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American Morning

Latin Gangs May Be on Rise in St. Bernard Parish; 'Minding Your Business'

Aired February 27, 2006 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: St. Bernard Parish, battered, beaten and vulnerable. And now violent criminals might be moving in.
Also, Mardi Gras. It's not just New Orleans, of course. Another community had to pick up the pieces so they could think about something else other than recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Hello, everybody. I'm Miles O'Brien reporting to you live from Slidell, Louisiana. This is a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

Soledad, good morning.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm at the convention center this morning, Miles. A place, of course, we have not so fond memories of. This morning, though, we're going to update you on what's happening here.

That's just ahead -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: We're about 30 miles north of you, Soledad, Slidell, Louisiana. Folks here are taking to call this place the forgotten city. So much focus on New Orleans and the troubles of that city. When you go to places around the Gulf region and talk to people there, they feel as if they do not share in the limelight as they should.

I'm standing on Brookwood Drive here, which has trailer after trailer after trailer. These homes some of the 4,000 homes of 10,000 in this city that are absolutely uninhabitable at this point in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Folks here still have a long way to go before they can come back. We're going to talk to some of them. We'll take you inside some of these trailers a little bit later today. And we'll talk to the mayor of Slidell, who has some very strong words for the federal government and the red tape and the bureaucracy that his city has had to endure, not to -- not to mention the lack of funding that he has had to try to get this city back in shape.

All of that coming up in the next few moments here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And, you know, Miles, you say "bureaucracy," and I think that's an excellent word because that's a word we have heard from many people effected in the wake of this storm.

Here at the convention center you can see some efforts at rebuilding. They've reopened three of the halls. And those are the halls that are now hosting some of these Mardi Gras parades. You can see obviously the big, heavy equipment. And you can see some of the garbage.

These plastic bags here are not leftover, of course, from Hurricane Katrina, but instead, the kind of bags they put the beads in, load them on the floats so you can throw them at people who are watching the parades. But as we move down here a bit, if we can, we'll show you -- look -- look at this hall here. Obviously still under way to being worked on.

They're going to replace a lot of the panels. They've ripped out all of the carpets. They've done a ton of work.

It looks good in what's been done. They're actually ahead of schedule and they're hopeful that by early summer they're going to have eight of these halls reopened.

So, some good news to report here. The convention center obviously a place that we have many not good memories of as people line this whole area, tens of thousands people looking for any kind of food, any kind of water to be dropped or brought in. But it does seem that this recovery here sends a real message to the city that the city is making a comeback.

Lots more to tell you about this morning. Let's first get to Carol Costello. She's got obviously other news from New York this morning.

Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

good morning to all of you.

A new agreement over a controversial ports deal. A Dubai-owned company says it will undergo a 45-day review to allow it to manage six U.S. ports. The company already had been approved by a federal committee, but many lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, had raised objections, citing concerns for the nation's security.

President Bush's domestic spying program may soon be coming under closer scrutiny. A group of House Democrats want a special council to investigate. They're sending a letter to the president asking for just that. They want to know if there's any violation of federal criminal law, claiming lawmakers' efforts to get answers were blocked by the "feeble list of excuses."

Saddam Hussein is eating again. Remember he staged that hunger strike to protest the new head judge in his trial? His lawyer says he kept it going 11 whole days but began eating again for health reasons. The trial is supposed to resume tomorrow barring any delays.

A Florida boy is still in intensive care this morning after falling from a roller-coaster. Authorities say the 13-year-old was turned around in his seat when he fell from the Triple Hurricane roller-coaster over the weekend. Park officials say they found no problems with the ride itself.

A farewell to veteran actor Don Knotts. He kept generations of TV fans laughing as Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show." You'll also remember him as the landlord, Mr. Furley, on "Three's Company."

Don Knotts died surrounded by his family in Los Angeles. He was 81 years old.

And the flame is out at the winter Olympics in Italy. The games closed in Torino with a tribute to Carnival. Speed skater Joey Cheek carried the U.S. flag during the closing ceremony.

Germany got the most medals at these games, a total of 29. The U.S. came in second, with 25. The next winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver in 2010.

Does that seem a far, far time in the future, Chad, 2010?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. My little young boy will be in first grade. That seems forever away. So does college and the end of retirement.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thank you very much.

You know, Hurricane Katrina brought one kind of wave, a 20-foot wave, really, to St. Bernard Parish. Now there's a second wave to tell you about. Believe it or not, a crime wave. The sheriff of St. Bernard Parish says Latin gangs may be on the rise in his community.

CNN's Dan Lothian has our disturbing report this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Ravaged by a hurricane, St. Bernard Parish is now facing another potentially dangerous threat, the violent Latin street gang MS13.

SHERIFF JACK STEVENS, ST. BERNARD PARISH: That's not something that we're accustomed to here. Again, we've had a hard-core criminal element, but nothing organized like that and nothing, frankly, as dangerous.

LOTHIAN: Earlier this month, three heavily-tattooed suspects who police say are affiliated with MS13 were arrested by St. Bernard Parish investigators, accused of possessing drugs and stolen property. They claim to have been in town looking for work. An informant gave them up.

(on camera): The suspects were picked up in this St. Bernard Parish neighborhood. Investigators have yet to identify a well- organized group. But the arrests set off an alarm.

(voice over): The fear that hidden among the flood of people seeking cleanup and reconstruction jobs are more gang members working by day, committing crimes by night.

STEVENS: It's disturbing.

LOTHIAN: Sheriff Jack Stevens says with so many displaced residents and a police force diminished by Katrina, this area is fertile ground for MS13 to blossom.

STEVENS: There's so many difficult situations that people in this region have to face now. We certainly don't want them to be preoccupied with the fact that they're going to be dealing with gang activity, street violence, drive-by shootings and things like that. And it's important for us to make sure we're ahead of the curve on this thing.

LOTHIAN: That's where the FBI comes in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We would be naive to think the organized element isn't going to soon follow.

LOTHIAN: CNN gained exclusive access to a recent organized crime conference in New Orleans. FBI experts helping 200 law and regional law enforcement personnel confront this new reality.

JAMES BERNAZZANI, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: This is raising the bar of knowledge. And it's also -- it's a forum to discuss the best way to share information.

LOTHIAN: Information about a gang that initiates new recruits with violence, punishes snitches with death, and sends threats to judges and police. The FBI estimates MS13 has about 15,000 members and runs its criminal operation in 33 states.

BERNAZZANI: The most effective law enforcement relative to these gangs is not arriving at the crime scene. It's taking them out before they gain too much traction.

LOTHIAN: MS13 already appears to be claiming turf in other communities around New Orleans. CNN found the gang's signature at a shopping center in Kenner. One store manager says the graffiti began showing up last month.

In St. Bernard Parish, Sheriff Stevens isn't waiting for the writing on the wall.

STEVENS: Let's face it, I mean, criminals are going to go where they have the least resistance. And if we look strong and we stand tall in this situation, I think we're going to -- I think we're going to keep this community safe.

LOTHIAN: Even as they try to recover from Katrina.

Dan Lothian, CNN, St. Bernard Parish.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: This is a gang that's considered the worst of the worst. It's called -- the "MS" part means Mara Salvatrucha, meaning essentially it's a Salvadoran gang -- "13" stands for the rules that the gangs follow.

Ahead this morning, we're going to talk about just how important Mardi Gras is to some communities in the Gulf Coast.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This year, instead of people running to our floats, wanting a bead or wanting a stuffed animal, they were thanking us for being here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Got a look at that ahead, and exactly how those celebrations are going off this morning.

That's just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: The mayor of Slidell, Louisiana. And we're going to ask him why he thinks he is the mayor of the forgotten city.

That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It's the tail end of the Carnival season here. And if you are not from here, it's hard to fully appreciate how important this is to people around here.

I was among those people. Last night, I had the opportunity to ride on the Baccas (ph) parade and one of the floats. And suddenly I got it. I understood the psychological boost that Mardi Gras means to people here and why it's so important for them to celebrate.

CNN's Kathleen Koch, who hails from the Mississippi coast and understands this ever so well, visited a group of people there who against all odds and with a tremendous amount of things to consider other than Mardi Gras did everything they could to make the celebration happen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They sparkle in the mounds of broken debris, dangled like macabre decorations, Mardi Gras beads tossed by Katrina. The revelers who first threw those beads found the hurricane left their floats in ruins, too.

CINDY MEYER, WAVELAND NEREIDS MEMBER: There's a huge tin building. All of the floats lived inside.

KOCH: But Waveland, Mississippi's all female Mardi Gras crew called Nereids was determined.

MEYER: We all have boxers (INAUDIBLE) this year. We used paint scrapers and literally scraped all of the fabric that was left.

KOCH: Cindy Meyer and a dozen other women spent two months repairing the wood and fabric floats for last weekend's parade.

MEYER: I never thought for a minute we weren't going to be out there. We needed to be with our community. We needed to give them something besides FEMA and the battles that you do every day. You needed to get away from that, if it's just for an afternoon.

KOCH: There is a lot to escape from.

MEYER: Just like everybody in the crew, we have Mardi Gras ruins.

KOCH: Meyer had 10 feet of water in her house.

MEYER: It was like a snow globe inside my home, like someone just picked up my house and shook it.

KOCH: Ruined in the process, her husband's Mardi Gras finery.

(on camera): This is a mess.

MEYER: Yes.

KOCH: I mean, these were what, feathers?

MEYER: Big, beautiful plumes.

TOMMY KIDD, WAVELAND NEREIDS MEMBER: We didn't know we had anything left until we got up here to check this out.

KOCH (voice over): But the Nereids crew's Mardi Gras mementos are intact in at least one home.

KIDD: We collected or tried to collect every poster from each year.

KOCH: Tommy and Linda Kidds' lower levels were ruined, but their Mardi Gras room made it through.

(on camera): You're probably one of the only people in the crew who has this.

KIDD: I could well be.

KOCH: Sort of memorabilia-like.

KIDD: I could well be.

KOCH (voice over): The Kidds want to share their memorabilia, hoping posters can be copied.

LINDA KIDD, WAVELAND NEREIDS MEMBER: I believe what I'll do is probably donate these.

KOCH: Turning over costumes to be preserved for posterity. But for now, this Mardi Gras crew has nowhere to put anything.

MEYER: But our insurance was not enough to rebuild our building. So the babies are going to have to be out here for a while. It is who we are. So it will be back.

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Waveland, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: And a reminder to you all. AMERICAN MORNING will be here live tomorrow, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, for the end of the Carnival celebrations, the last day before Lent, 6:00 a.m. Eastern until 1:00 p.m. And we'll be on the parade route.

Soledad, having spent some time on a float last night throwing beads, being on the side of the parade tomorrow, I think I better bring a crash helmet, because it's something, boy.

S. O'BRIEN: It's not a bad idea. We have some of our producers full of bruises and cuts on their faces from being hit by some of the beads that were sort of tossed on them, you know, as well. Recovering, recovering just fine.

You know, ahead this morning, Miles, we're going to talk to the man who was actually in charge of the recovery for the Gulf Coast, Donald Powell. He's got some critics, though, who say he has no real authority. We'll talk to him about that this morning.

And then we revisit the convention center. A woman who spent four horrible days here while she wondered what happened to her husband will come and walk through the halls of this convention center with us and tell us how she's feeling about Mardi Gras now.

That story is ahead. We're back in just a moment.

Stay with us. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

If you take a look inside the convention center now, even one of the halls that's not completely renovated, it looks good. It's been stripped, it's being renovated.

This morning we're going to talk to a woman, though, who spent four miserable days here with tens of thousands of other people. She'll describe her experience for us and also tell us what it feels like to be coming back after six months.

And we talked to the man who is in charge of the Gulf Coast recovery six months after Hurricane Katrina. Donald Powell will tell us how he thinks things are going, what big obstacles he thinks lie ahead.

That's all ahead this morning from here -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, I'm sure one of my guests would like to hear what Mr. Powell has to say. The mayor of Slidell, Louisiana, he's an outspoken man. Ben Morris will be with us.

He says that this city is a forgotten city. You know, I first came here two days after the storm. At that time, no one had even heard from anybody in Slidell because they had no power, no communication. They are just trying to emerge from the mess here.

And to this day, people say they don't get enough attention given all of the focus on New Orleans, 30 miles to the south. As a matter of fact, when we pulled up here this morning and people heard our generators, they came outside. And they were, like, "Why are you causing such a ruckus here?" When they heard it was us they were, like, "Oh, we're so glad you're here."

So, this is a city that needs some help, along with many others outside of New Orleans, as well. We're going to focus on all of those over the next few days as we remain in the Gulf Coast region post- Katrina. Six months now.

Chad Myers, hard to believe it has been six months. What a difference six months makes on the temperature. I'm freezing out here, Chad. Should have brought my long underwear.

MYERS: It's 46, Miles. The wind chill in New York is 8.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you. Thank you very much, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Ooh, a buzz about a new gadget from Microsoft. What could it be? Andy is here to tell us.

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": I am, Carol. Nice to see you this morning.

You know, Microsoft is taking a page out of Apple Computer's book again. It seems like these two companies have been battling forever.

This is one of these viral marketing campaigns, Carol. It appears that Microsoft is close to unveiling a personalized mobile device that they say will change your life.

COSTELLO: Oh my god.

SERWER: This is at a Web site called OragamiProject.com. This is the Web site. And, you know, it's this kind of a tablet-PC thing that will probably compete with the iPod.

COSTELLO: Will it make me thinner and richer?

SERWER: Well, I'm not going to guarantee that. I'll let Bill Gates do that, perhaps.

But, you know, this is -- again, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs always competing with each other. And the viral marketing, the secrecy, that's one of Apple Computer's hallmarks. So Microsoft really kind of copying them a little bit, I think it's safe to say.

COSTELLO: I think it's safe to say. Yes.

Let's talk about the elections of 2004 and the role churches and charities played in them.

SERWER: Yes. You know, a lot of people have been complaining that charities, nonprofits, even churches have been crossing the line in the elections, endorsing candidates, supporting candidates, maybe even giving money to candidates. A new study by the IRS confirms that that did take place in the 2004 election.

They studied 110 nonprofits and 55 of them were warned. Now, there are a million of these things, so it's not that bad of a problem. But still, three of them are going to have their status revoke, but they wouldn't name which ones. So interesting stuff.

COSTELLO: They wouldn't name which ones?

SERWER: Not yet. We'll get it probably, though.

COSTELLO: I think we will.

SERWER: Yes.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Let's head back to Slidell and Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Carol.

Slidell, Louisiana, is where we are right now, Brookwood Drive, where there are an awful lot of trailers behind me, as you can see. That's in some ways the good news, in some ways the bad news, because they're concerned those trailers are going to overstay their welcome. We'll talk to the mayor of this town -- this city, actually -- about that in just a little bit -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles.

Ahead this morning, we're going to talk to a woman who spent four miserable days at the convention center. We're going to talk to her about what it's like now and also how she feels about coming back.

That's just ahead. We're back in a moment.

Stay with us.

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