Angel Heart
Conservative Hippie
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Aug 10, 11:49 AM EDT
Nagin: Attention to crime keeps N.O. 'brand' out there
By BECKY BOHRER
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Mayor Ray Nagin said he worries that killings send the message that the city is dangerous, but the news also "keeps the New Orleans brand out there."
Nagin, whose city has recorded at least 117 murders this year, told WVUE-TV it's a "two-edged sword."
"It's not good for us, but it also keeps the New Orleans brand out there, and it keeps people thinking about our needs and what we need to bring this community back. So it is kind of a two-edged sword," he said, according to a station transcript. "Sure it hurts, but we have to keep working everyday to make the city better."
Anti-violence activist Baty Landis called Nagin's comments "stunningly insensitive."
"New Orleans is not a brand, it's a city," Landis, whose SilenceIsViolence group in January helped lead a march on City Hall demanding a response to the rash of violent crime. "We're not products. We're people with lives, some of which are being taken by other people."
In a city where the tourism industry is the lifeblood of a fragile economy, the wave of violence threatens to derail efforts to bring visitors - and former residents - back.
After he was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2006, Nagin declared made safety a top priority. He has supported pay raises for police and rebuilding the depleted officer corps. Still, National Guard soldiers continue to patrol less-populated parts of the city and police continue to work out of trailers while waiting for storm-damaged buildings to be rebuilt.
A Nagin spokeswoman did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.
Kelly Schulz, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau, declined to comment on Nagin's specific comments. But she said the city must strike a "delicate balance," between drawing attention to its recovery needs and those of the tourism industry - a "multibillion dollar, perception-driven industry."
"One good thing you can look at is, a lot of visitors have come to the city and their expectations were so lowered that they were pleasantly surprised," she said. Tourism officials tell prospective visitors New Orleans is mostly safe and that much of the crime involves "criminal on criminal."
This week, two brothers suspected in 14 murders were found shot to death. In the WVUE interview, Nagin, said their deaths are "symptomatic of the things we've been struggling with since Katrina and really before Katrina.
"Some of these guys are so violent that it is hard for witnesses to come forward, and they get involved in repeat criminal activities," Nagin said. "So it is unfortunate that they had to die, but it did kind of end the cycle that we were struggling with."
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