News Nothing to See Here
posted by on February 16 at 17:25 PM
Nine people are shot in New Orleans—seven fatally—just as Mardi Gras is getting started. This news comes hard on the heels of this story in from yesterday’s New York Times about people—“the city’s best and brightest”—giving up on New Orleans, this can’t be welcome news. So how are officials in tourist-dependent New Orleans spinning the shooting story?
Officials noted the bloodshed did not occur near any of the parades Thursday night to celebrate Carnival, which culminates Tuesday in Mardi Gras. The two unrelated shootings were not random or part of a robbery, and the victims were all targeted, Sgt. Joe Narcisse said.In the first shooting Thursday evening, three people were shot, two fatally, in a car parked in the Ninth Ward, far from the heart of the party. The survivor—the car’s driver—told police he knew and had given a ride to the man who shot them, Narcisse said.
Another shooting wounded six people, one critically, early Friday at a Mid-City nightclub. The gunman escaped in a stampede that followed.
“Once again it’s a situation where violent crimes are taking place in inner-city neighborhoods and traditional hot spots,” said Mary Beth Romig, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The truth is, Mardi Gras continues to be one of the safest times for tourist to be here.”
Hm. The Ninth Ward? Inner-city neighborhoods? Far from the heart of the party?
Is it just me or does these statements sound like code? Code for something like this: “Nothing to worry about, folks—it’s only black people that are getting shot and killed in New Orleans. We promise that white tourists in the French Quarter, where we’re pouring all our police resources, are perfectly safe.”
I'll be celebrating my birthday this Saturday at the Mardi Gras Voodoo Carnivale in Fremont (at Theo's Chocolate Factory) myself - no one will be shot at this fundraiser for the parade, but many will consume shots and organic fair trade chocolate made from scratch.
Hopefully, I will also be assaulted by masked women. If I'm lucky ... and one can always hope to die the "petit mort" or "little death" ...
Where's the press release to get people back to Southern Decadence? "The victims were all found to have a mixture of seminal and vaginal fluids on their bodies. Authorities want to assure hedonistic gay men that they will be free to get incredibly drunk and/or high and have sex with multiple anonymous partners without fear of murder."
#1: We all know what "little death" means and I can't believe you tied seven people who just died from gunshots with your desire to have an orgasm. I know it's your birthday, but christ, that's the most narcissistic thing I've ever heard.
-used to live in New Orleans - the official statement is a little precious - New Orleans wealthy tourist areas are layered with poorer areas. You can literally go one street up from "ritzy" St Charles Avenue of the gated gardens and gracious architecture and see weed-overgrown lots, leaning dry-rotted buildings, trash heaped, pothole cratered streets, mosaic'd in the shattered glass of Rite Aid half pint gin and cho-cho, and face-down drunks marinating in their own vomit and urine. And have to mention the packs of wild starveling dogs and other abandoned animals that fought to live on those streets. These were not foreign landscapes to pre-hurricane New Orleans if only the tourists had the eyes to see them.
Those ubiquitous scenes will never be immortalized on postcards 4 for a dollar in the duty free shops that lined Canal Street.
N.O. "hotspots" are not in some remote area removed from the Quarter, Garden District, CBD etc For a big city, New Orleans is mighty small, and cramped, and the crime goes where the moneys made. Crime always wears a friendly face for tourists who do their damndest to advertise full wallets, new cameras, and unfamiliarity with the town. The con is king, and Mardi Gras is Christmas for pickpockets and grifters that feed on the tourist trade. In what other big city would a person give so little thought to their vulnerabity that they would drink themselves blind, flash their t*ts/other body parts to rowdy inebriated crowds, and trust total strangers with their wellbeing? These zombies stagger down Bourbons filthy morning streets, separated from their friends, shockingly vulnerable to those who prey on their foolishness.
Crime in New Orleans? That's like saying water's wet, or fire's hot.
It's you. Careful with that knee-jerk.
Correction: 9 shot, 2 fatally (slog says 7).
New Orleans architect Press Kabacoff recently stated that he could see New Orleans becoming the Afro -Caribean Paris ....Puhleeze. Under people like himself, C. Ray and Riley I can see it becoming the Port-au-Prince of America after all it already has Baby Doc (C.Ray), Voodoo and the Macoute (N.O.P.D.).
Actually, we had many New Orleans refugees at our event. Played videos of Mardi Gras parades on the wall. Get over yourself and realize HALF the population LEFT.
And I had fun, thanks.
Want to help New Orleans rebuild? The feds won't help - but you CAN! Just go VISIT and support their local economy.
ACTION. Not WORDS.
Tous ces qui sont les critiques sont seulement les intellectuels et ne feront rien sauf les mouages.
There would be a cold comfort if the recent murders were confined to drug deals gone bad, gang retaliations and other "hot spot" incidents. One might avoid being shot simply by not botching up a drug deal or joining a gang. The crime wave is much more frightening in NOLA these days. Much more random. "Routine" carjackings ending in death. "Routine" muggings ending in death. Suddenly, limiting yourself to not botching a drug deal must be expanded to not driving your car or walking around at night. Early in January, Helen Hill, a woman who lives/d down the street from me, was assaulted and murdered in her own home. This crosses the psychological line into Friday the 13th terratory. Doot-dah-dooo, goin' about my business...OH! Mindless killer at my door!
Although I confess I am often nervous in my own house, due to a combination of statistics and an over-active imagination, I'm far from considering leaving the only city that's ever felt like home to me. And I'm not alone.
Helen's murder helped spawn a march on City Hall last month that brought thousands and thousands into the streets to be heard. Do we have problems in New Orleans these days? Oh lord, yes, yes we do. But there have always been serious problems here. THis has never been Utopia. One chooses New Orleans not for ease or comfort, but for the unique culture that cannot exist anywhere else. All things have their price.
The problems we suffer, and continue to suffer daily, post-K, may be more severe than in recent years, but we are survivors and we'll get through this. We will rebuild, even if said rebuilding has to be done entirely by ourselves since the failure of the federal levee system has spawned very little response from the federal government.
Most important to our city at the moment (besides the continued blow-off of responsibilities from the federal gov't) is that people in the rest of the nation and the world recognize that we still exist, and will continue to exist. The national media is loving this feast of problems we offer, but who is mentioning the significant parts of the city that remained unscathed after the storm? Or that Mardi Gras, is, in fact, the "safest" time of year due to the heightened population of people in the streets and police attention.
New Orleans exists. You should come visit and see for yourself. There are worlds to be explored between the devastated Lower Ninth and tacky ole' Bourbon St.
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In the meantime, a homeless person was murdered @ Northlake & Latona Friday morning, 3/2/07. Where are the news reports? Where was the media? Who exactly cares about that? Excuse me, this was a human being I am talking about here . . .another form of discrimination, I am afraid.
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