b.rox

I called the popo on a neighbor last night. Hated to do it, but he was apparently intoxicated, enraged, and going after his brother with a damn shovel, yelling that he intended to kill him. Three cop cars showed up. Fortunately I don’t think anyone was hurt or arrested. There is data indicating that “violence [...]

I was alarmed to see this report because the location is not far from our house, but the details are kind of interesting. Armed Robbery, 3900 Block of Banks Street On February 21, 2011 at approximately 10:15 AM, First District Officers responded to an armed robbery in the 3900 Block of Banks Street. The victim [...]

Yesterday the verdicts came down in the Henry Glover case. According to the morning paper: Federal prosecutors won the first convictions in their sprawling probe of police misconduct in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as a jury Thursday found three New Orleans police officers guilty in a high-stakes case accusing them of killing Henry Glover, [...]

I got this update from Baty Landis via e-mail. She’s on the task force assigned by the incoming mayor to find a new police chief. I respect Baty’s efforts on this front; she is made of sterner stuff than I. What she reports is cause for concern for all New Orleanians.

I had just dropped Xy & Persephone off at the house of some friends and run a few errands. I stopped back at the house to take care of a few things. I was surprised to find a cop car parked in the middle of the street and an officer standing nearby. I parked my [...]

Our girl had her best sleep in a long while last night, but we sure didn’t. A bunch of guys decided to have a party in front of the abandoned house across the street, starting around 1:00 AM. They were drinking beer, listening to corridos, and generally laughing and hollering and carrying on. They were [...]

Plenty of people are getting back to work and asking each other, “So how was your break?” One of Xy’s fellow teachers answered thusly: He was taking a shower in his house in Algiers when the police kicked in his door and sent in a K-9 unit. The dog rampaged through the house, somehow got [...]

Police sirens drew me out of my house Saturday around midnight, and I was surprised to see a hundred young people in the street. I live behind Warren Easton High School. Their dress made it clear the school was having a dance. The police were commanding the crowd to disperse. This morning I talked about [...]

Here’s an excerpt from the 1st District Crime Activity Report for August 2nd-8th, 2008, reproduced verbatim and without editorial comment: Location: 400 Blk. N. Johnson St. Date/Time: Aug. 2,2008 Type: Auto Burglary Gist: The victim parked and secured her vehicle on 8-02-08 at 7;00pm, only to return at 12;30pm on 8-03-08 and discover the rear [...]

OK, so those were gunshots I heard Thursday morning. I got the direction wrong, though. Here’s the relevant excerpt from the 1st District Crime Activity Report for June 26, 2008, reproduced verbatim and without editorial comment: Type: Automobile Burglary Location: 3200 block of Bienville Gist: At 2:225am, the victim was awakened by loud noises outside [...]

Yesterday morning, between the hours of 9:00 AM and noon, someone came into our backyard and took a crap. Yup. The mysterious intruder moved a plank of wood and a cat dish into strategic position and took a big old dump. Then, apparently, he or she wiped his or her ass with some torn up [...]

From an anonymous Mid-City neighbor: At a Night out against crime gathering tonight an NOPD officer was asked by a neighbor… Why didn’t the police come out when I called after being woken up by a house alarm at 3am? The officer’s reply… “Call and say there is a naked woman on your porch.” He [...]

I’ve been fiddling around with the new nopd.com crime-mapping feature. It’s pretty interesting stuff. You can put in an address and see all the crime reports for the vicinity. You can specify the radius and the time frame and filter by different types of crime. So, for example, I was able to learn that so [...]

Remember that retired teacher who got beat up on Bourbon Street shortly after Katrina? Sure you do, it was on television all over the world, a blatant example of police brutality and a huge embarrassment to the city of New Orleans. Well, the latest news is that the accused officer was acquitted. Some will say [...]

Yesterday, the District Attorney dropped the charges against the suspect in a quintuple murder because the witness had disappeared. Today, the NOPD located the witness.

Why would someone burglarize the Public Integrity Bureau of the New Orleans Police Department? Speculations are welcome over at Signal 26.

So I’m down in the Quarter Friday afternoon to get a haircut, and I see this strange contraption on Bourbon Street. What on earth is this thing? I wondered. Imagine my surprise when it unfolded rose up to a height of about two stories. Given that it’s on Bourbon, you might expect this is some [...]

Front page of the paper this morning: Warren Riley’s mug and the headline, “Officials say city making headway against crime.” Apparently the superintendent and the mayor had a press conference on Friday to “reassure” us. I don’t feel reassured, and here’s why. From the article: At the news conference, evidence and numbers detailing any success [...]

Maybe it’s just my imagination, but it seems that I’ve been hearing sirens constantly the last couple weeks. I think it started just after the press conference Nagin held two days before the march on City Hall. Did they instruct cops to run their sirens more often? It doesn’t make me feel any safer.

My friend Daisy told me the following Katrina story. It’s a simple tale, but kind of chilling. I wanted to record it before I forget. Daisy and her husband stayed through Katrina, and their Garden District apartment was relatively unscathed. They lost power, of course, and they heard about the looting at Wal-Mart but they [...]