Ethnic Cleansing

Appears to be the cause celeb over at the Metblog this week. Unfortunately we're going to be dealing with more and more of this over the coming year. At the moment I have only the energy to refer the participants in this conversation to the T-P's James Gill

There is no question that the uprooted denizens of the Lower 9th Ward and eastern New Orleans, for instance, include some pretty rough customers. Murders are way down in New Orleans and way up in Houston since Katrina, and the population shift is the most obvious explanation.

There are plenty of respectable citizens in New Orleans, therefore, who hope the displaced will stay where they are.

But it turns out that the newcomers do not deserve all, or even most, of the blame for the recent surge in murders reported in Houston. Sure, our guys have contributed, but statistics indicate that they have toned it down since they left New Orleans.

When Katrina struck, New Orleans had recorded 205 murders in 2005 and was on pace to exceed the 2004 total of 265 by a comfortable margin.

Since then there have been only six murders in New Orleans on account of there is hardly anyone here to fire or stop a bullet. Murders in Houston, meanwhile, are up by 25 percent, and local officials are inclined to point the finger at evacuees from New Orleans.

But their own figures suggest this may be a case of post Katrina ergo propter Katrina, because only nine of the 122 murders reported since have involved evacuees. And, in some of them, it was as victim, conceivably even innocent victim.

Given that the holiday season always tends to bring a spike in homicides and suicides, it appears that Houstonians would be dropping like flies even if everyone from New Orleans had stayed home. Why our hoodlums should have remained relatively inactive in their exile is a bafflement, but it appears to be the case.

Please, people. If we're going to rebuild our city it is imperative that we try to be more careful before we introduce too much hateful poison into the environment.