Feds, city deliver tough talk to New Orleans convicts in closed-door ...

A group hug this was not. About 40 probationers and other convicts sat captive in an Orleans Parish courtroom Thursday afternoon while Mayor Mitch Landrieu, New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and others laid down the gauntlet on gun violence in the nation's most murderous city.

A pair of video screens on either side flashed the convicts' photos and?criminal records, aimed at driving home a clear message:

"We know who you are. We know who your friends are. We know where you go. We know everything about you," Landrieu?recited after the meeting.

The bigger message, he said, is that the full weight of state and federal law enforcement is prepared to pounce on their gangs or associations at the next episode of violent gunfire.

Landrieu asked the men to take the threat to heart and?bring it home. He pointed to last week's federal indictment of Uptown crime figure Telly Hankton and a dozen of his family members and associates as an example of the kind of heat that the city and the feds are prepared to apply under the city's "Group Violence Reduction Strategy."

The idea:?One member's misconduct will cost the entire group in an onslaught of federal and state law enforcement pressure.

Letten called it an "entirely one-way conversation," saying he pointed out various prosecutions against?New Orleans criminal gangs -- 3NG, the Josephine Dog Pound, D-Block and the recent Hankton case -- to illustrate the point.

"We laid down very respectfully and in a very straightforward way a lot of straight talk to these guys about how they're at risk and what the consequences are," Letten said. "I basically laid out the consdquesnces of a federal proseuciotn, which is not very pretty for people who are charged with crimes."

He described the group of convicts as "somber, very attentive," and said he was optimistic of the result.

Letten said participants were chosen based on intelligence showing they are involved in high-risk groups.

Landrieu said many of the attendees were called in by their probation. The rest were "invited," Landrieu said, suggesting a fair amount of pressure to attend.

"It wasn't a conversation," Landrieu said after the two-hour presentation, which took place in Criminal District Judge Arthur Hunter's courtroom and was off-limits to the public and media. "It was a message."

The mayor's brother, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurice Landrieu, also attended, as did an FBI?anti-gang leader.

The show of force came with an offer of help for those willing to choose a different path, by way of social services and quick law enforcement response to complaints.

The "Call-In," as it was titled, is part of "NOLA for Life," which Landrieu has billed as a comprehensive homicide-reduction strategy for a city with the highest murder rate in America.

Serpas has routinely pointed to data that show about 65 percent of those killed in the city had prior felony arrests. All of the convicts at Thursday's sit-down fell within "a statistical zone of people you'd expect either to shoot or be shot by somebody," Landrieu said.

A cadre of sheriff's deputies guarded the door to Hunter's courtroom, then led the convicts quickly away under close watch. Landrieu said it was important to withhold their identities.

The agenda, which?began with an introduction from Pastor Charles Southall of First Emanuel Baptist Church,?was dominated by "The Law Enforcement Message," as Serpas, Letten, Cannizzaro, Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman and NOPD Commander Henry Dean flexed some criminal justice muscle.

Also attending was David Kennedy, a criminologist who is considered a leading national expert in inner-city crime prevention. Kennedy is credited with spearheading the so-called "Boston Miracle" that saw gang-related homicide rates in that city drop by as much as 65 percent in the 1990s.

He said afterward that the same tactic has proven successful across the country.

That's largely because an inordinate share of urban crime can be traced to a relatively few gangs, groups or?street associations, he said.

"It is exactly how it's been done elsewhere," Kennedy said in the courthouse hallway. "It's up to them. It has been made very, very clear that there is a special response following the violence.

"You can focus on the moral voice of the community. You can focus on help, and you can focus on this different kind of law enforcement response," he added.

The change may not come quickly, Kennedy said. It largely depends on the city?keeping to its word with carrot or stick -- providing aid or coming down hard on the violence.

Kennedy, Serpas and others will be participating in a two-day symposium starting Friday morning at Loyola University that is aimed at coming up with ways to end New Orleans' cycle of violence.

Landrieu has modeled his overall crime-reduction strategy on Milwaukee. That city's nationally renowned program brings together stakeholders from across the criminal justice and community arena.

Another Landrieu initiative, called the Strategic Command to Reduce Murders, is based on Milwaukee's homicide review panel and consists of several teams that will examine murders committed in three of the NOPD's most active police districts.

His overall "NOLA for Life" plan, unveiled in May, lays out a bevy of initiatives to prosecute drug kingpins, educate young people and provide mentoring, job training and housing opportunities for offenders.

CeaseFire, a program modeled on similar ones in other cities, sends out violence "interrupters" in Central City in hopes of preventing retaliation murders.

There is little to suggest that the programs have shown an immediate impact. The city has recorded 160 murders so far this year, a slight drop from the pace of last year, when 199 people were killed in New Orleans. The annual murder count has held fairly steady since the late 1990s.

"Violence will fall when all 20 guys in a drug crew understand that if one of them (commits violence), all 19 are going to have enforcement focused on them. When they understand the price to the group is trouble on them, everybody starts policing themselves," Kennedy said.

"Sometimes you see an impact right away. Sometimes you have to make it clear you mean it."

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/feds_city_deliver_tough_talk_t.html

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