Record-breaking homicide rate
for Shreveport Women
It has already become a deadly year for women in Shreveport --- a record-breaking year in fact, for the number of homicides of women. According to Shreveport Police, that number stands at 13. For some perspective, consider there were 7 female homicides for all of 2022 in Shreveport. In 2021, there were 11, the same year that Shreveport recorded 90 homicides, the all-time high. This year we’re on pace for more than 80 deaths overall, with 57 homicides so far.
Janell Brown is the outreach manager for Project Celebration, a non-profit agency that specializes in helping provide and direct them to a host of services. They range from an emergency shelter to counselling. But Brown says many women will stay in the abusive environment -largely because they have either convinced themselves - or their abuser may have convinced them -- that their situation isn’t really that bad.
Only later when they seek help do they discover the truth. And Brown says she’s witnessed their realization many times. For years, she has employed a simple checklist to help many survivors assess for themselves they are in an abusive relationship. “And in the years that I have done this, there’s just this light bulb look that goes over their face when they scratch off every little bitty thing that they’ve been thinking was not abnormal.”
Brown emphasizes that local domestic violence advocates try never to tell them what they should do. Instead, the emphasis is providing what help they can offer, and letting them make their own decisions on how to move forward and away from the abuse. On a personal level, Brown won’t soon forget one phone call in particular – that came into their 24-7 hotline. “Phone rings, hadn’t rung in two hours; the phone rings and I say, ‘PCI, Janell speaking.’ And I heard, ‘can you hear me?’ and I said, ‘I sure can. What can I do for you?’ because I know it took so much courage for that person to make that call, especially when she had to whisper for fear that someone was going to walk up on her.”
Brown says it’s difficult to blame just one factor that’s driving this large increase in female homicides. “I know that, one that heat is killing people.I mean tempers are rising” And, Brown added, “this is the end of a grant period for many people in Louisiana. lots of funding has been cut and they’re not getting the assistance that they need.”
The local hotline number for domestic violence victims is (318)-226-5015. Or you can email the non-profit organization atprojectcelebration.com.
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Extreme Heat shut off protection During our extremely hot heat wave that’s abated for the moment, more than a few people feared that their power company might cut-off their electricity right when they need it most, for air conditioning avoid the punishing and sometimes dangerous heat conditions.
That is when the Louisiana Public Service Commission comes into the picture. It is an independent regulatory agency that manages public utilities. Long-time District 5 Commissioner Foster Campbell reassures those living in the 24 parishes of north Louisiana who he represents, that no one will have their power shut-off if or when the heat index value reaches 105 degrees. Campbell says this protection has been a rule since 2007 – a rule he helped create. “The companies that we get our electricity from, in Shreveport, as you know, SWEPCO. they’re monopolies. Nobody else can go in competition against them. and that’s why you have the [Louisiana] public service commission. You have to regulate monopolies. you cannot let them do what they want to do because there’s no one else that you can go to buy electricity.” Campbell says he wants to lower the cut-off protection threshold to 100 degrees. During winter the same protection applies when the temperature dips below 32-degrees.
