NOLA crime….

Certainly, the crime rates are up. But what has visibly increased is the sense of public disorder--that crimes can be committed so brazenly. Think of those shutting down major intersections as they do do-nuts in their cars or the time people jumped on top a police car with a police officer inside the unit.

I do not know the status of the police consent decree, but it needs to be revisited.

The city needs to increase by 50 percent the number of police officers.

The city needs a permanent Louisiana State Police presence.

And the district attorney needs to abolish his civil-rights division intended to free prisoners convicted by his two predecessors and to establish a special division intended to prosecute immediately those designated as the most violent criminals.

And yes, I am a proponent of the broken-windows approach to law enforcement. A sense of public disorder breeds greater public disorder.