EMERGENCY DECLARATION?
EMERGENCY DECLARATION? - The Shreveport Police Department will increase its presence in a Shreveport neighborhood to help reduce crime after the district’s councilman had made a “declaration of emergency”, saying his constituents are afraid to leave their homes due to crime. During a City Council Meeting Earlier this week, Councilman James Green introduced a resolution to declare a state of emergency in District F and increase police patrols as well as bring in outside law enforcement agencies to aggressively combat crime in the Cedar Grove neighborhood west of I-49, as well as Mooretown and Queensborough neighborhoods.
But some members of the Cedar Grove community were unaware of the Councilman’s intentions. Vice-President of the Cedar Grove Community Association Steffon Jones appeared at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to say the resolution created panic in the community.
"It just kind of hurts me to see that it's perceived that our community is a war zone to declare a state of emergency, " Jones explained. "In fact it became embarrassing when I was on Facebook this morning, someone said '...we should just build a wall ..' and someone replied to that comment by saying ' we already have a wall, it's I-49 -- we call it the Great Wall of Shreveport.."
Council members agreed they would vote for the resolution if any references to “state of emergency” were removed from the resolution. Councilman Green’s resolution described a drug-infested district including a list of crime statistics and saying residents live in a constant state of a fear. The resolution, passed with an amendment by a vote of 5-2. As a result, the city’s chief of police has directed specialized units and operations to focus efforts in those neighborhoods in District F.
