When Democrats and the MSM make an issue out of the slow recovery in New Orleans, it will be good to keep in mind stories like this which suggest that even the most basic of local crime problems are not being addressed by the New Orleans Police Department. The latest crime wave that can’t be stopped – the stealing of copper pipes to be sold as scrap:

Tonette Sylvester, owner of Gayle Laurence Hair Studio in the 9700 block of Lake Forest Boulevard in eastern New Orleans, gave up on copper after thieves struck her salon three times this summer. On a Tuesday in June, she opened the salon doors to find her shop flooded. More than 400 feet of copper water pipes had been stolen — again. She called the police and a plumber, who installed PVC-like pipes. Sylvester said she returned to her business the next day and found it unbearably hot. “The thieves came back that night and had stolen all the copper from the rooftop air-conditioning units,” she said. “The unit was utterly destroyed. The thieves maliciously tore it apart. And we had just paid around $6,000 to have it installed.” Sylvester installed a security camera and signs warning of dangerous “concealed traps” on the rooftop. “I lost more than $12,000 because of this,” she said.

And the “creative” NOPD response:

Because copper is not traceable or distinguishable, police are virtually helpless when it comes to cracking down on copper thefts.
“Say we stop a truck full of copper pipes,” he said. “They say they found the copper in the trash or somebody gave it to them. We can’t prove it. We have to rely on witness accounts.”
Some thieves have shown up at work sites dressed as contractors, carrying tools, said Capt. Gregory Elder, commander of the 3rd District, which includes Gentilly, Lakeview and Mid-City.
To help thwart such ploys, Elder said officers have been forced to become creative. “We see a man pushing a shopping cart full of copper. He won’t say where it came from. So we look at the shopping cart, which came from a local grocery store.”
Police booked him with theft of the cart. “We’ve gotten several guys like that,” Elder said.

Unbelievable.