LA - Mickey Shunick, 21, Lafayette; 19 May 2012 - #23

[JurysOut]

Then how the hell pray tell did she escape the camera at 216 Landry? Or are you saying that she went down Brashear and onto another street then back onto Landry?

Maybe they withheld or didn't release that info?

I dunno.

So many mysterious elements. It's like The Dance of the Seven Veils.

 

[athy]

What I want to know is ...is there anything really, truly, wrong with sammiches and take out for two weeks straight?

just depends on where you got them from

 

[Schmidty]

The point is - I am not the only one who thinks there is an upsurge in crime in Lafayette, which is purposely being underreported to burnish the image of the city. There's a lawsuit over it. The chief is being sued. There's a huge PR push across the nation to attract companies to Lafayette.

I feel the area Mickey was biking had become notably unsafe, and it was allowed to slide, and so here we are.

The cohort group to which Mickey belonged were among the most vulnerable. The grew up having formed an opinion and perception of their home town as one thing and then this huge change occurred when they were old enough to have that solidified opinion yet still young and naive enough to not have the mature perspective to factor in those changes and modify their perceptions (and behavior) accordingly. I see it in my son.

 

[dice410]

and i have a very sick feeling that it all ties together. A lot of politics is involved with this case, i suspect/

this!!!

 

[A.C.I]

I'm still bleeding from the ears & now I have a headache.
Chicken & ACI: cameras?? Past 216 or not?
St Landry continuation or not?
Johnston st past Coliseum? To Mel's & beyond? Cameras at Marcello's? Too far? Going in circles......this no info is maddening. Conjecture is maddening. I can't think clearly.
Somebody please bring this baby home !!! Lighting St Jude candle again. To you Nolas,from Our Lady of Guadeloupe...

A helpful web sleuther gave me a tip and upon checking it out I confirmed there is another camera further down St. Landry past 216. If she was seen on this one she was 100% heading towards coliseum. When I attempted to confirm it today, my source was not at all shocked at the prospect of her being on this camera. Cameras on Johnston from coliseum to Mel's were checked. But hardly any cameras checked the other way down Johnston. This indicates, at least to me, LE is holding back footage or some verified info that her intended route was down St. Landry, to coliseum, to Johnston. She wasnt on any of the Mels cameras so we know she didnt get that far.

 

[mamamia54]

The thing that really gets me, is Mickey thought mace would be enough to save her from some scum bag that was out to prey on unsuspecting women. IF that's what happened. Kids, they kill me honestly. God bless their hearts they just feel that they can go anywhere, do anything and they will not be the ones to get caught up in some sort of sick depraved minded human being.

 

[Cajunnurse]

Just saw a newsflash that there is an unconfirmed update in Mickey's case. Waiting on the 5 o'clock news....please let this be good news...pray, please pray....

 

[JurysOut]

And I have a very sick feeling that it all ties together. A lot of politics is involved with this case, I suspect/

I see that the city and this case are weighing heavily on your heart.

Especially if you feel that your city could have prevented it and didn't.

You've done a lot of very impressive stuff to help those of us who are far away understand events in context. To almost feel like we're there.

Maybe you can't help Mickey, but maybe you can help your community try to avoid whatever happened to Mickey happening again.

Don't let the crooked b@$t@rd$ get you down. You have a lot to contribute.

 

[Donamena]

A helpful web sleuther gave me a tip and upon checking it out I confirmed there is another camera further down St. Landry past 216. If she was seen on this one she was 100% heading towards coliseum. When I attempted to confirm it today, my source was not at all shocked at the prospect of her being on this camera. Cameras on Johnston from coliseum to Mel's were checked. But hardly any cameras checked the other way down Johnston. This indicates, at least to me, LE is holding back footage or some verified info that her intended route was down St. Landry, to coliseum, to Johnston. She wasnt on any of the Mels cameras so we know she didnt get that far.

Forgive my poor brain: so that could still leave Coliseum to Bertrand open? What's that street on the other side of Blackham?

 

[Schmidty]

The thing that really gets me, is Mickey thought mace would be enough to save her from some scum bag that was out to prey on unsuspecting women. IF that's what happened. Kids, they kill me honestly. God bless their hearts they just feel that they can go anywhere, do anything and they will not be the ones to get caught up in some sort of sick depraved minded human being.

It has become very popular and even emphasized in schools that one must never judge, must never assume bad things about another based on stereotypes or generalizations. I think in the process common sense has been tossed out with the bath water. Stereotypes and generalizations (to a degree!) are a useful tool and exist for a reason ...and aid in survival of the species.

 

[JurysOut]

Just saw a newsflash that there is an unconfirmed update in Mickey's case. Waiting on the 5 o'clock news....please let this be good news...pray, please pray....

Keep us posted, please!

 

[Dum-Dum Sucker]

What I want to know is ...is there anything really, truly, wrong with sammiches and take out for two weeks straight?

I'm just doing my part to help the economy,,,,,that's the way I look at it.

 

[fleurdenola]

I feel the area Mickey was biking had become notably unsafe, and it was allowed to slide, and so here we are.

When? Only after Katrina did it become unsafe, or was it always unsafe to be out and about, alone, in this area, or really, any other at 2AM? The DTL stuff went down way before Katrina, and I know for a fact that a woman being out and about at 2AM during that time frame was just much as risk as one today. In my opinion the area is not generally unsafe. If it were, things like this--people getting abducted--would be the norm, not the exception. We cannot blame an abduction, random hit and grab, whatever this may be, on an influx of Katrina thugs. And if people still want to, we really need to evaluate the types of crimes said thugs commit. If Mickey had been shot dead, stripped of all of her belongings, and left in the middle of the street, I would say that maybe a NOLA was responsible for this. Pulling a disappearing act on a girl with no discernible ties to that community? That is not their thing. NOLA crime is horrific. No one will deny that. But it is also rarely random. It is targeted. So unless we can connect Mickey to someone from this community, this is reaching for me.

The cohort group to which Mickey belonged were among the most vulnerable. The grew up having formed an opinion and perception of their home town as one thing and then this huge change occurred when they were old enough to have that solidified opinion yet still young and naive enough to not have the mature perspective to factor in those changes and modify their perceptions (and behavior) accordingly. I see it in my son.

I really have to disagree with this as well. I grew up in that cohort, and never once did I feel like I lived in a "small town" and develop a false sense of security about my safety. Perhaps I was just raised differently? Lafayette proper has been in the hundred thousand population range for quite a while now, and that's where she grew up. If the city was one of those "Population 1,201" kind of places, I might be able to see thinking Lafayette had small town safety.

 

[LafayetteMom]

Yes, those people went many places: Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Houston in large droves, all over the country in smaller ones.

There have been quite a few studies on crime increases in areas that saw an influx of Katrina evacuees, and there has been no proven increase in crime attributed to this.

What I do think Katrina increased for Lafayette was the traffic. Good Lord is the traffic bad there!

I agree with the traffic, and another issue I've always thought was affected by Katrina, is cell phone reception (at least for certain providers). Never had any issues pre-Katrina, and immediately after it was a nightmare, and has never gone back to the same. We recently switched providers and that's helped tremendously. I didn't view Lafayette as "small town" back then but we certainly weren't prepared to handle such a huge population increase.

As far as crime goes...I don't know if we can truly point our fingers at the refugees. I think any such increase is a natural occurrence that has been affected by the unemployment rate, price of gas/groceries, etc. Of course I did not notice what crime was going on pre-Katrina b/c I was a student at UL and kept my nose in books. Post-Katrina, I worked somewhere that hired guys from halfway houses and such, so I was more aware of the issue.

 

[goldiegirl]

Having been both a Lafayette and NOLA girl, and being in NOLA right up until Katrina, right after it, and for many years after, I really don't think we need to go down this road on this thread. It's been almost 7 years, yes, but as the comments of myself and several others (on both sides) have shown, this is still a very sensitive subject.

Let's remember why we're here. Let's find Mickey!

Amen. Can we please stop discussing the crime rate and Katrina unless it directly pertains to this case? It's just such a multifaceted issue that's already starting to really derail this conversation. There are plenty of other places to talk about this if you're interested, but I think many of us, especially those who have lived down there, have been through this over and over again and aren't interested in hashing it out here. Yes, Fleurdenola, let's find Mickey.

 

[JurysOut]

I agree with the traffic, and another issue I've always thought was affected by Katrina, is cell phone reception (at least for certain providers). Never had any issues pre-Katrina, and immediately after it was a nightmare, and has never gone back to the same. We recently switched providers and that's helped tremendously. I didn't view Lafayette as "small town" back then but we certainly weren't prepared to handle such a huge population increase.

As far as crime goes...I don't know if we can truly point our fingers at the refugees. I think any such increase is a natural occurrence that has been affected by the unemployment rate, price of gas/groceries, etc. Of course I did not notice what crime was going on pre-Katrina b/c I was a student at UL and kept my nose in books. Post-Katrina, I worked somewhere that hired guys from halfway houses and such, so I was more aware of the issue.

So how's Verizon's reception?

Or have we not established MS's cell carrier?

 

[mamamia54]

It has become very popular and even emphasized in schools that one must never judge, must never assume bad things about another based on stereotypes or generalizations. I think in the process common sense has been tossed out with the bath water. Stereotypes and generalizations (to a degree!) are a useful tool and exist for a reason ...and aid in survival of the species.

Yes indeed, and that tool is so rarely used today. Even though we attempt to tell our children what to do in case of say an abduction attempt, and they say that they understand, they are really never going to be totally prepared for it. Those human prey thugs are there, and they are stealthy preditors.

 

[JurysOut]

Amen. Can we please stop discussing the crime rate and Katrina unless it directly pertains to this case? It's just such a multifaceted issue that's already starting to really derail this conversation. There are plenty of other places to talk about this if you're interested, but I think many of us, especially those who have lived down there, have been through this over and over again and aren't interested in hashing it out here. Yes, Fleurdenola, let's find Mickey.

Deal.

 

[ashola_nola]

I think we're talking about the wrong "girl" here. This is about Mickey, not Katrina. I understand we're frustrated about not having anything new to go on, but NOLA vs. Lafayette arguments aren't getting us anywhere.

MOOving on.

 

[saralsim]

The statistics here do show an up-tick in population and most crimes in Baton Rouge following 2005. I know that the crime in BR has progressively gotten worse, but I think that has a lot to do with the direction society and younger generations in general seem to be headed - but that's a whole other topic. I don't think that saying an influx of "Katrina refugees" contributed to higher crime rates reflects on the city of New Orleans. If the same thing ever happens to Baton Rouge, the numerous shooting deaths happening overnight downtown EVERY night, will be happening somewhere else. That doesn't make me a gang banger because I live here.
http://www.idcide.com/citydata/la/baton-rouge.htm

The reality of it is that if you had been in the BR area for the two years after Katrina and kept track of the news on TV, you would have found that some individuals from New Orleans were responsible for a great amount of the violent crimes reported on TV. If Lafayette was similar, then you cannot blame residents for feeling Katrina transplants were committing crimes all over the city, many of them violent crimes. My question to you is, is that the fault of the resident or the news organization that reported those crimes to the public? Were those news organizations biased in reporting the Katrina connected crimes or were we truly having more of those crimes being committed?

It was my perception as well that Katrina increased crime in our area, but a year or so ago, I looked up the stats. The total crime didn't increase, though there were minor fluctuations in the types of crimes being committed. The crimes around the BR area have become more widespread. Whether that is the result of Katrina or just natural increases and spreading, I don't know. I suspect it is likely a combination of many factors including widespread drug issues, economic issues, etc. I'm just guessing. This is all JMO, take it for what it is.