“Nothing stops a bullet like a job” was the statement from New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell during yesterday’s press conference that seemed to distract from a new survey showing that only 35% of New Orleans residents feel safe in the city.
On the day the results of a recent survey from the New Orleans Crime Coalition was released, Mayor Cantrell announced her plans to fight gun violence in the city. The new survey shows that the number of residents who feel safe in the city dropped an astounding 22 percentage points from just last year.
With shootings occurring every day, carjackings becoming a more common problem, and brazen crimes being committed during the light of day, the findings of the survey come as no surprise to our residents.
The mayor focused on three specific areas: prevention, apprehension, and intervention and pointed out that “It takes all of us and all of us play a tremendous role.” The mayor added, “It’s going to take this type of hand holding, this time of intentionality to meet our young people where they are, but to give, not only them the services that they need, but also the reassuring of their parents what they need.”
Two months ago, Cantrell and the city established the Gun Violence Prevention Office with the goal of mediating conflicts without gun violence and getting directly involved in communities. But as I pointed out when the group was first announced, the group must be held accountable for manifesting real change and not end up as another pseudo-attempt to make voters think the city is addressing the crime issue.
The Gun Violence Prevention Office must produce results and not be seen as effectively fighting gun violence simply because they have an impressive title.
I do applaud Mayor Cantrell for finally coming forward and addressing the growing threat of gun violence in our city, I wonder if she would have said anything if the results of the survey had not been released. It’s a fair question.
It is also fair to figure out what Cantrell’s statement about a job stopping a bullet really means. Candidate Cantrell said “Nothing stops a bullet like a job” during her campaign in 2017, but it didn’t invite the scrutiny that it does in the context of the threat of violent crime in the city today.
Adding to the statement, Cantrell said that we need to help our young people develop the “soft skills that they need, but also the workforce training that they need, as well as the workforce opportunities to earn.”
The fundamental problems that have made gun violence a daily threat to essentially all residents are still being ignored by Mayor Cantrell. When she talks about helping young people develop skills and the importance of education, she is ignoring the reality that the kids who quickly grow into criminal thugs don’t give a damn about learning a skill or education.
Education is available for the youth of New Orleans, but what is missing in many of them is the attitude that education is important. That’s the real problem that must be addressed; but as I have pointed out on so many occasions, politicians are reluctant to address the issues of human behavior because in doing so they are blaming the voters. This is all a sad reminder that getting elected or reelected supersedes doing the work that needs to be done.
As COVID-19 restrictions have eased and the city is nearly back to normal, report after report indicates that tens of thousands of job openings are ready to be filled immediately. Some businesses, like restaurants, cannot fully open because of a lack of staff. There are jobs available right now - and not just the lowest wage service jobs. But low-wage service jobs are the type of jobs for young people who want to enter the workforce.
“Nothing stops a bullet like a job” is nothing more than a catchy phrase that is meaningless. The mayor’s words suggest that the blame for gun violence is the result of teenagers not having jobs. That is an extreme liberal attempt to blame the system rather than hold individuals accountable for their behavior. But to honestly address the sources of young people and gun violence one has to have the courage to attack the human behavior that is feeding the problem.
Even without credible opposition in this election year, Mayor Cantrell is playing politics with a deadly problem that is a threat to residents and visitors of New Orleans. It is imperative that the media and the voters do their job of forcing politicians to address the issue of youth violence with more than feel-good groups and phrases.
