LEONARD GRAY

PHOTO: St. Charles Parish sheriff’s deputies Randy Robert and Morris Champagne present glow-sticks to youngsters at a National Night Out Against Crime party Tuesday in Avalon Subdivision, Hahnville. (Staff Photo by Leonard Gray) HAHNVILLE – In some communities, residents look for increased police presence in residential neighborhoods. In the River Parishes, deputies are everywhere. The 18th annual National Night Out Against Crime brought deputies out, meeting and sharing good fellowship with their friends and neighbors in the communities they serve. The event, held Tuesday, involved the sheriff’s offices of St. James, St. John the Baptist and St. Charles parishes, and sheriffs Willy Martin Jr., Wayne Jones and Greg Champagne actively promoted the event, urging their deputies to make their presence known. However, as befitting a neighborhood unifying against crime, this was no single location – this was a series of planned parties, where neighbors met in backyards, front yards, carports and garages, dodging Tuesday night’s rain, to cook up jambalaya, sauce piquante, burgers and hot dogs. Children enjoyed presents brought by the deputies, from pencils for school to light sticks. The parties, scattered throughout the River Parishes, gave residents a face-to-face opportunity to tell the sheriff’s representatives about local concerns, including speeding, burglary and vandalism. Public officials also took the opportunity to meet and greet, and one Louisiana Supreme Court candidate even hit the campaign trail that night. The nasty weather put a damper on some events, but many parties proceeded as scheduled, with games, food, children’s activities and, at one party in Bayou Gauche, a five-man country band. In St. John parish, “Sparky” presented gifts to youngsters, and in some St. Charles parties, Parish President Albert Laque was joined by State Sen. Joel Chaisson II and District Judge Robert Chaisson. District Judge Mary Hotard Becnel also raced from spot to spot, getting her campaign message out, while promoting her own anti-crime message. River Parishes residents, however, have throwing a party down to an art form, and the National Night Out Against Crime here is not simply leaving your lights on. It is waking up the whole area to involve everyone in the war against neighborhood crime.