• By ALLEN M. JOHNSON JR.
• Advocate New Orleans bureau
• Published: Oct 8, 2008 - Page: 12A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS —  Calling New Orleans “the most deadly city in the United States,” Foreignpolicy.com, a Washington-based Web site, has listed the Big Easy among “five cities that stand in a class all their own when it comes to brutal, homicidal violence.”

The mayor’s public information office did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment, but Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard said the city’s portrayal in Foreignpolicy.com, a Web site for Foreign Policy, a Washington-based magazine, says “nothing new” about New Orleans.

“The city is making progress in the areas it can make progress in,” said Minyard, the city’s elected coroner since 1974. He cited several reform initiatives such as a $1 million police recruiting campaign.

However, social ills — such as teen pregnancy, poverty and drug abuse — continue to fuel the city’s chronically high homicide rate.

Foreignpolicy.com listed New Orleans as one of five “murder capitals” around the world. Others include: Caracas, Venezuela; Cape Town, South Africa; Moscow, Russia; and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The Web site, which is separate from the magazine in editorial content, is a publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In 2007, homicides in the Crescent City ranged from 67 per 100,000 — (the New Orleans Police Department estimate) to 95 per 100,000 (FBI estimate), the Web site said. The rates varied by population projections, from 220,614 to 312,000.

No matter which numbers are used, the Web site concludes, New Orleans remains the “most deadly city in the United States, easily surpassing Detroit and Baltimore with 46 and 45 murders per 100,000 people respectively.”

The site reported that drug dealers have been fighting over a smaller group of users here since Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005, contributing to the murders.

“On just one four-block stretch of Josephine Street, in the city center, four people were murdered in 2007 and 15 people shot, including a double homicide on Christmas Day,” the Web site reported.

“My office is in the middle of all that (violence), geographically and professionally, too,” said Minyard, whose office has operated out of an old funeral home in impoverished Central City since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.

Citywide, he adds, “We had three murders last night,” pushing the homicide total up to 155 for the year by noon Tuesday.

“It’s not just a matter of (more) police; it’s the social conditions,” Minyard said.  “We had three killings yesterday. Police can’t stop it. They can put a dent in it — but they can’t stop it.”

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