It may not be the worst violent crime year in Shreveport's history--that would be 1993--but it's a heckuva lot worse than last year.  According to City Of Shreveport data, violent crime rates have risen dramatically in 2017.  Homicides are up 138%; forcible rapes up 21%; business armed robberies and burglaries up 130%.

And can we talk about New Orleans?  The Big Easy now has the dubious distinction of having a higher murder rate than Chicago.  In just the first four months of 2017 there were 71 murders in NOLA.  By now you've probably seen the shocking video of the four thugs attacking a couple of tourists in the French Quarter.  The miscreants broke one of the men's noses, and left the other man in critical condition with a serious brain injury. New Orleans is a fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

All this being said, if you take violent crime out of the picture, Louisiana is a pretty safe place to live.  In a new report from the National Safety Council (NSC), Louisiana ranks as the 10th safest place to live in the U.S.  The NSC's mission is to eliminate preventable injuries, the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.  In the first study of its kind, the NSC looked at three areas:  road safety, home and community safety, and workplace safety.

Though it may seem counter-intuitive what with our crumbling road infrastructure and all, Louisiana ranks 2nd in the nation in road safety.   The state ranks 10th in home and community safety, but lags behind much of the country in workplace safety where we're ranked 40th.  Louisiana received an overall grade of C in the NSC's study, which may not sound great, but no state in the U.S. received an A.

This is a little ray of sunshine peeking through the dark cloud that seems to be hanging over our state.  Let's hope this light breaks through and brings us brighter days ahead.

 

 

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