East Baton Rouge DA speaks on violent crime and his plan to stop it
(Baton Rouge, LA.)
East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar C. Moore III, who went to LSU to “get away from his parents” in New Orleans, came back to his alma mater and spoke at a news conference in LSU’s Journalism Building with the Louisiana Scholastic Press Association (LSPA) Summer Institute and its students to discuss the BRAVE Program in Baton Rouge.
Moore, the 2nd most powerful man in Louisiana behind John Bel Edwards, has been instrumental in the reduction of the homicide rate despite his critics calling his new method “Hug-A-Thug”-esque. Since his election to the office, Moore has been seeking for a solution to the problem. His main goal from the beginning had been to find a way to reduce homicides within Baton Rouge. His answer was found in Dr. David Kennedy, the mastermind behind Operation Ceasefire in Boston.
Dr. Kennedy advised him to see if there was a gang problem, and Moore held two audits and found there were over 40 active groups in the capitol city. He then also learned that 52% of the murders in Baton Rouge had some type of GMI (Group Member Involvement). After learning this, Moore gathered together the Chief of Police, Sheriff, community leaders, and faith based leaders in the city and called together call-ins with the local groups in the city to help convince them to put down the guns and start to not be a part of the group life. Since then, there has been steady decrease in the homicide rate since 2013.