Mike Orren, says:

I dunno, Alan. I think his word choice could have been better, but the facts don't lie. Violent crime is up substantially in the Houston area since last year. Murder is up 20%. New Orleans gangs have taken up residence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/artic...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/s...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/f...

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=13...

Also, note that almost everyone is leaving out the full context of the quote, which was clearly not lumping all NO refugees in the same category:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-n...

http://urbangrounds.com/2006/09/07/ki...

“The musicians and artists have mostly moved back to New Orleans now,” he said, according to KHOU (Channel 11). “The crackheads and the thugs have decided to stay here. They want to stay here. I think they got their hustle on, and we need to get ours.”

Is the Kinkster guilty of generalization? Sure. Is he guilty of dissing all NO refugees in the city? I don't think so. Are the DMN and other media outlets guilty of quoting out of context? Absolutely. Intentionally misleading? You judge.

I do respect that the Kinkster camp isn't totally backpedalling on this one. That's a rare trait in a politician.

Alan Cohen, says:

Problem is that the numbers that police are touting is a 17% increase in homicides...they say that 21 percent of Houston's 232 homicides through July 25 involve a Katrina evacuee as either a suspect or a victim. That is the craziest statistic I've ever heard to draw a correlation from. How many were suspects and how many were victims. If its New Orleans gangs fighting one another, wouldn't it be suspects AND victims? Seems like very suspicious wording.

The truth is that Houston police want you to believe that homicide was not on the rise before Katrina evacuees showed up, but that is just false. Violent crime was on the rise before evacuees ever got to Houston.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/f...

Perhaps New Orleans evacuees make a convenient scapegoat.

Alan Cohen, says:

That being said, I have no doubt that gang violence is a major problem. I have no doubt that many gang members may have come from New Orleans. But I also have no doubt that evacuees DO make a convenient scapegoat.

I want to see a politician look at ways to fix the crime problem, not just people to point the finger at. 'Lets send em all back' is not a particularly impressive, or well thought out solution.

But hopefully there is a solution. Seeing as 21% of the murders in invlove New Orleans evacuees as either a suspect or VICTIM, I'd think that those evacuees who have made Houston their home would also be pretty concerned about crime. So why aren't we talking about real solutions?

Here is what I think Kinky ought to be talking about - Houston received close to $20 million in extra funds to help them deal with the added burdon of an increased population due to Katrina evacuees. How has that money been used? Why hasn't that been enough to take on the extra burden? How can the police increase their effectiveness?

Or he could just point fingers at Louisiana natives. Seems like that could be more popular when running for office in Texas.

Alan Cohen, says:

P.S. Kevin plays with dolls. I play with action figures.

Chris Curotolo, says:

It's official. Kevin plays with "Kinky" dolls and Alan plays with kinky action figures. Carry on with your serious political discussion. I was never here.

Alan Cohen, says:

Breaking down my own argument - Kinky is calling for 100 million in additional funds to fight evacuee related crime. And he was doing so at the time of his speech.

That part I like - at least he is getting deeper into the issue. So he actually is asking some of the questions that I was critical of him for not asking earlier (so I was wrong in my criticism on that point).

However, I think that his solution is consistent with a police spread too thin argument. That's the way the argument should be framed though. I still think even the full text of his comments include huge generalizations about evacuees.

And the numbers just don't add up. 150,000 evacuees that have made Houston their permanent or semi-permanent home. 21% of 232 homicides through July comes out to 49 evacuees that were either suspects or victims in those homicides. So thats 49 out of 150,000. Its not that there are "some" good people from New Orleans as Kinky says. Its that the vast vast majority of New Orleans evacuees are good people.

If you wonder why I take so much exception to these kinds of generalizations - its because there have been a steady stream of documented instances of anti-New Orleans discrimination taking place against good people throughout Houston, and its absolutely repugnant.

http://abc26.trb.com/ny-uskatr0403,0,... "Stukes now lives in northeast Houston in a modern four-bedroom apartment with her daughter, Tamara Small, son-in-law Andrew Williams and their three children. Shortly after they moved in, anti-New Orleans graffiti appeared on their door and she said her grandchildren have faced taunts from Houston kids in their new school."

A couple more stories about anti-New Orleans discrimination in Houston: http://blogs.chron.com/postk/2006/04/...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/m...

Alan Cohen, says:

How does someone know when they are being racially profiled? Can they always prove it? Would you claim that because it can't be proven that no one who is black has ever been pulled over by a cop just because they were black? Would you claim that no one has ever been rejected from a job just because they were black? Now apply that same idea to known evacuees.

Sometimes people just know when they are being profiled because all the elements don't add up, and the problem becomes pervasive enough. We could simply shrug these claims off as you have, but I think that is a very dangerous stance. What those articles discussed were not unlikely scenarios.

Still don't believe that there is an anti-New Orleans sentiment building in Houston? Read the kinds of things that Houstonians are writing on webforums. If you take the time to dig, you will find some pretty nasty claims about evacuees on this one which is supposed to be about "relief."

http://forums.houston.craigslist.org/...

But don't get me wrong, after reading the posts on that forum I can confidently say that not everyone in Houston discriminates against New Orleans evacuees. I mean Houston does have "some" good people as Kinky would say.

Alan Cohen, says:

Gregory, its not that he used the term crackhead and thugs to describe actual crackheads and thugs. Its that he uses that as an overarching generalization to describe the evacuees that now live in Houston.

The vast vast majority of people who came from New Orleans are neither thugs or crackheads, and it really is ignorant to say otherwise.

Alan Cohen, says:

So he made that clear days after his initial comments, and I commend him for that. Did he happen to point out that crime was beginning to spike in Houston before the hurricane hit also?

The stats you use only strengthen my argument. There have been more victims of murder among evacuees than there have been suspects (and by the way, we are talking about suspects as if they are already convicted). Thats one of the reason why blaming evacuees for increased crime in Houston is ridiculous.

More over, you talk about 34 evacuees involved in this problem. Thats 34 out of 150,000 to 200,000. So how are Kinky's comments not a generalization?

Furthermore, there is an underlying premise here that people from New Orleans do not have the right to settle in Houston. Any citizen has the right to move from any one U.S. city to any other city.