtt said.

Hurtt did not specify how many of the 23 cases are known to have involved Katrina evacuees as suspects and how many as victims, but a Chronicle review of homicides in HPD's district 17 shows that both the victims and suspects were from Louisiana in the three evacuee homicides in that area.

To date, officers working one of the overtime programs have made 169 arrests, Hurtt said, adding that he hopes to see the new programs affect the city's violent crime rate soon.

roma.khanna@chron.com

[Skywatch_NC]

Speaking of Katrina evacuees and crime...a man from Louisiana whom my church was helping got in trouble with the law here in Raleigh.

Eric

[MGC]

I was just going to post about the Katrina evacuees in Houston. Houston has been slapped in the face. Did the right thing by taking in New Orleans' desplaced and this is their reward. I wonder how much longer the evacuees are run out of town.....MGC

[Lindaloo]

Here in Jackson County and George County crime has increased in the FEMA trailer parks. So sad!

[JenBayles]

What's really sad is that all the Katrina victims are being painted with the same brush. Unfortunately, the bulk of available apartment housing in Houston is located on the southwest side along Hwy. 59 - an area that was already plagued with gang activity. Most of those people gladly took whatever housing they could get, and later discovered they were in the middle of gang central. Now with the city reporting that our city's apartments are 98% full, where do the decent people go now?

[TSmith274]

A city with hundreds of murders per year gets evacuated... New Orleans has had about 6 murders since August. It's really not hard to figure out what's happening here. Lots of bad people evacuated with the majority good people. This isn't suprising to me. Every community has it's bad eggs. Unfortunately for Houston, they recieved the lion's share of the most desperate people. But, not all evacuees are bad people... just remember that.

[vbhoutex]

A city with hundreds of murders per year gets evacuated... New Orleans has had about 6 murders since August. It's really not hard to figure out what's happening here. Lots of bad people evacuated with the majority good people. This isn't suprising to me. Every community has it's bad eggs. Unfortunately for Houston, they recieved the lion's share of the most desperate people. But, not all evacuees are bad people... just remember that.

Believe me we know that. Several of the evacuees I have met are fine people and have since moved back to NO. Some NO businesses have relocated to Houston along with their employees. Unfortunately the cheapest apts. in Houston are in the areas that already had a higher crime rate. That just compounds the problem of the "problems" moving into that area.

[vbhoutex]

A city with hundreds of murders per year gets evacuated... New Orleans has had about 6 murders since August. It's really not hard to figure out what's happening here. Lots of bad people evacuated with the majority good people. This isn't suprising to me. Every community has it's bad eggs. Unfortunately for Houston, they recieved the lion's share of the most desperate people. But, not all evacuees are bad people... just remember that.

Believe me we know that. Several of the evacuees I have met are fine people and have since moved back to NO. Some NO businesses have relocated to Houston along with their employees. Unfortunately the cheapest apts. in Houston are in the areas that already had a higher crime rate. That just compounds the problem of the "problems" moving into that area. And when an area takes in the population of a medium sized city in a very short time problems are bound to arise.

[CajunMama]

It's a shame that these people have been given a second chance and are acting like this. You'd think they'd want to maybe turn their lives around and live a productive life. It just embarresses me to no end to hear how the former NO residents are acting.

[TSmith274]

It's a shame that these people have been given a second chance and are acting like this. You'd think they'd want to maybe turn their lives around and live a productive life. It just embarresses me to no end to hear how the former NO residents are acting.

Ditto.

[MGC]

It is the only life these people know. Imagine being raised on the street where killing is a comon occurance. It is a shame that a human can be conditioned like this. I pray the thugs from New Orleans do change and see the good in life, not just the killing......MGC

[ROCK]

From the AP

The two audits found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA’s emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

Separately, the Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors have filed fraud, theft and other charges against 212 people accused of scams related to Gulf Coast hurricanes. Forty people have pleaded guilty so far, the latest report by the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force said. Many defendants were accused of trying to obtain emergency aid, typically a $2,000 debit card, issued to hurricane victims by FEMA and the American Red Cross.



isnt that wonderful. Federal money, my tax money wasted on people who didn't need it.....

[MiamiensisWx]

We should also remember the many people who have left and evacuated from Mississippi and Alabama, too.

[HurryKane]

There was a front page article ("Haven and Hell") in the Times-Pic yesterday that said the Houston murder rate was on the rise before Katrina hit and the evacuees came. They opened the piece with the story of a 15-year-old who cried "Rape by New Orleans people" when she'd actually just had consensual sex with some guy she'd met on the internet. But until she fessed up, Houston PD were all over the evacuees and it raised tensions yet again.

I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing, but it was a several-page piece that also highlighted some individual evacuees who were struggling with the stigma and the violence.

http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/b ... 0.xml?nola

[Pearl River]

Thank you HurryKane for putting that piece in the thread. There are also several e-mails going around the Internet that talk about all the criminals from New Orleans, the one that comes to mind is supposedly from Utah. They have been proven false.

ROCK, you are correct. As a matter of fact, here were several people from northern MS, not N.O. evacuees, who have been arrested. Heck, even several inmates from Angola State Prison recieved checks from FEMA