Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 3/18/08 Section: Opinion

Kimberly Tsao

If the government moves any slower, New Orleans will be what Harlem was in the 1970s. New Orleans may even produce what Harlem did back then - an American gangster. History has a way of repeating itself.

In the '70s, Harlem gave birth to Frank Lucas, one of the biggest drug lords in the United States, if not the biggest. Yes, he's the same man who Denzel Washington brought to life in the movie "American Gangster."

Lucas imported pure heroin all the way from Vietnam. He would hide the drugs in the coffins of dead soldiers. Lucas' heroin product "Blue Magic" launched him to an estimated worth of $52 million.

Decades later, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina unleashed her wrath on New Orleans. It was only recently, however, that the California Assembly and Senate passed the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act to help the city.

The bill still has a long way to go before it can help anybody. Once the government gets a move on, however, the act, according to the project's Web site, will provide New Orleans with $4 billion. This means civic workers will be paid a minimum wage of $15 per hour.

Until that bill is implemented or help comes in some other form, much of New Orleans has to live without proper housing. The homes will lie in ruins there just like the Roman Colosseum.

According to a 2005 article published in the Washington Post, Katrina forced at least 240,000 people to seek refuge in Texas. Post-Katrina, some of the abandoned houses in New Orleans became infested with drug traffickers.

The Web site for New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development states that in the 1970s, the city took over multiple buildings in Harlem. Similarly, that left the majority of a thousand buildings vacant during the same period as Lucas' drug cartel.

Without exterminators for the drug centrals in New Orleans, the city could be looking at another kingpin. The number of police officers dwindled from 1,668 to 1,275, according to a 2006 article published in USA Today.

Hurricane Katrina didn't just leave floods. It also provided the drug dealers with a pool of potential customers. Since the hurricane hit, there have been 46,600 children coping with mental problems, according to a study by the Children's Health Fund and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Not all of them will just take drugs, though - some may sell them. Education is the key to prevention, but after Katrina, many children were uprooted from their schools.

Moreover, at least one penitentiary, the Orleans Parish Prison, was left to the mercy of the hurricane. The prisoners weren't evacuated right away. It wouldn't be difficult for a prisoner or two to break out in the midst of all that chaos. That one escaped convict could return to his old ways exponentially.

The homicide rate in New Orleans is "73.5 murders per 100,000 residents," according to a 2006 USA Today article. The same article states that New Orleans took the crown from Compton, Calif., which previously held the record for "67 murders per 100,000 people."

If actual help doesn't arrive in New Orleans soon, all Third World countries may not be outside of the U.S. anymore.

Imagine someone who suffered the effects of a Third World but has access to the resources of a superpower country.

Behold the wrath of the next American gangster.

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