Man I just made a connection between the two! It’s an assumption, and yes I obviously may be wrong, thank you for pointing it out.
Compassion Fatigue. I live in the SW part of town, where evacuee crime has been strongest. Even a month ago, I had some dude come up to me at the grocery store asking for money, saying he and his daughter came here because of Katrina and were out of cash. I told him about the three straight 12 hour volunteer shifts I worked at the Astrodome last year, and then told him "I'm sorry, but I have no money to give you".
Dude, you start crying racism at every turn. THE GUY HAD A GUN. Does it matter what race he is? Did he ever mention what race the guys were? Do we as humans not have a sense for when something is not right? Are we supposed to turn that off just because someone is black? Fear is a real sense and we have it for a reason. The people in this thread didn't post news articles or talk about some news show they saw about crime last night. They have been stating personal experiences about how they do not feel as safe in our city. You said it yourself, crime has gotten worse. Why do you then try to spin it in the next sentence like it hasn't? At the time it wasn't our problem. Houston can't pull a Team America and go fix every other city in the US. It is now in our house and is a very growing concern. Bull****, there is a time when you have to say that people are taking advantage of your hospitality. I have no compassion for people that do not want to better themselves and EXPECT a handout. They had a ****ty break. So does everyone else in their lifetime. It's time to stop crying and do something about it except b****. We do not owe them anything, not even the help that they received when they first got here. They should be thankful that they were welcomed into a city the way that they were and try to do something positive. They were welcomed with open arms and after a year it seems all we have gotten in return is an open shot to the gut. I know not all of the Katrina victims have been like that but the vast majority has been. While we may have gotten the good and the bad, it seems the bad far out weighs the good.
I think his point is that we tend to freak out more because not only was it a person with a gun but an African American person with a gun. I think its foolish to pretend that race does not play a factor at all in our decision making. I consider myself a fairly progressive individual and yet I'll admit that race does play a factor in the way I think in certain situations. He's not saying that if it was a white person that we should just act like its no big deal. Agreed Sounds like a perfect example of compassion fatigue and by no means are you alone on this one. Even I get really frustrated with this considering I spent days volunteering for the Red Cross only to see the crime rates just explode. Murder rates went up by something like 20 percent in the last year. I think at the same time it's important to note the opposite of what you said. Most Katrina refugees are NOT committing crimes and this is still a minority and that its dangerous to take out this anger and frustration on refugees themselves. For example, in a school I volunteered at, children from New Orleans really weren't treated all that well by other kids and even faculty. We should be careful not to help create an underclass of New Orleans refugees that are sequestered from the rest of Houston. Also, I think Rocket River's point is to emphasize that while we have inherited a problem that New Orleans dealt with for years, it was always a problem. These weren't people who were doing fine in New Orleans and then decided to come screw up our city. I personally have gone to the New Orleans housing projects and those are by and large some of the worst in the country. This isn't an excuse for those people because at some point, they have to take individual responsibility but I think its important to acknowledge that much. For many violence, poverty, drugs etc.. are all they've every known so the transition to a new life without any of your old possessions and losing what little you did have can be difficult. Still, you're right. At some point, people have to be held accountable. In short, I'm clueless as to what we can and should do.
a lot of the victims of katrina crime have been katrina evacuees and a lot of it has been confined to a an area that was previously crime ridden so no I'm feeling no regrets.
A police officer buddy of mine said the katrina crime wave is in full effect. The main drug they are trying to push is heroin, and they won't hesitate to shoot a local dealer to take over his block. Drug dealers killing other drug dealers doesn't bother me much.
I do, crime is bad no matter where it is. A big problem with society today is the fact that all we focus on is our own social location. If we're going to be serious about eliminating poverty and improving the welfare of this entire nation, then we can't be split in two with a nation of wealthy suburbs and a nation of crime laden, poverty infested urban areas. No nation is sustainable in that regard and I believe that crime and poverty need to be combated at every turn.
dude, I'm just talking about katrina backlash, not the entire social ills of the country.its two different issues. I'm not happy about the conditions in that area of town. as it relates to me though, the katrina evacuee has not changed anything.
God, what a depressing thread. I don't resent the evacuees, but I do resent Houstonians who have suddenly found their hospitality well dry and start assuming the worst of everyone from New Orleans they come across. It reflects poorly on the city, and me ultimately. The backlash also rankles me because the flip-flopping shows so much lack of foresight. There were some people who were out with signs to tell the Cajuns to go home -- they were an embarassment, but at least they knew what the wanted from the get-go. All the folks who last fall were volunteering and helping and now say all these New Orleanians are a bunch of thugs who are dragging our city down show how ignorant they were of the problem initially, and little resolve to stick with a thing to the end. It is a lot like the current opposition to the Iraq war. So many people were gung-ho a couple of years ago and want to get out now -- we were talking about a war, didn't these people consider the ramifications of our actions at the time? Anyway, if you're going to do a thing, see it through to the end.
its really a shame because this is really an example of the media driving people's perceptions. Houston is a large city, there was crime here before and there will be crime afterwards. my parents' house was broken into 13 years ago, if it was broken into today why should I be resentful of katrina evacuees if it happened today. my dad was robbed at gun point in front of our house 26 years ago. I had my truck broken into in austin, of all cities, when I was in college. so even if you know that it was evacuees who commited a crime against you, it doesn't make a difference, crime is a problem regardless.
Here is a comment from a New Orleans resident (followed by a link to the full article): Michelle Smith says she enjoyed the months of crime-free life on Josephine Street that followed Hurricane Katrina. "It was quiet for a while," she said. "But they're back." . . . "I wish the criminals would have stayed in Houston or wherever they were at," said Smith, 43, speaking from the tall porch of her house in the Central City section, just north of the Garden District. "Now I've got to be watching out." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4001348.html
I feel the same way. I have no doubt that Katrina refugees are contributing to problems in Houston. You can't just dump a whole bunch of refugees many of which were poor to begin with into a new locale and expect everything to be good. The backlash people are talking about isn't much different than what people have said about pretty much all refugees. Western Europeans said the same thing about Bosnians and even here in Minnesota many Minnesotans say the same thing about the Hmong and Somali refugees who have settled here. The thing that gets me about this line of reasoning is the impression that Houstonians have that these problems are dispraportionately due to people from New Orleans. I was born and grew up in Houston and still love the city but Houston has always had a lot of problem and a lot of crime. Suddenly putting a lot of poor people who have lost pretty much everything into Houston will exacerbate existing crime problems. The problem though is that Houston also lies in the path of hurricanes and other disasters too and as we saw with Rita there very likely will be a situation where Houstonians might find themselves evacuees. So why should people in Dallas or other cities be willing to put up Houstonians when Houston has a reputation as being crime and poverty ridden? The same argument that Houstonians make about people from NOLA could very easily come back and bite Houstonians on the @ss if they find they have to depend on the goodness of other cities to help them out. So yes refugees cause problems but no one wants to be a refugee and if by chance you end up being a refugee you better hope that other people are going to be willing to help you out. Houstonians turning against Katrina evacuees just makes it less likely that other cities will be willing to help Houstonians if a major disaster were to strike Houston.
New Orleans is/was a dangerous town. When accepting the Katrina victims we took the good with the bad people and the majority of the people we took in are good people. There are a few bad apples that the city is going to have to take care of. Now, honestly before Katrina happened crime was on the rise in Houston, after Katrina the rate did increase. There is no doubt about that. I still feel like the Mayor did the right thing. I do wish he had understood what kind of element he was bringing into the city and increased police presence in the areas most victims were settling in. It only makes sense. I have a friend that lives on Westheimer and in the last month he has seen 2 purse snactchings, and an armed robbery at a store with Lousiana plates on the get away cars. More foresight should have been exercised. If we didn't have the funds to protect citizens when bringing in the criminal element, then we shouldn't have. Period. I feel for the people being victimized, I feel for the people from Louisiana who are just trying to start their life over and are being painted with the same brush that the criminals are. It is a messed up situation. But I am not going hate on all the Louisiana people here. I have a few in my apartment complex and they are fine, good people. When talking to them, they are actually ashamed of the ones committing crimes. They feel like they are wasting a chance to start a new life and crapping over the very people who helped them out.
We've had trouble hiring enough qualfied police officers. I remember a while back that White wanted to bring back some retired veteran cops at extra moolah to bridge the gap. Don't know what ever happened with that.
