January 14, 2011

Today I attended a COM-STAT meeting with Brendan McCarthy, Times Picayune crime reporter. The meeting was held at UNO (University of New Orleans) and consisted of police officials discussing recent crime in their respective districts. The New Orleans Police Chief, former Nashville Police Chief, Ronal Serpas, was present at the meeting. Officers from the eight districts in New Orleans reported on the robberies, thefts, homicides, violent crimes, sexual assaults, and narcotics abuse issues. New Orleans is notorious for its criminal activity, as it ranks as one of the top cities in the country for its crime rates. Mr. McCarthy explained that as a crime reporter, his schedule varies from day to day as he juggles writing articles, attending meetings, interviewing people for stories, and gathering information. He is required to be constantly on the "look-out" for more article ideas and breaking crime stories. Mr. McCarthy and I discussed the corruption of the NOPD, the New Orleans Police Department. In fact, some officers have been tried on a federal level as a result of recent scandals. Unfortunately, most of the public, especially in impoverished neighborhoods with high crime rates, mistrust the police. In fact, Mr. McCarthy pointed out, the feeling of "safety" is merely a perception. Statistics, crime rates, and numbers can be altered by the police to help the public feel "safer" and assure the community that the police are improving the city's conditions. Crime continues to be an ongoing concern for the city, and according to several sources, it has only worsened since Hurricane Katrina.
I learned a great deal through covering the meeting this morning and interviewing a family in the Treme neighborhood. For confidentiality purposes, I am unable to fully "blog" my experience about speaking with the family, due to the nature of the subjects discussed.

Below are pictures of the COM-STAT meeting.

Afterwards, I met Mr. Peter Finney, Mr. Frank Donze's father-in-law. Mr. Finney has worked at the Times Picayune for sixty-seven years. Beginning at the paper after graduating from Jesuit High School, in 1945, Mr. Finney covered American Legion Baseball and from there attended Loyola University. He has covered the Saints throughout the years and was overjoyed by their success at the Superbowl last year. The Saints began in 1967 and have played 655 games - winning only 277 of them. Nevertheless, Mr. Finney has been one of New Orleans's most trusted and acclaimed sports writers. Not only is he a fan of the Saints, but he is a supporter of the city and the spirit of the Times Picayune-Saints relationship as a whole. Mr. Finney has watched the journalism industry evolve since the 1940s. He is still wary of technology and refuses to check his emails. His technology usage is limited to typing stories, and when speaking with him, he laughed about the new generation's obsession with Twitter, facebook, email, and texting. Mr. Finney recounted an amazing anecdote from his early days at the Times Picayune. When covering Saints games at Tulane Stadium, photographers would attach their completed film rolls to the legs of pigeons. The pigeons would return tho the Times Picayune building, where reporters were waiting to remove the film from the legs of the pigeons and then develop it. Needless to say, the art of journalism has changed dramatically. At 83 years old, Mr. Finney still writes for the Times Picayune.

In an article written by Jeff Duncan in August 2010, Mr. Finney is spoken of as an extraordinary figure: "No one has chronicled New Orleans's rich, proud sports scene longer, better, or more passionately than him. He has witnessed more sporting events, profiled more athletes and enlightened more readers in this great city than anyone who ever lived." In fact, Mr. Finney received an incredible honor - the Dick McCann Memorial Award, in recognition of his extraordinary coverage of professional football. In addition to covering both the LSU national championship in 1958 for football and the Saints Superbowl title in 2010, Mr. Finney has interviewed hundreds of athletes and professionals from Muhammad Ali to Ted Williams.

Today I was given several issues of the Saturday Gardening section of the newspaper. I am pleased to say that my tree illustration is both in a skybox on the front and inside the paper. A special thanks to Mr. Kenny Harrison for allowing me to create a design for the newspaper!