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It's no doubt that the crime rate in Shreveport is very high, pushing people into the suburbs. Fortunately, though, the overall crime rate has dropped and that's great news... it just needs to keep dropping.

But here is an article I found disturbing. Last week I read about a woman having been robbed while leaving her apartment in Shreveport's Spring Lake Point apartment complex. Up until October, when I bought my new house, I had lived in that complex for over two years. It was such a nice, quiet apartment complex... and expensive... but there was always a darker side that I tried to ignore. This complex is only a matter of blocks from Cedar Grove and Eden Gardens, two of Shreveport's worst neighborhoods. Well, on Friday night another woman was robbed... but this time it didn't end there... she was also forced back into her apartment and raped.

This story disturbs me so badly, because it's such a quiet, neighborly complex... how could he have gotten away with this? It's because this place is dark at night. I complained to management on numerous occasions about their lighting situation, and about the non-use of the gates at both entrances to the complex... and they would only tell me that they were looking into their options!

Late every night... usually anywhere between 9:00 pm and 1:00 am... depending on the night... I would take my dog out for a walk. While it was a quiet, peaceful place, it was also very eerie, just knowing that Cedar Grove was so close and that the crime had spilled over in the past. I had seen many people in there at night who I knew didn't belong...for instance, from time to time, I'd see groups of thugs riding their bikes through late at night. They didn't belong there!! When we first got our dog, my wife used to wake up every morning at 4:00 am just to take him outside. That always bothered me, but she did it many times with no problems... thankfully.

That apartment complex is full of college-aged people... especially single girls between the ages of 18 and 25... living alone. Many of these college students are actually medical students who come and go at all hours of the night due to their demanding residency programs. The girl who was robbed and raped was only 21, so that shows you just how vulnerable these people are and just how much that place needs to step up its security!!

Okay, I'm done. It just disturbs me to no end that hundreds of people are paying BIG bucks to live in those apartments, and they can't even feel safe!

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  • 2 weeks later...

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On the subject of crime... I'm really beginning to think I made a huge mistake by moving to Haughton. Read this page from the Bossier Peess-Tribune. As large as Bossier City is compared to Haughton, and all 3 of the stories on this page are in Haughton... a suburban area of only about 3,000 people.

http://www.bossierpress.com/index.php?opti...=1991&Itemid=66

Have I screwed up? I mean, the small area I live in is so nice with a few new subdivisions and lots of new families moving in, but the rest of the town is pretty much in the dumps.

And these stories are nothing... it seems every time I turn around I'm hearing about this or that happening in Haughton. I suppose I never paid attention to all that when I was living in the city. I was just ready to get away from the crime, but did I go in the wrong direction?

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Here's a link to the Bossier City Interactive Crime Map, provided by The Times. This shows, for starters, that Bossier City is extremely safe and didn't have a single homicide in January or February. It also shows the odd shape of Bossier City, due to the fact that Barksdale Air Force Base (the hugh white spot on the right) takes up so much space.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...BOSSIERCRIMEMAP

And here's the Shreveport Crime Map, showing the actual city limits of the city of Shreveport and showing that the city had 5 homicides within the first 2 months of the year. District 7, which consists of Allendale, Lakeside, Queensborough, Ingleside, Werner Park, and Caddo Heights, is obviously the most violent area of the city at this point. I expect District 11 to pick up steam during the summer months, as historically that is the most dangerous area of the city. District 6, where I used to live, has only reported 1 homicide for the first 2 months of the year.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...tegory=CRIMEMAP

In addition to the crime, you can also see, at the southernmost area of Shreveport, all the little "pockets" which have been annexed over the last few years. This is only going to continue, and that green area will fill in and stretch even further south. Once that happens, I'm sure they'll add another district to the map. In my opinion, the new district would have, by far, the lowest crime rate in the entire city.

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Here's an interesting website for Caddo Parish and Shreveport. It's the Caddo 911 website and it's like having a visual police scanner... seriously. The page refreshes every 60 seconds or so, and it's basically a real-time ticker. When I lived in Shreveport, I stayed glued to this website, usually keeping it minimized on my computer all the time so I could keep up with everything that was going on in the city at any given time.

If you look down the page, there is basically an average of 1+ calls per minute for the Shreveport Police Department. Looks like that city runs its cops ragged, especially the ones in the higher-crime areas. Anyway, this is just a cool tool for one to check out what's going on in the city in real-time. I've even seen calls come in on here before and then heard about it on the news the next day. You can usually tell the larger events, because they will show a larger number of units responding.

http://ias.ecc.caddo911.com/ActiveEventsSPD.asp

You can also change views on the tabs at the top of the page, and see in real-time what's going on with the Shreveport Fire Department, the rural and suburban Caddo Parish Fire Districts, and the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Department.

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Yea, it looks like the cops up there had one hell of a weekend in terms of having to issue tickets.

This is honestly one of Shreveport's biggest problems. This is just the very beginning... this will go on all throughout the Spring and Summer months. Last year, a taxi driver was beaten severely in this area after a bunch of congregating thugs decided it'd be funny to jump all over his taxi. He called them on it, so they dragged him from his taxi and beat him nearly to death.

The city has tried their best to prevent happenings like this by creating more things for the youth in that neighborhood to do. For a while they had an event called Super Safe Sunday where they would have a different major rap or R&B artist in Independence Stadium each Sunday, along with other activities. This was quickly cancelled, though, after Super Safe Sunday became Super Violent Sunday and these thugs began shooting and stabbing one another AT the stadium.

I swear Shreveport is not a lawless city, but this Sunday cruising/congregating thing has got to be nipped in the bud. I don't care if the National Guard has to become involved, although then it will become an even bigger racial hotbutton than it already is. Still, something must be done. I know all cities have their problems, especially in areas like Shreveport's Fair Park/Queensborough area, but it should never get to this point.

So Nate, if anything ever did put you in Shreveport-Bossier to live... by all means, work and play in Shreveport-Bossier proper, but reside in the burbs with the rest of us sane folks. :)

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So Nate, if anything ever did put you in Shreveport-Bossier to live... by all means, work and play in Shreveport-Bossier proper, but reside in the burbs with the rest of us sane folks. :)

Oh don't worry, I would be in the suburbs. Until Shreveport can get its crime problems down, living in the city proper, for the most part, isn't very enticing to me.

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I understand your reasoning, but this is exactly the sort of thing which has caused Jackson to lose population in its downtown core. Is Shreveport going to follow the same backward path? By all means, get rid of the crime. Mass exodus to the suburbs is the death of the urban core, not its salvation.

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I understand your reasoning, but this is exactly the sort of thing which has caused Jackson to lose population in its downtown core. Is Shreveport going to follow the same backward path? By all means, get rid of the crime. Mass exodus to the suburbs is the death of the urban core, not its salvation.

It's been happening here for decades. The inner city is just now starting to gain more residents, but the flight just can't be helped. Until a city gets its act together, in order to be safe you must live in the suburbs. I loved living in the city... I loved it so much. I grew up in the city and lived there until last year. But eventually the criminals will push you out. I could go for a walk at midnight in my neighborhood now and feel safe, but when I lived in a Shreveport apartment complex (and expensive one at that) I didn't even feel safe walking the dog at 10:00 pm.

Believe me, I hate to advocate flight... I hate it so much because I absolutely love the city. But I've also come to love the burbs because they're just generally safer... around here at least.

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It's stupid, ridiculous crap like this that makes me fear for the future of our world. An argument over a peach tree got a 55-year-old man shot by his friend in Queensborough.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...EWS03/604220330

According to the article, one of the men was simply standing to close to the Peach Tree. That caused the guy to pull out a golf club and start swinging it at the other man, eventually resulting in him getting shot? Geez..I'm with you Brian, stuff like this makes you wonder where the world is headed. <_<

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According to the article, one of the men was simply standing to close to the Peach Tree. That caused the guy to pull out a golf club and start swinging it at the other man, eventually resulting in him getting shot? Geez..I'm with you Brian, stuff like this makes you wonder where the world is headed. <_<

Uh... yeah... I'd say you summarized it pretty well.

I've heard of people getting shot during arguments over almost everything you can imagine... but standing too close to a peach tree? Was he breathing on it? Leaning on it? Was he hurting the poor, defenseless tree? :rolleyes:

Give me a break...

I also like how the article called Queensborough a "peaceful" area. Uh... yeah... right. They may BS the newcomers to the area with wording like that, but growing up around here, people learn real fast that Queensborough is one of those areas to avoid like the plague. As a matter of fact, the article I posted last week about the "cruising" problem... that's in Queensborough as well.

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I've heard of people getting shot during arguments over almost everything you can imagine... but standing too close to a peach tree? Was he breathing on it? Leaning on it? Was he hurting the poor, defenseless tree? :rolleyes:

Yea, I'm sure his family is very proud. <_<

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Yet another typical Sunday night in Queensborough... police having to break up the "cruising." The kids claim they're being harassed as usual. And one 20-year-old quoted in this article even has the balls to say "Just give us a place to go." Well, Mario Singer, psychology student, have you ever heard of Super Violent Sunday? The party the city has attempted to put on for you idiots in the past, only to have it interrupted by gunfire time and time again? I do believe even 'Master P' said he wouldn't return to a 'Super Safe Sunday' event because he might get shot.

Get a clue.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...EWS01/604240313

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When I was living in Shreveport, I once heard about an elderly woman, in Allendale, who stabbed another elderly woman because she flirted with her boyfriend. You know crime is bad when even the old folks act a fool. Btw, Brian did you hear about the minister in Shreveport who was arrested after he molested his friends daughter? It makes me so sick hearing this. This man is supposed to be a man of God and he does this.

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When I was living in Shreveport, I once heard about an elderly woman, in Allendale, who stabbed another elderly woman because she flirted with her boyfriend. You know crime is bad when even the old folks act a fool. Btw, Brian did you hear about the minister in Shreveport who was arrested after he molested his friends daughter? It makes me so sick hearing this. This man is supposed to be a man of God and he does this.

Sorry I never responded to this.

No, I never heard that story but I've heard similar ones over the years, and to be honest, nothing surprises me anymore.

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This gives me a much greater respect for the police officers in Shreveport, and can you imagine the volume of calls the 911 operators must take in Caddo Parish, mostly from Shreveport? I would guess it averages out to more than 1 call per minute on an average night.

Attached is a screen capture from earlier tonight...

post-9805-1146378371_thumb.jpg

post-9805-1146378371_thumb.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Boy, I hate to push the crime thread back up, but I figured the story about lcoal radio news personality, Mike Sieve, was worthy of comment.

It appears a local task force has been created to catch potential child predators, and Sieve was among the first 6 people arrested by this new task force! I'm very familiar with the name Mike Sieve, because he's a news personality for Clear Channel Shreveport and they air his news on all of their local radio stations.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...NGNEWS/60619010

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  • 1 month later...

I wonder why crime is such a big deal in the mid-sized to major cities of the South - especially Shreveport, Little Rock, Jackson, Memphis, New Orleans, Houston, Birmingham, etc. Our region seems really affected by it - is it cultural?

I don't know really, because the thing about it is, all these cities are somewhat different in their cultural makeup - particularly Houston more than the rest. But in Louisiana at least, our high rate of poverty plays a huge role in our crime problems. Shreveport's overall crime is considerably lower these days than it was back in the 80s, and that can be directly attributed to the drastic drop in the poverty level here.

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