Progressivism pushing Shreveport crime higher

Maybe Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is on to something when he muses about Shreveport’s high crime rate.

Last week, GOP Pres. Donald Trump broached the idea of sending the National Guard into high-crime cities. It’s more complex than it sounds to pull that off, principally in that Democrat-run big cities with crime problems often are in Democrat-monopoly states, whose governors can mostly neuter the attempt, but it aggravated them to no end to hear that option, especially on the heels of Trump doing this with Washington, DC which immediately saw a significant reduction in violent crime.

Now, Trump and Johnson are floating the idea of a national crime bill, and one critique Democrats had was Johnson didn’t have credibility on the issue because of Shreveport’s crime numbers in his district. Johnson replied this was because a “progressive prosecutor” – namely Democrat District Attorney James Stewart – was gumming up the works. This kind of district attorney charges fewer and downgrades more cases, on the assumption that the criminal justice system is too punitive in a manner that discriminates against lower-income individuals, often non-whites – a recipe for higher crime, opponents of the idea say, with weakened deterrence, while advocates claim it’s a better use of resources.

LA moves to increase confidence in elections

Thanks to the Republican Pres. Doanld Trump Administration, Louisiana can have elections that inspire a little more confidence that the fundamental condition of representative democracy, fair elections, can be achieved.

Recently, the state gained access to the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, kept by the federal government to vet applicants for eligibility (citizenship or permanent residence) for transfer payments. Taking that data and cross-matching it with voter registration rolls for the past few years, GOP Sec. of State Nancy Landry’s office determined that 390 noncitizens (permanent residents are ineligible) illegally appeared on voter rolls, of which 79 actually had voted in at least one election.

The state hadn’t pursued this layup to improve election integrity because until Trump’s reelection strangely the federal government charged $1.75 a name – meaning to plug in each registered name would have cost the state around $3.5 million a shot – for information federal agencies had to collect by law anyway and which would cost nothing to search. The outcome is disturbing, because (except for the provisional ballot process) Louisiana has pretty airtight procedures for registration and vote casting, so likely illegal documentation (or sloppiness at a registrar’s office) caused this problem.

Simple story of new LA GOP senator most credible

It doesn’t work well to hyperventilate about the intriguing 2026 Louisiana Senate race when Occam’s Razor will do.

Concerning the upcoming contest, a piece at Townhall.com by a Paul Hidalgo, whose brief biographical line lists as his only source of expertise on the subject matter is he’s a resident of Marrero. Twists itself into knots. Townhall as an open-door policy to contributors, and while some are good (Louisianan Jeff Crouere, longtime conservative activist and radio show host whose day job flummoxed the state’s largest newspaper the Baton Rouge Advocate, reprints his weekly column there), this one leaves the reader more confused than prior to laying eyes on it.

At its core, Hidalgo seems to think there’s a realistic chance that Louisiana could give away a GOP seat in the Senate. This is because, he writes, incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy is polling so miserably for an incumbent he would end up losing against a Democrat, with Hidalgo specifically mentioning Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards as the foil.

Some LA cities could use Nat'l Guard deployment

Deploying the National Guard to perform law enforcement functions in Louisiana is easier than you think. It’s just whether the benefits gained aren’t derailed by the politics and policy involved.

Republican Pres. Donald Trump ordered Guard deployment in Washington, DC to enforce the law. It has been an unqualified success, with significant drops in crime commission basically across the board. As a result, Trump has talked of deployment elsewhere, including Louisiana.

However, that’s a different situation. DC has a special constitutional status, run by the federal government, while states have limited sovereignty including in the area of law enforcement. Essentially, a state has to invite the Guard to mobilize or else it can do little in the way of law enforcement, essentially left with protecting federal property.