Citizen Crime Watch Blog

EDITORIAL: Harder look at Pi Kappa Alpha
Saturday, May 10, 2008

Tulane University moved quickly to revoke the charter of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity after a hazing incident in April that left two pledges seriously injured and led to the arrest of 10 students this week. …

Colleges and universities cannot tolerate organizations that engage in such harmful activities. But unfortunately, Tulane didn’t respond with the same alacrity to an earlier complaint about Pike, as the fraternity is commonly called.

In 2006, Tulane’s student government group wrote a letter to the administration asking that it investigate the fraternity. The letter was prompted by complaints from several young women who said that they had been drugged and possibly raped at an annual Pike party called “Saturate.”

The fraternity did get into some trouble that year. Tulane officials said that Pike was found to be in violation of the Code of Student Conduct in 2006 and was subjected to sanctions, including temporary suspension.

But the university has acknowledged that it received the letter from the student government association after those events and did not answer it. “Apparently, there was no response from Tulane to this letter, which we regret,” the university said in a statement.

Tulane officials need to find out what went wrong in 2006 and make sure that no subsequent complaints were given similarly short shrift.

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New advertising campaign targets sex offenders
by Allen Powell, The Times Picayune
Friday May 02, 2008, 9:30 AM

Local police agencies and a watchdog group have teamed up to launch an advertising campaign seeking the public’s help in locating sex offenders who have failed to keep up with the requirements of Louisiana law.

The New Orleans Police Department, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, Kenner Police and Crimestoppers today announced the new campaign, meant to publicize the names, pictures and charges for nearly 60 sex offenders who have failed to meet the registration requirements set by law.

An ad detailing that information will run in the Times-Picayune on Monday, the group said.

The agencies estimate that about 231 sex offenders in the three jurisdictions currently are not in compliant. Often, these individuals do not notify law enforcement agencies about their current addresses or give addresses that turn out to be incorrect.

Darlene Cusanza, the executive director of Crimestoppers, said the organization is using the ad as a pilot program based on similar programs in other cities. She said that the agency is offering residents a $500 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.

“This is an important project for us and we hope that the citizens will take this seriously,” Cusanza said.