Trouble in Paradise.

I was just reading an article in 'Radar' about crime rates in New Orleans and am seriously reconsidering my decision to go there.

I feel like I am going to cry.

"I don't know if there would be many more murders here if there weren't any police at all"-Criminal defense attorney

"Murder in New Orleans is becoming more democratic, now even white people have a chance to get killed" -Tulane University criminologist Peter Scharf

Article 701 of Louisiana's criminal code states that felony suspects cannot be held for longer than 60 days without an indictment, which means that the DA was forced to put nearly 3,000 drug, rape, robbery and murder suspects back on the streets in 2006.

Things are only getting worse as this article states.

The "no snitch" ethos on the streets denies the police system of dynamic authenticity.

"When the system isn't working, you don't participate in it. There was one case recently where a mother would not cooperate in the investigation of the murder of her own son. It scares me." -Harry Teravon, Jr., a prosecutor in the DA's elite Violent Offenders Unit (VOU)

"Summertime is always high crime season in New Orleans--released from school, the city's teenagers are hot and restless. Meanwhile, a scarcity of tourists stumbling down Bourbon Street puts service economy workers in the criminals' crosshairs. The summer of 2007 promised to be worse than most. A rash of robberies had shaken the French Quarter that spring, many perpetrated by a sadistic mugger who prowled the streets looking for female marks, then beat them senseless and took their cash ."

(OH MY GOD!)

"My wife and I found an apartment in the lower French Quarter-the more residential end of the neighborhood, full of small restaurants, gay bars, and Creole cottages, and home to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Soon after we moved in, the neighborhood was hit by a rash of violent crimes. On August 10, a group made up of two men, three women, and a 14-year-old boy committed three armed robberies in the Lower Quarter in just 90 minutes."

This article continues with substantial severity. I am horrified. I need to talk to someone who has lived there during the past couple of years to really make my decision. If worst comes to worst, I could just teach high school in the Bronx or something. I did put NY as my second option. I just wish NY wasn't so damn cold.

Even though this article is from April 2008 and a lot can change, I am sure it hasn't changed enough. I really don't want to get murdered. I really need to talk to someone who knows.