New Orleans (WGNO) – After three high profile Uptown robberies, Criminal Justice Committee Chair Susan Guidry is holding special meeting Friday. She’s calling it “an extended conversation” regarding the New Orleans Police Department’s strategy for battling crime in an area usually regarded as a safe place to live, dine and shop.
Guidry is optimistic that the criminals will be found soon.
“We’re pretty certain that this is one group of people. So I don’t expect this to be something that lasts a long time. As soon as there is enough evidence to track one of them down, I’m guessing we’re gonna track them all down,” she said Wednesday.
Southern University at New Orleans professor and criminologist John Penny says it’s extremely important to link the three incidents. Patois, Atchafalaya, and the Monkey Hill Bar have each been the scene of armed robberies in recent weeks.
Penny says the criminals targeting Uptown eateries are upsetting the apple cart when it comes to safe havens—and he says they appear to enjoy the robberies without being overly menacing. For now, they are taking money and belongings, but not lives.
“Everything has to come into play right now because you have to look at the mental aspect of it, the physical aspect of it and the emotional impact that it has—and figure out what is the thought pattern of someone who would commit that kind of crime?”
He predicts a more aggressive and even radical crime fighting campaign—one that could pave the way for racial unity in the long term.
Penny says the situation calls for zero tolerance. “So if you say it’s okay if we cross over Canal Street and people murder one another, sooner or later it’s gonna spill into your neighborhood because they’ve killed off almost everyone in New Orleans East. So what’s next?”
In the meantime, Guidry says people should do whatever they need to, in order to feel safe.
“If carrying a fake purse does it for you, if making sure not to have a lot of money in your wallet at any given time helps you, then that’s what you should do,” she says.
