by Shay Sokol

On the day of yet another murder in a New Orleans neighborhood that is usually deemed safe, Mayor Mitch stepped back up to the podium this afternoon, saying the incident "broke his heart" and calling on judges to put the squeeze on arrested for having illegal weapons. The city's latest initiative mirrors a St. Louis tactic that increases bonds and institutes electronic monitoring for people arrested for carrying illegal guns. 

In St. Louis, judges began issuing $30,000 cash bonds for weapons charges. Landrieu did not say how much the bond would be increased in New Orleans, but he said there was an opportunity to have the ankle monitoring piece of the proposal pay for itself.

"As a condition of bonded release, defendants facing gun charges should be required by the court to pay for electronic monitoring so the NOPD can restrict their movements," the Mayor wrote in a letter to Civil District Court judges.

As he's done on so many other issues that tie into the city's high murder rate, NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas said the cops have a "laser-like focus" on illegal guns, and commented that many of the city's murder weapons are illegally obtained.

"The linkage between prior illegal weapons charges and murder cannot be ignored," he said.

Along with announcement of the new initiative, the morning's events could not be ignored. In Algiers Point, 44-year-old Harry "Mike" Ainsworth intervened in a carjacking, and was gunned down, Da Paper reports. Landrieu said the Good Samaritan case broke his heart.

"It's something worth talking about everyday," he said of the city's culture of crime.

Piggybacking on President Barack Obama's call for "nation building at home" during last night's State of the Union address, Landrieu talked about the need for more funds at home.

"When Washington and the state of Louisiana says do more with less, it's a myth," Mayor Mitch said. "You can only do less with less."

As for the potentially damaging headlines that have begun to show up in national newspapers in front of the tourist-heavy Carnival festivities, Landrieu said he created some of the headlines by being honest about the city's crime problem before national audiences recently.

"As the mayor and ambassador of the city, I walk a tightrope," he said, referring to the need to promote the city, but also point out the need for funding and help in its most troubled areas.