Were there lots of murders and rapes in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina?

New Orleans has always been crime ridden and parts of it look like Dafur. Houston took in a lot of katrina people and their murder rate went up 25% and crime skyrocketed.

It was not as bad as the papers made it out to be. There were a few incidents, however. Any time you have that many people in panic mode, there will always be a few bad things happen. All in all, considering the number of people stranded in the city, and the number of police officers that abandoned the police department, things could have been much, much worse. The New Orleans Police are very familiar with crowd control due to Mardi Gras and the large number of tourist that visit the French Quarters every year. It was just like yelling "fire" in a crowd. Some people will step on others to get out of the way. There was not enough food or supplies available. People were angry. Everyone reacts differently when angry. The majority will try to deal with the situation in a humane way. There will always be the bad element that will cause problems.

Things have calmed down now. There are a few areas of the city, as in every city, that draw the bad element of the community. Most of the serious crimes are confined to those areas.

Maybe in New Orleans, but that was always like that. Most of the people were to worried about saving their own butt than busting a cap in someone elses.

About as much as after a Manchester football match. The hooligans dress better though.

yes we need more open housing laws to get these people into less crime areas