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Posted inCriminal Justice

A group of ‘violence interrupters’  worked the streets of New Orleans to prevent retaliatory shootings — until they were sidelined 2 years ago

For nearly a decade, Calvin Pep used what he’d learned on the streets to stop bloodshed through Cure Violence, a city-funded effort to prevent violence. From his teen years on, Pep had been “both a victim and a perpetrator,” as he describes himself. He’d been shot. He’d faced a murder charge.  His co-workers had similar […]

Posted inNews

School zone speed enforcement ends Friday

The city will stop enforcing school zone speed limits on Friday as most schools in the city wrap up their school years, city spokesman John Lawson confirmed.  The city’s school zone cameras, which enforce 20 m.p.h. speed limits for two hours each morning and evening on weekdays during the school year, will cease ticketing for […]

Posted inCriminal Justice

Neighborhood security stopped 3 young Black males; A federal judge is weighing a lawsuit over it

Lawyers representing police officers who are accused of racially profiling and pulling guns on several young Black males who were searching for a lost dog argued in federal court Wednesday that the officers didn’t violate the constitution and are entitled to qualified immunity from the civil rights claims.  The case, brought as part of the […]

Posted inCharter Schools

Lycée Français board considers $165K CEO contract amid financial concerns

The board of Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans will consider a three-year, $165,000 salary contract for CEO Chase McLaurin, with the potential for significant annual increases, at its board meeting Tuesday night, as the school grapples with financial concerns.  The draft contract includes the potential for two $15,000 increases. One, if the school is accredited […]

Posted inCriminal Justice

Louisiana leads nation in percentage of people in adult prisons for crimes they committed as kids

A new report by the national non-profit Human Rights for Kids has found that the degree to which the United States punishes crimes committed by kids is far out of line with international standards, calling the mass incarceration of children as adults “one of the largest government-sanctioned human rights abuses against children in the world […]

Posted inCriminal Justice

After 23 years in prison for killing her abuser, she hopes no one in Louisiana has to do that again

On Dec. 2, 1996, Beatrice Taylor hobbled out of her apartment complex to a nearby payphone and dialed 911.  She told a Gretna police dispatcher she needed officers to come out to her home for the second day in a row, according to court records. Her ex-boyfriend had become violent again, stomped on her foot and broken […]

Posted inCriminal Justice

Orleans Parish Sheriff Hutson withholding investigative records related several ‘serious’ uses of force on mental health tier

In late January, a sergeant working in the New Orleans jail called for backup because a detainee, who was housed on a tier reserved for people with mental health needs, had a broomstick in his cell.  When three deputies arrived, they found the cell window covered in feces and “a large amount of unknown liquid […]

Posted inCriminal Justice

Drug-related deaths at Angola prompted strip searches, but who is bringing in contraband?

Abdullah Muhammad entered the gates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola as a 25-year-old with a freshly issued life sentence. At intake, before he was issued a prison jumpsuit, guards searched him and told him to disrobe. “Anytime anyone forces you to take your clothes off, it’s traumatizing,” Muhammad said. He remembers feeling tense […]

Posted inCriminal Justice

In Linda Frickey case, DA Williams using controversial legal doctrine to seek life sentences for 4 teens

The decision by District Attorney Jason William to charge the teens as adults was controversial, if not surprising. During his campaign for DA, Williams promised to keep all cases involving kids in juvenile court, and frequently cited research on youth brain development that indicates kids are more susceptible to peer pressure, more likely to engage in risky behavior, and less likely to consider the consequences of that behavior.

Posted inEnvironment

Leaks beneath pump stations responsible for New Orleans’ drinking water went uninvestigated for two years

Leaks from beneath one of three Sewerage and Water Board pump stations that distribute the majority of New Orleanians’ drinking water went uninvestigated by the Board for nearly two years. The drinking water leaks were discovered during major upgrades to the Claiborne Avenue Pumping Station on the northern edge of the Carrollton Water and Power […]

Posted inCriminal Justice

How will the DA’s decision to revive the habitual offender law impact plea negotiations in New Orleans?

 Earlier this month, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams announced that he was going back on his campaign promise to never utilize or threaten to use the state’s habitual offender law, which can dramatically increase prison sentences for people who have been convicted of prior felonies. And for the first time last week, prosecutors with […]