Crime Wave Shocks City, Meg Farris Wrinkles Brow

TREME — In the current murder capital of the country, a city so flooded with violent and vicious crime that not even her mayor likes to stay in town, recent events have shaken the core of the normally stoic populace.

Anti-violence vigils occur unnoticed to the gun-toting predator-children who carelessly shed blood, not only ending the lives of their victims but also wasting their very own.

A father slits the throat of his two year-old child. Three fifteen year-olds botch a robbery and leave for dead a beloved bartender in the heart of the Vieux Carre. Residents of the same “safe” sections of the quarter are held up at gunpoint the very next day. A son is charged with the murder of his dad and the attempted murder of his mom. The motive? He was “tired of them.”

Even the bleary eyed denizens of this dreadful crime ridden gunshot town are shocked.

To wit: WWL-TV’s “Medical Watch” reporter Meg Farris displayed visible emotion on last Thursday night’s broadcast.

After Channel Four’s “Eyewitness News at Five,” reporter Lee Zurik completed his report on a Jefferson Parish detective’s arrest of a suspected rapist, Farris furrowed her eyebrows most apparently.

Cameraman Herbert Hebert was there.

“About seventeen seconds in, you could see it. She definitely squinted or something. I had my video playback guy rewind it. We couldn’t believe it first but the we saw it. She felt something, trust me.”

Soon after, as is wont of the judicious reporter, Farris regained her composure and completed her report on a new cardiovascular study claiming the minor benefits of one glass of red wine per day.

Truly the safety, well-being and quality of life in New Orleans are in question.

If Farris’ display last Thursday night is not indicative of our tenuous position, can we not at least see Farris as our Canary in the Mine?