New Orleans Could Really Use Some More Law and Order
*This article originally appeared in The Hayride*
For decades, the residents of New Orleans have long suffered from incompetent political leaders, high crime, and crumbling infrastructure. Just three years ago, New Orleans gained the infamous crown as the murder capital of America—with over 280 murders in 2022.
Certainly, there have been massive reductions in crime in New Orleans over the past two years when compared to the recent highs of 2022 and 2023. Nevertheless, New Orleans is still one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. In fact, the homicide rate in New Orleans is still hovers around several times higher than the national average.
According to the Metro Crime Commission, the city of New Orleans has experienced 87 homicides, 139 nonfatal shooting, and 129 armed robberies between January 1st and September 7th 2025. Despite this significant number of crimes, New Orleans politicians like Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick are still glad to tout about the year-over-year decreases following the recent crime wave of 2021-2023. New Orleans is still a dangerous city, and anyone who’s visited the city recently knows that the city is still full of vagrants, crime, and litter despite the reductions in crime over the past two years.
You’d think that New Orleans politicians would be glad to accept more help from state and federal authorities to fix the crime problems in New Orleans. But unfortunately, none of the local politicians in New Orleans want to fundamentally improve New Orleans.
Last week, President Donald Trump floated the idea that he might send in the National Guard into either Chicago or New Orleans to the long-standing crime problems in these respective cities. To no one’s surprise, the local politicians in New Orleans threw a tantrums online over President Trump’s comments.
Mayoral candidate and state senator Royce Duplessis’s response alone essentially summed up the consensus view among New Orleans politicians about sending in the National Guard to fix New Orleans:
“President Trump’s suggestion that he may deploy federal troops to New Orleans is reckless, politically motivated, an abuse of presidential power, and a betrayal of our Constitution. Our residents deserve safety and stability, not to be used as pawns in partisan theater.
The grandstanding is absolutely brutal when you consider that roughly 1,000 MURDERS have occurred in New Orleans over the past five years. A city with under four hundred thousand residents has seen a substantial amount of its denizens dead over the past several years, and our local politicians still want to reject additional help in cracking down on crime.
The current politicians in New Orleans are not the only people rejecting any National Guard presence in New Orleans. In WWL’s live Sheriff debate last week, the top three candidates in New Orleans’s Sheriff election all rejected the notion of a National Guard presence in New Orleans.
Counter to the fearmongering from New Orleans politicians, the deployment of the National Guard is not about militarizing communities. The point is to restore trust in public safety. Whether its Hurricane Katrina or the recent crime clean-up in Washington DC, the Louisiana National Guard holds a proven track record in Louisiana in terms of supporting local law enforcement during crises and civil unrest.
When local politicians fail to corral crime, intervention from state and federal authorities becomes a moral imperative. Law-abiding New Orleans citizens deserve safe streets, and Trump’s National Guard proposal offers a clear path forward.
Anyone who cares about the future of New Orleans should welcome any federal or state assistance in fixing New Orleans’s crime problems. Let’s hope that we can see some more “law and order” in Louisiana.
