New Orleans continues to seek solutions to its ongoing crime problem. According to one expert, city leaders and residents alike need to look in the mirror to find the change they want.
LSU criminologist Peter Scharf told WWL's Tommy Tucker that neighbors need to work together and that politicians need to work with residents to find collective ways to drive down crime.
"It's the whole system," Scharf said of the crime problem. "It's like we're not getting what's going on. This is all through the system. We're thinking we're like every place else. We're not like every place else. It's not COVID. It's not George Floyd. It's us. Let's be real."
Scharf said "collective efficacy" is the best way to end crime in New Orleans. But what exactly does that mean?
"When neighbors get together and when the city gets together and when everybody takes responsibility, the crime rate goes down," Scharf said. "When people avoid responsibility, when they lack cohesion, (and) when they lack will, then the crime rate is what we're seeing right now."
That means, Scharf says, the city's leaders need to own their growing problem.
"We need our officials to say--instead of excusing this catastrophe away--to say, "This is my watch. I'll get it right."
On top of that, Scharf says residents need to hold the city's leaders accountable and take a personal stake in the city's crime problem. He says if neither happens, nothing will change.
"We tell our kids to accept responsibility," Scharf said. "We're not accepting responsibility for this murder Hell."
Scharf says residents and leaders need to ask themselves some hard questions to find the answers to the city's problem.
"How did we get to number one?" he asked. "In 2019, we were 13th, and it was going down. What has happened? What happened to this great city?"
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