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Frightened, angry and just plain fed up French Quarter residents held a noon meeting today at Buffa's Lounge. District Attorney Leon Cannizzarro attended, along with Councilmen James Carter and Arnie Feilkow. All seemed to have a genuine interest in quelling crime. I would suppose that Saturday's senseless murder of French Quarter resident Wendy Byrne demonstrated just how serious the crime problem has become. Sadly, it took the killing of an innocent citizen to spurn this kind of involvement, but hopefully if anything good were to come from the occurrence, this would be it. Perhaps they realize if something is not done and soon, their seats will be up for grabs come the next election. Whatever the reason, kudos to all for showing up. They did more than Superintendent Warren Riley or anybody from his department. He should have been racing to attend, but as usual, neither he nor anyone from his department were present.
One of the main things discussed was not necessarily the lack of police presence, but perhaps the lack of action on the part of officers who supposedly work the Quarter. Leadership, or the lack thereof, is a lot of the problem there. Nagin showed off his new shining star, Riley, once he replaced Eddie Compass. He should have stuck with Mr. Compass. Maybe he did not do the greatest job ever, but at least the man showed a genuine concern for crime and its effects and at least was somewhat approachable during his short tenure. What his department dealt with in the aftermath of Katrina was enough to break any man down. At any rate, I truly hope that Riley wakes up and realizes that this is his city, too, and no one can allow their own backyard to experience such terrible times while they sit idly by and twiddle their thumbs.
Folks, you did a great thing today. Keep up the pressure and rest assured, I will continue to post everything I can in order to facilitate that. Something must be done - NOW.
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