By now, you've probably heard about the Wall Street Journal story discussing New Orleans becoming America's Murder Capital.
However, you may not have heard how private investment is helping turn the tide against violence in the city. Local businesses are now doing their part to fight back against crime and to make sure that crime doesn't happen in the first place.
"We really haven't ever done it from the perspective that we recognize that it's a two-fold problem and that we have to solve both sides of it," Calvin Johnson, retired chief judge of the Orleans Criminal District Court and NOLA Coalition member, told WWL's Dave Cohen. "We will commit resources to the issues in terms of underserved youth--in terms of that population of young people--who really need to be looked at in terms of care and service."
Johnson says in order to reduce crime, city leaders must address the criminal justice response to it and the underlying causes of crime. Johnson adds that businesses are stepping up to help city leaders to eliminate those underlying causes.
"On that side of it, having the ability to organize around it--around, okay, we have dollars coming in--but that's one thing," Johnson said. "There's also some structure and organization in how those dollars are spent."
Johnson says the ability to focus money on fighting the root causes of crime is something city leaders have never had. He says this renewed investment in the community and in the fight against crime by the private sector will help the city turn the page on this latest rash of violent crime.
"This truly is something that just in term of the short term is what we're doing, but in the long term, it's how this will play out because of change in the thought process," Johnson said. "This bodes well for us in the future."
