United States - New Orleans

It's not the bad guys here that make "The Big Easy" so damned uneasy. It's the cops. The 1,285-member New Orleans Police Department can be considered the most corrupt and brutal major-city force in the United States, according to an FBI investigation into police abuses of civil liberties and overall corruption. Since 1993, more than 50 NOPD officers have been arrested on felony charges, including murder and rape. A few years ago, the week before Rodney King was clobbered by the cops in L.A., one DP writer was arrested and beaten by the police in New Orleans-he was hauled in on drug trafficking and prostitution charges after he had been seen giving an impoverished black guy (he's white) a few dollars for directing him to an ATM in the French Quarter. But the good-ole-boy attorney network in N.O. went to work for him. His attorney played golf with a prominent judge a few days later and got the charges dropped-and it only cost the writer five grand. During a subsequent attempt to sue the department and the city, he was informed that the highest damages he would receive would total no more than $3,000, that the city was bankrupt and that any damage award would be paid over 18 years.

Although the murder rate dropped 14 percent in New Orleans in 1995, the city still possesses the highest homicide rate of any major city in the country: 75 murders for every 100,000 residents. In the city's public housing developments, the murder rate is about 18 times higher than the nation's. In the French Quarter, it is best to stay south of North Rampart Street and keep to the center of the street. Do not stop if someone asks you for the time. The housing projects are rife with crime-Desire, Florida and B.W. Cooper are the worst. Do not visit the cemeteries after dark.