By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Residents across the River Parishes are encouraged this week to turn on their porch lights and join forces with their neighbors in an effort to give criminals the message that good citizens are fighting back.

Tuesday marks the 27th year for the annual National Night out Against Crime, and once again St. John, St. James and St. Charles parishes will be well represented with dozens of block parties, cookouts and other celebrations.

The National Night Out, sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch, is designed to heighten crime awareness and drug prevention, generate support and participation in local anti-crime efforts, strengthen neighborhood spirit and police/community relations and send a message to criminals letting them know neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

“We always have a big turnout for St. John,” said Capt. Michael Hoover, commander of the St. John Sheriff’s Office community relations division. “Residents call us a month in advance to schedule block parties and events.”

Hoover said the Sheriff’s Office has already scheduled 50 parties for the evening, which is just shy of the 55 scheduled last year. He said the Sheriff’s Office makes every effort to spread deputies across the parish so a few can visit each party and spend time getting to know the neighborhood.

One of the events scheduled in St. John will be hosted by School Board member Matthew Ory and held in the parking lot of the preschool at Ascension of Our Lord in the 2000 block of Lafitte Street. The party will double as an event to promote back-to-school awareness and will feature free food and drinks and giveaways.

Rising Star Baptist Church in LaPlace will also host a block party.

“We often get together with the fire department to show off some of our equipment for the kids,” Hoover said. “We also get a good chance to gauge the community spirit, but we want these events to get people out of their homes and into the neighborhood.”

Susie Gauthier, Night Out coordinator for St. Charles Parish, said the parish normally schedules around 20 parties a year involving a lot of the same groups.

“There is a lot of interaction between deputies and citizens,” said Gauthier. “We make sure that parties specify if they have kids in attendance so that deputies can be ready with equipment to show off.”

In St. James Parish, organizers say they are expecting more than a dozen parties across both sides of the Mississippi River to celebrate the Night Out. St. James Parish organizer Craig Poche said the communities of Lutcher and Gramercy are often well represented during the night out. On the west bank side, Poche said there is often good representation in Vacherie as well as in the community of Welcome, which is holding a large Night Out Party at Welcome Recreational Park.

Tuesday’s Night Out against Crime festivities typically run from 6-9 p.m. There will also be a kickoff party for the entire New Orleans metropolitan region on Sunday from 4-7 p.m. at the Treasure Chest Casino in Kenner. The event includes free food, entertainment and a Red Bean Cook-Off that will include members of the St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Organizers in all three parishes said there is still time to register and clear a block party before Tuesday. Anyone still wishing to schedule an even should call Hoover at 985-652-7058, Gauthier at 985-783-1355, or Poche at 225-562-2203.