The ridiculous violence in N.O.
We had a murder outside of Mondo in broad daylight in the heart of Lakeview. No that didnt used to happen here. A father and husband was murdered in the Quarter five or six months ago. He happened to be white. He counts. He was a good family guy. Shootouts outside of Chris Owens Club on Bourbon street in a packed crowd on Halloween night with multiple people endangered and shot that had nothing to do with the drug trade.. Shootings on the Uptown route of Mardi Gras Parades. Hispanic man shot sitting on his porch. Shootings near the Bayou Boogaloo event at Bayou St. John.
I live here and have been directly affected by some of this BS. You can call BS all you want, but it is different. The shootings are happening in areas that put people with no connection to the drug trade in danger.
Go back and reread my post.
I never once made the claim that ONLY young black men get murdered or that it ONLY occurs in the bad neighborhoods.
Shootings near Bourbon, especially Canal and Bourbon are nothing new. Because the Quarter and tourism are the city's lifeblood, anytime something bad happens there (the doctor that was murdered during the mugging a while ago, or the shooting on Bourbon), it is ALWAYS sensationalized and overhyped. The murder in front of Mondo was shocking of course -- but it's not the first murder to ever occur in Lakeview, nor will it be the last. But murders in Lakeview are rare enough that it makes a news story and sticks in peoples minds. A news story does not make a trend.
Hispanics in New Orleans are, unfortunately, easy targets for muggings. They often get paid in cash, lack english language skills to handle reporting a crime, and sometimes lack documentation. The recent murder of that Hispanic man by the 13 year old is horrible. But it wasn't some completely random event. I used to live three blocks from where it happened, and that isn't a great neighborhood. While I don't know what Rafael Quintanilla did for a living, I know the neighborhood well enough to know that he probably worked construction. So high risk neighborhood and a victim with a high risk profile. The 13 year old is obviously a big shame, but I imagine he didn't approach the man intent on murdering him -- he was 13 and I think he probably did what 13 years olds tend to do, make mistakes. Don't get me wrong -- I don't want to minimize this mistake though -- his "mistake" cost a man his life. A tragedy, not just because Rafael Quintanilla is dead, but also because two young men's lives are most likely over before they ever really began.
Your "evidence" is nothing more than one off sensationalized stories. I'm not denying that violent crime cannot occur in good neighborhoods to innocent people. I'm not denying that violent crime has increased in New Orleans post-Katrina.
But I am refuting your stance -- that it's "spreading" and "changing" as opposed to just growing in scale.
If I'm wrong and you are right, there should be evidence out there beyond a handful of sensationalist stories picked from the evening news.
I've provided my evidence -- that the murder victims in New Orleans are overwhelmingly (but not only) young black males and that murders occur overwhelmingly (but not only) in a select handful of neighborhoods.
I'm interested to see yours.
Also, while my location says "London" -- I've lived and worked in New Orleans within the past year. I worked in the schools -- directly with 14 year olds with ankle monitors on. I've known students who died in the senseless street violence.
It is a horrible, horrible thing. It pains me, more than it pains the average white middle class guy from River Ridge. I still can't help myself, but I have to click on every murder story published by the T-P, even though I'm terrified I'll recognize the name, because I need to know.
We need to approach this issue logically and not over dramatize it. Grandmas in Lagensteins aren't being gunned down and neither are little kids playing soccer in Lakeview. So let's not act like they are.
Hyperbole does nothing here.
Wards dont even matter as much as they used to because people a spread all over with the demo of the projects.
Good point.
The RSD Direct Run high school I worked in was, like most (all?) of the district open-enrollment across the district -- meaning that kids from all over the city came to my school.
I'm say that 75% of our fights were because the kids from New Orleans East were fighting the kids from Hollygrove or something like that. Many of these kids rep projects that they've never lived in or that they have only a slight connection to.
For everyone one murder due to drugs there are multiple numbers of people in those persons lives that are just as involved in the activity and will be the next victim or murderer. This cycle continues to grow for each drug and gang related murder until it eventually takes over the vast majority of the city. These criminals do not operate in a vacuum. Where there is one there are two, then four, then eight, then ....
Anyone who follows the NOLA.com crime reports can easily see the pattern.
There'll be a murder on one street followed quickly (that night or the next day) by another in a different neighborhood. Then there'll be a third murder, this time nearby (a block or two away) the first murder. And so on and so forth.
Often the murders are just retaliation. You killed A so we killed Z, you then kill B, and so we killed Y.
It's a cycle sure...but is it affecting my hipster friend who bikes down St Claude to the Hi Ho Lounge? Or my father as he goes to work every day? No.