National Guard troops arrive in New Orleans

‘We’re in the disaster phase’
Mayor Ray Nagin had asked for help from the National Guard and state police on Monday after five teenagers in an SUV were gunned down Saturday in the city’s deadliest attack in at least 11 years. Police said it was apparently motivated by drugs or revenge. In a separate attack, a man was stabbed to death Sunday.

Capt. Alfred Travis, the company commander, said the Guard’s mission was “still part of Katrina.”

“We’re in the disaster phase, and I think we may be in the disaster phase for a while, until the neighborhoods are built up again,” Travis said.

The National Guard had as many as 15,000 soldiers in the city in the weeks after Katrina. As many as 2,000 stayed until February.

The police force is down to about 1,375 officers, compared with about 1,750 before Katrina.

“I think people are happy they’re doing something,” said Nathan Chapman, president of a neighborhood organization. “The most important thing is that we fix the problem, not pretend we don’t have one.”

Bad PR move?
But Cherie Kerr, who runs a Santa Ana., Calif., public-relations firm that specializes in crisis, said the move gives the impression that crime is out of hand.

“When you call in the National Guard, you’re pretty much saying you’re out of control,” Kerr said.

Noel Scallan, executive assistant at a luxury French Quarter hotel, said calls poured in from people planning to attend a national library convention moments after it was announced that the National Guard would be sent in.

“They got panicky — ‘What’s going on? Is it OK?”’ Scallan said. But there were no cancellations, he said.

But Bill Walker, general manager of a French-style manor on Bourbon Street, called the move “very positive,” saying nothing would panic his guests more “than if the crime were to increase.”

New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren J. Riley said Monday he had asked in March to have troops sent in this summer, when the population is expected to increase because FEMA assistance to displaced hurricane refugees ends June 30.

Riley insisted his department is capable of controlling crime, saying: “This is not a situation where anything is out of control.”

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