Louisiana’ s ranking as second highest state for black homicides worries some

Louisiana is the home of country kitchen, jazz music and that famous “Southern Hospitality.” However, hidden beneath the swampy surface of that sweet southern charm is the disturbing ranking of the state’s crime rate.
According to the website, www.vpc.org, Louisiana is rated the second highest state for homicides in the nation.
In 2006, the Violence Policy Center census reported that 29.48 per 100,000 victims in Louisiana are homicides.
According to the report, Shreveport had 30 killings in 2006, and 28 of the victims were black. Bossier City’s single homicide investigation in 2006 was of the slaying of a black man.
The center also reported the national black homicide rate was 18.71 per 100,000 citizens. In comparison, the national homicide rate for everyone was 4.86 per 100,000 people.
The national homicide rate for whites was 2.97 per 100,000 individuals in the country.
The disturbing factor some say contributes to the innumerable cases of homicides in Louisiana is the fact that the people committing these heinous crimes are African-Americans.
“In the fifteen years I have worked in the criminal court system, on a daily basis I see eight out of 10 cases that are African American as the accused, and six out of 10 that are the victims of another race which sickens me,” said Deborah Dugas, an attorney in St. John parish.
According the Violence Policy Center, African-Americans are the number one race involved in these murders.
“It is a disgrace to the black community to see so many colored faces on the news,” said Caz Alexander, a junior nursing major from New Orleans. “That’s the only time the media puts African-Americans on television and blow situations worse than it seems.
“We blacks need to recognize that and not act in ‘their’ publicity,” Alexander said.
While others said they are disappointed with the wrongful publicity blacks get in the local media, others said by committing these crimes it only stereotypes African-Americans in today’s society.
“Black people have an opportunity that our ancestors did not have hundreds of years ago,” said Mindy Oliver, a sophomore political science major from Napoleonville. “Our race takes education and other opportunities for granted.
“They can do anything they want if they set their mind to it,” Oliver said. “We have come a long way from where we used to be and are advancing to places we never thought we’d be.”
Some Southern University students said it’s disheartening to learn of the center’s researched findings because it only adds to yet another concern with being black in America.
“Being a black young woman is hard enough already,” said Jelen Giron, a junior psychology major from Seattle, Wash. “Worrying whether or not your own people could do you harm makes it hard to be alone in public without feeling paranoid or always looking over your shoulder.
“I have to go with a friend or stay on the phone while walking from my car to my dorm room to make sure nothing happens to me,” she said.