NEW ORLEANS — In certain parts of New Orleans, shootings and crime happen with more frequency than others. Those are just facts.
Some of us, myself included, have become somewhat accustomed to only paying attention to crimes in our respective backyards. Until there's crossover.
Take the deadly Walmart shooting in Gentilly, for example. It quickly became the most-read story on our website this morning. There can be many factors to that.
But maybe some of us probably considered what we would do if we were in a Walmart and a shooting took place. Maybe you've been to that Walmart in Gentilly. In those scenarios, crime becomes more immediate to you, rather than someone else's or some other neighborhood's problem.
On Monday, Paul Murphy reported on more than a dozen car break-ins at Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans East.
Whether you can relate or not, the scene in Lakeview Tuesday reminds us of the connected nature of crime. Like the suspects in the East, the ones in Lakeview were trying to break into cars.
Police said the car they tried to pull over in Lakeview was stolen out of New Orleans East. On its own, that wouldn't raise much alarm. But then, the driver tries to run over a police officer, that officer opens fire, and four schools go into lockdown.
In a flash, a place that has relatively low crime, is swarmed by police. In the aftermath, City Councilman Joe Giarrusso tweeted he will address these crimes. He may represent Lakeview, but we know property crimes are widespread.
Sometimes...it takes incidents like these to make the concern widespread too.
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