HumidCity

Maitri posts the best synopsis of the past several days in New Orleans that I have yet seen. Gets right on down to the nitty gritty, and boy is it gritty….

Via Vatul Blog:

On returning to New Orleans, I�ve discovered that the city wrongly�demolished a home, Jessica Hawk (from Ohio)�was found murdered in her home on the 3000 block of Chartres in the Bywater, two people were�shot to death�at an Uptown intersection where my friend takes frequent afternoon walks,�McSame and Bush will�make their obligatory�New Orleans visits this week (for more cake, I�m sure) and, to top it all off, Mayor Ray Ray will be�presented with��The Award of Distinction For Recovery, Courage, and Leadership� by a group called �The Excellence in Recovery Host Committee,� led by a prominent member of our City Council.� I feel like a bit character in a poorly-reenacted�mashup of The Enemy Within and Mirror Mirror set in New Orleans.

Yes, corruption and incompetence are found wherever power and money are to be had, but not like this, not when we should all be extra-vigilant during this reconstruction.� Returning to pre-Katrina�dysfunctional bullshit�is not recovery.� It makes me want to run screaming back to Ohio�or Wisconsin.��The Upper Midwest is not exempt from flood, government incompetence and crime, but it�s not an excuse to dodge the issue that there are serious problems down here, and�that almost 25% will leave if we as a city don�t address them.

There, short and (not so) sweet.

-Loki, HumidCity Founder

Information is sketchy at the moment, but all those national guard vehicles that are gathering and shutting down the street at Chartres and the train tracks are apparently there because of a murder. This DOES NOT involve Dr. Bob, I just got off the phone with him and he is fine.

No word yet on the victim or circusmstances, but I will post info as I get it.

If anyone else has info on this, or if I’m in error (which I hope I am), please post any available information in the comments section of this post.� If the information you have is a rumor or second hand, please post that anyway, but please specify that your information is unconfirmed. Thanks.

Louis Maistros, 1:23 PM

UPDATE, 5:45 PM:

While detectives worked the earlier murders, officers conducting a check on a residence in the 3000 block of Chartres Street made a grisly discovery.

link: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/three_homicide_investigations.html

Four years ago my wife’s dear friend Daniel Breaux was shot and killed just outside the Fairgrounds during Jazz Fest. Four years later and the case is still shambling its impaired way through the legal system. Now there’s a new trial. I have nothing more to say about it here. Four years later and my anger burns just as bright as the day I found out.

-Loki, HumidCity Founder

Violence. It surrounds us these days more than ever. From the vicious slayings of the city streets to the consistent array of rapes and hazings at Tulane University we are suffering a deluge of it. Both the city and the University desperately need enforcement. This is an issue with pre storm roots.

Along with the violence comes the pungent aroma of fear. I know I am subject to it.

City streets seem darker and more threatening than ever and small movements caught in the eye’s corner make you jump almost out of your skin. Everyone has those moments whether they admit it out loud or not. Its part of life in the city, especially these days.

So how far do we allow fear to propel us? Where do we find the line between making ourselves safe from extraordinary circumstances and sacrificing our liberty for perceived safety? Ben Franklin once said that those who abandon liberty for safety deserve neither. But how to stay firm in that resolve when you have a family?

Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans and the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association want us to sign their petition to keep the National Guard in NOLA. With my office located in the Bywater and a lovely wife at home Uptown I find myself supporting that aim. At the same time I cringe at the thought of endorsing the concept of armed troops on American soil, especially ours.

In the French Quarter a new initiative has begun - cameras in every window. QuarterSafe is something I only just discovered when they sent me an email about an hour ago. Its a movement to have people hook up cameras to their computers watching the streets of the Vieux Carre. “Orwellian,” was my first thought. “Could it work?” was my second. After reading in the Times-Picayune that violent crime is up 20% and rape is up 85% I find I am not not as secure in my ideals as I would like to be. Perhaps the 20+ funerals I have been party to since the levee failure has something to do with it as well.

I am merely ruminating here. I have no magic solution, no wave of a Harry Potter wand to dispel the complexity of what faces us. I just know this:

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

We must face our fears and determine our proper course. In the final analysis it is a dialectic between each individual and their own conscience.

So, how do YOU feel about the New Orleans Brand ™?

Loki, HumidCity Founder

[EDIT: And then Karen G. points me at this as a coda.]

So I get home after a week on assignment in Vegas and about an hour after I walk in the door I hear these bursts of gunfire, automatic or semi automatic not sure which. Despite living in New Orleans I then second guessed myself, “could it have been several strings of firecrackers?” Even as I thought that I was pulling out the cell phone and calling the neighborhood patrol.

WWL TV settled the gunshots or firecrackers question, sadly my initial impulse was correct:

A man shot to death in a hail of bullets near the Irish Channel Thursday had recently testified in the trial of a man accused of killing Hot 8 Brass Band member Dinerral Shavers and was in the car when Shavers was killed, according to sources.

Sources said Thursday’s victim, 20-year-old Guy McEwan, was a friend of Shavers’ stepson. He testified in last week’s trial of David Bonds, who was accused of killing Shavers. Bonds was acquitted by a jury. The victim did not identify Bonds in testimony.

The shooting occurred near the corner of Peniston and Laurel around 5 p.m.

At least 22 shell casing markers littered the street, while witnesses said they heard at least 40 shots. Spent shell casings sat on the porch of a house nearby.

Ken Foster has been following the trial and offers sobering commentary as he reports the details that would be shocking if living in the Nagin/Blanco/Bush years had not left us cynical and jaded.

Guy was in the car when Dinerral Shavers was killed. He was a friend of Dinerral’s step son. He testified at the trial, but couldn’t identify the shooter, because the shots came from behind his head. But he did testify to the location and other details that built the case.

When he was called as a witness, William Boggs, the Public Defender, made a big noisy announcement that Guy had recently been picked up on a drug charge. He also announced that if Guy testified, the Public Defender’s Office would not represent him on his drug charge. It was one of many bizarre moments in the trial. The idea, on one level, was that if the PD was representing a witness in the trial, it might be a conflict of interest. But the way in which Boggs voiced this, it sounded more like an offer or a threat, ie. “If you don’t testify, we WILL defend you.”

Charming. Another example of the justice system in New Orleans operating at peak efficiency. Not to mention the sheer joy of actually hearing a gangland hit from the middle of my living room. Despite the efforts of the citizen uprising called Silence Is Violence, the mass of people converging upon city hall that (just like our mayor) accomplished nothing in the long run.

Murder in my neighborhood. Murderers walking out of court scott free. Just another day in New Orleans, don’t get lead poisoning.

Bang.

If you’re not from here Google “Officer Cotton New Orleans murder”

If you’re from New Orleans or live in New Orleans then this says it all.

Hand seems to be getting stiffer, doctor Thursday. I’ll know how long I have to go easy on it then. I now return you to the other members of the team

-Loki

There is a Dirge on my doorstep. Last night it was Press Monkeys, darting about and chattering in the cold, shining The Big Light around and aligning, so I knew the Dirge was coming. In fact, I welcome it.

Tomorrow night is the anniversary of the murder of my neighbor, Helen Hill. While there is great sadness in this, too immense for any but her family to understand, especially knowing that their holidays will end each year with this commemoration, there is also something else.

In between the failed expectations of New Elected Officials and the Blunders of City Hall, between the Sloppy Demolition of Homes and Run Away Crime, there is definitely something else.

There is the Dirge; a small group of maybe fifty people, holding candles in the dark, shivering together in the cold, slowly pushing the sound of breaking hearts out of old brass instruments…to remember their friend.

There is no press. The cameras and lights are gone, as far as I can tell, since last nights report or update or whatever it was.

Tonight there is the Dirge, the soundtrack to an amazing act of love. To know such caring and fond rememberence brings a tear to my eyes, as indeed, how could it not. But there’s no speeches being made, no placards, no ribbons worn. There’s something else, so beautiful & rare. Hope.

Tomorrow night, light a candle for Helen Hill, for her husband, her son, our city. Then light one for yourself.

You are the reason, the action, the love, and the hope.

Oh, yes. You are.

Lord David

Skull Club

Welcome to the hothouse. New Orleans is slipping into summertime and the heat is rocketing. The past several days have been oppressive and sweat saturated as the Hammer of Ra pounds down upon us. It s the type of weather that makes one want to hde in the AC and pretend the outside world does not exist.

Of course it could also be that the violence is what makes many people want to hide. Every New Orleanian knows that once the heat really begins the murder rate rises with the tempreature. Look at the statistics, May almost always denotes an upswing of violent crime and loss of life. Hell, we are already the murder capital of the US with only 50% of our people back, the summer spike should put us in a position where no one can take that title away!
Dan,over at NOLA Metroblogging is of the same mind. Beaten by the heat and baffled by the violence he notes a disturbing report:

It doesn’t help any when the Metro Crime Commission releases a report stating what has been obvious to us who live here now. The NOPD is focusing too much on trivial traffic and “misdemeanor” offenses. What that means is the NOPD is more focused on stopping you and I for driving a vehicle without a brake tag. Instead of focusing on the killers killing each other. Or the killers killing innocent business owners. I’ve known and written about the city’s efforts on raising cash. Why focus on stopping murders when there are dollar bill’s driving around the city, waiting to be pulled over and taken to jail. It’s a money making scheme and just validates my belief that the city government sees EVERYONE who is back as a walking/talking/driving dollar bill.

No reliable flood control (See Fix The Pumps for doumentation and details), no progress on crime, the fear of hurricane season, no mental health infrastructure….

The climate of fear has become a standard one for local residents. “Will I get washed away or blown away before summer ends?” is a question I have heard in varying permutations throughout the city. The heat, fear, and mental unease cook down like a roux, ready to thicken the gumbo of tragedies we already sup.
Robin Malta is simply the latest victim of this assinine crime rate. A community activist, small business owner, former Grand Marshall of Southern Decadence, and truly good natured human being who was bludgeoned to death Monday night. He was also someone I knew. The third person I know to be murdered (not just die, but get murdered) over the last six months. Another local character reduced to a statistic. He was only 3 years my senior, not even 45 yet.

I have lost my focus, the accumulation of bad news has me nearly numb so rather than try to come to coherent conclusion I will leave you hanging.  Like the crime there is no resolution forthcoming….

I have just found out that someone I know was murdered Monday night.

Goodby Robin, you will be missed. I will write more on this when my fury abates.

Alright, I will start by admitting that family matters are keeping me from posting for a day or two and I do not have much time to write now. I do, however, have two things to present that will help convey it.

First comes the amazing video offering from American Zombie. Watch, rinse, repeat! He presents a wonderfully balanced mini-documentary of the day including interviews with several local bloggers including myself, Maitri, Adrastos, Blake Haney, and more. Absolutely fantastic, a must see! (And yes, this will dispel all rumors, I really am that loud)

Second is a piece from the Institute for Southern Studies entitled Concerns Grow Over Expanded Police Power in New Orleans. It documents and addresses some of the concerns brought up over at Library Chronicles. As I have commented there, these are aspects of the situation that need to be watched for, especialy in the current national climate of civil liberties violations. While I do not agree with his presentation a lot of the time, there are those elements of truth to it.

I think those two should hold y’all until around Monday when I will have time to post more in depth thoughts. In the meantime I highly advise that you check out the NOLAbloggers in my links bar. They will give you a variety of opinions, facts, factoids, pictures, video and good wholesome (?) New Orleans attitude.

As the Zombie himself would say, Ashe!

This is why we march: Silence IS Violence, it is the tacit acceptance of the unacceptable. It is the aknowledgement that we, as a community are beaten. Silence and inaction are not an option, do you hear me Ray? While lackwit Reilly tells us that the crime has gotten better people are shot down in cold blood, and in their own homes no less.If I believed in silence I would not write, I would not blog, I would not run my mouth in the face of injustice. Silence IS Violence.

Tomorrow we will join as a community and march on City Hall. 11 am at the foot of Canal St. is where it all begins, although various neighborhood groups will be doing their own marches t this meeting point.
Be there for the sake of the recently dead. Be there for Dinerral Shavers of the Hot 8 Brass Band, Jealina Brown, Steve Blair, Corey Hayes, Eddy Saint Fleur, Don Morgan, Helen Hill, Larry Glover, and Monier Gindy. Be there before it is your name or your wife’s or maybe even your child’s on a list like this.

Two of our number, the NOLABloggers that is, will be speaking once we reach City Hall: the voices of B.Rox, and Squandered Heritage will be raised along with others. Join us, be part of the solution, take our city back!

There is no joy in Mudville, Warren Riley has struck out!

-Loki

Uptown New Orleans

For those fortunate enough to have been invited, The Skull Club is a well known and loved gathering. I have had that good fortune. As a result Lord David, who orchestrates the proceedings and keeps the rolls of membership, has become a friend. I am proud to be able to add his voice to the ongoing dialogue:

Spain & Rampart, Marigny
Sunday, January 7th, 2007

Having just returned from the Ad Hoc town meeting on violence in the Marigny/Bywater neighborhoods, in preparation for a march on City Hall, this Thursday, 1/11/07, I am reviewing the Times Picayune I picked up on the way home.

While I expected some good and bad ideas to arise from today’s meeting, I was not surprised by any in either extreme, pleasantly so, as this gathering was thrown together in the last few days, mostly by friends and neighbors still stricken with grief.

While some of these suggestions meet with sour looks, like disarming all residents as a start for peace, some met without outright booing, like boycotting Mardi Gras until the murders stop. The thought of disarming everyone in the neighborhood sounds reasonable in a TV Land, sing-a-long kind of way, but would leave us all publicly at the hands of those with weapons. I might point out the young couple who, when being robbed at gun point out side the Pheonix, saved their own lives by killing the gunman on the spot. As for canceling Mardi Gras, that sounds like grounding your kid because the bully beat him up. And in that regard, I got the shock of the day…

It seems that Warren Riley is now putting forth the idea of curfew once again.  Since we have a police superintendent who cannot manage his forces, or personnel.  He wants to hold us all prisoners in our homes while the criminals with guns roam the streets. This would not have helped Helen Hill, who had her attacker knock at her door at 5:30 in the morning. The local policeman who web surfs in his cruiser down the block would have seen nothing either way.

I recall being chased down by police for being on my neighbors’ doorstep at 8:30 one night, just over a year ago, for being out after curfew. They threatened my wife, neighbor & I with arrest for Public Intoxication for having a cocktail together on his doorstep. While residents of Uptown New Orleans enjoyed a 2am curfew in the French Quarter, we who live a few blocks across Elysian Fields, and in the Bywater, were herded like cattle, sometimes at gunpoint, into our homes at 8pm. Why? Because of the rubber-stamp curfew of the 70117 designed to protect the lower 9th Ward. Obviously, those of us on this side of the Industrial Canal were not flooded out, returned to our homes & jobs and intended to rebuild our city. We waited months before being allowed out after 8. I haven’t been so restricted since entering Junior High School.

The idea that the lack of police management can be ignored while we, the citizens of this Great City, are locked behind our doors, quivering in fear of any late knock, is absurd beyond all possibility. I’ve lived in Washington DC when it took the Murder Capitol Crown from New Orleans. I lived in New York City’s lower east side during the crack epidemic. No police force ever locked the citizens down because they couldn’t do their job. Let’s find somebody who can. I’m told that New Orleans has a ratio of 600 police officers per every 100,000 citizens, one of the highest in the country. I’ve seen as many as nine at a time, gathered on Bourbon Street, as many as three protecting one single exotic dancer. A shift in management skills is in order.

Our very freedom is at risk by this kind of thinking, Mister Riley. Our very lives.  Better you lose your job then another child loses a mother, another husband, his wife. Do your job, or let us find someone who can. We’re not going to lockdown.

Lord David - Artist
New Orleans

Why march against crime? Isn’t that for the college kids to do while they are all stoned and feeling attention hungry? One of my new favorite NOLABloggers, NOLA-Dishu, gives us documented facts on how it actually has worked before here in New Orleans (HT to American Zombie for turning me on to him)

NOLA-dishu

Next up will be a march on City Hall next Thursday. Now, I’ve heard some people already dissing the idea and calling it a waste, but I strongly disagree and here’s why:

In the mid-90’s, New Orleans was experiencing a crime wave as bad as this city has ever seen. The coup de grace was a horrific murder at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. It was the last straw for the citizens of New Orleans. Citizens, both black and white, marched on City Hall. Morial, under severe pressure, gave Pennington Carte Blanche to clean up the NOPD. Officers were given substantial raises. He also instituted CompStat (which I’m trying to replicate in my own improvisational way). Morale amongst the street cops rose. Crime plummeted. Other factors were involved, but the results are undeniable. In 1999, there were only 158 murders. That’s fewer than last year with more than double the population.

That’s why it’s wrong to say it isn’t fixable. IT’S BEEN DONE ONCE BEFORE. WE CAN DO IT AGAIN. APATHY TOWARDS CRIME WILL KILL THIS CITY AS SURELY AS THE THUGS RUNNING AROUND WITH AK’S.

He is dead right. I was working in the service industry in the French Quarter at the time. The shockwaves of the La. Pizza Kitchen murders were immediate and severe. None of us felt safe at work, or leaving work. Many of us knew the victims directly or had friends in common. (when you work in the industry you tend to end up drinking with your fellow waiters and such at partcular bars after work. You tend to know the guys at the various other venues.) It was shocking, barbaric, and as he points out galvanizing.

We need that same level of outrage applied to Wonka The Invisible and dear, adorable Warren. These people purportedly work for us (not that I have seen any evidence of work this term) and need to be reminded of it!

This is not a black issue or a white issue, its a thug issue. We cannot allow predators to thin our numbers. I understand that there are very definite factors that may have led them to this lifestyle. Only the uninformed and unobservant can discount the influence of grotesque poverty, lack of education, racism, and diminished opportunities have played in breeding these criminals. BUT, we are all human and have choices to make. Good or Evil. Right or Wrong. What your childhood was like does not mean shit to me if you have deprived a child of their parent by depriving that parent of their life.

Just to address the comments that I know are coming: This city has been governed by african americans since the 70’s so trying to put everything down to racism is more than a bit disingenuous. I would also like to point out that the NOPD have failed to provide any sort of description in almost all of these cases. How do you know what race the perp was?

I am a native, I know this has always been a violent town. I also know that we have to take it back. The wave of violence that has flooded the city is as dangerous as the waters of the Federal Flood. It is a city killer. This IS the next storm!

Tootie Montana is rolling in his grave.

…because you know that our “leadership,” will do nothing wthout being forced!

Spread the word, crosspost, tell offline people, etc, etc, etc.

American Zombie has penned a beautiful satire of the current situation, unfrtunately it is desperately close to being an accurte representation of our lives. Do we want THIS to be our city?? Get involved and help stop the thugs!

Homicides on the rise in New Orleans - Nightly News with Brian Williams - MSNBC.com
NEW ORLEANS - In the last week more Americans have died in New Orleans than in Iraq. Since Dec. 29, there have been eight military deaths. In the Big Easy, there have been 14 murders.

today i went on a retreat… a day of reflection… hard to imagine , eh?
yet on the drive there the gunshots of my city rang in my ears… i was awakened from my zombie phase (been a while since i posted or wanted to or could). it’s been 6 weeks of trying to get to see a doctor re. my alleged PTSD (btw my doc had to go to court yesterday so i’ve been rescheduled til feb 7th…hope i make it…WELL it is nice to know that doctors are going to court, just not the convicted felons who seem to be out committing most of these crimes)

back to the retreat… the theme, benedictine patience. as i left hours later and turned my radio back on and another gunshot rang… it hit me… not a bullet… an epiphony…. “new orleans: patience… have it or be one”… unfortunately i’m leaning more and more to the latter… now BLOG THIS!

News for New Orleans, Louisiana | Local News | News for New Orleans, Louisiana | wwltv.com
Less than a week after New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley said the city had seen fewer murders thanks to police initiatives, authorities said Friday they were investigating the eighth murder of 2007.

According to Officer Sabrina Richardson, an NOPD spokesperson, the murder took place around 7:20 a.m. in the 7400 block of Pitt Street in Uptown. Second District officers responding to a burglary call found an unidentified African-American woman shot in the head inside her home. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators are asking anyone with information on the case to call Crimestoppers at 822-1111. You do not have to give your name and could be eligible for a cash reward of $2,500.

VIDEO HERE

Helen Hill was not enough, was it? Somene else shot in her home, this time uptown on the “Isle D’Orleans.” This time a scant few blocks from my father in law’s home (7400 block of Pitt is just off Broadway).

The only words that come to me are “fuck this!”

EDIT: Oh c’mon, give me a break!

wwltv.com ARABI – Testing from the Department of Agriculture and Forestry revealed a swarm of Africanized bees—more commonly known as “killer bees”—were discovered inside a St. Bernard home in October 2006, Department Commissioner Bob Odum said Friday.

This is getting to read like a screenplay collaboration between Terry Gilliam, George Romero, and David Lynch!

Also, more insightful commentary by Oyster and GBitch, two of the most dangerous bloggers I know.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

It is time for our elected officials to face up to the violence that is strangling our neighborhoods.

Come march with us to City Hall to demand action Thursday, January 11

Marigny-Bywater residents and ALL concerned New Orleanians, please come to a planning meeting this Sunday, January 7 at 1pm at Sound Cafe (2700 Chartres St.)

More info: 504-948-0917

Do NOT forget Helen Hill!

Camels. Straws. Chiropractic emergencies. Is that snapping sound my back?

It is with great sorrow that I type this post. I will begin by apologizing for its length and hoping you will stay with me to the end.

While our “Mayor” and “Police Chief” remain conspicuously absent from view, popping up only occasionally to mouth platitudes before sinking from sight, the death toll rises. It now includes people we know personally. Local filmmaker Helen Hill was murdered in her own home at 5:30am; her husband, Doctor Paul Gailiunas, was wounded but survived as did their 2 year old son.

They used to shop at Eve’s Market, where my wife worked for years. She knew them. I knew them distantly from the days when Kaldi’s Coffeshop was a social centerpiece of the French Quarter. They were sweet and kind and funny people, classic New Orleans style charaters. They were good people who gave to their community without desire of recompense. They had an adorable pet pig. Dr. Paul worked extensively with the disadvantaged of our benighted city. Now she is dead, he is in the hands of our broken medical system and their child is without his mother. All because they answered their door.

Could it be that one of the 115 handguns stolen in the suburbs a few days before? I wonder.

The Local paper says this:

In the sixth murder New Orleans murder in less than a day, a woman was killed and her husband shot in their home this morning at about 5:30 a.m., said New Orleans police, who found the bleeding husband kneeling at the door of the couple’s home, holding their two-year-old son in his arms.

The toddler was not hurt; the husband, 35, underwent surgery at Elmwood/Charity Trauma Center, police said, where his son was also taken for examination. The woman, 36, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The slayings, for which police offered no motive, capped off a wave of bloodshed severe even by New Orleans standards, and comes three days after Police Superintendent Warren Riley called a year-end news conference to put a positive spin on last year’s murder total of 161, which he called the lowest in 30 years. On a per capita basis, however, even the most optimistic projection of the post-flood city’s drastically shrunken population makes that murder rate an increase over previous years.

Including another murder on New Year’s day, the latest violence brings this year’s total to at least seven slayings in four days. Looking at just the past week, murderers have killed at least 12 people.

Can you say bloodbath? Warren Riley needs to consider the blood that is on his hands, along with C Ray (Not Lately). Their ineptitude has been instrumental in allowing this Lord of the Flies scenario to become so deeply entrenched in our suffering city.

Paul P over at New Orleans Metroblogging asks:

Massa Ray? Why is the City in a world of shit? “I truly do not know, I was supposed to put tracking chips into the asses of all felons getting out of jail every three days. Someone told me to sign the wrong paper and I accidentally bought 50,000 garbage cans instead. Weez just gone to make the best of a bad situmation.” Excuse me while I scat! Dooby doo be dooby do skipidy skipidy boo. MORAL: I am fucked. You are fucked. We are fucked.

I am becoming more inclined to agree with him. I have family roots that go back to the beginning of this city. I am as steeped in its culture as it is possible to get, from the elitist uptown scene to the raucous sounds of Vaughn’s and other 9^th Ward hangouts. I march with a Krewe every Mardi Gras Day, and am a founder of said Krewe. I learned to make a roux when I was 8 years old. I am also, after 16 months of fighting for my city, nearing the end of my rope with New Orleans.

Why is it that after 40 years of living with everything from our infamous murder rate to the aftermath of the Federal Flood, I am so completely disheartened?

This excerpt from WWL (our local TV station) sums up a lot of it:

On Thursday, police said the recent killings were brazen acts, often happening in broad daylight and, in one case, within a block of police officers. No witnesses have yet come forward, and police begged them to do so. Officers say they believe many of the killings were retaliatory and committed by people with violent pasts, but they refused to go into further detail.

“They have no fear of repercussions,” Assistant Superintendent Steven Nicholas said.”

And this from Lagalou NOLA

These people didn’t deserve this! We don’t deserve this! When will this insanity stop? A lifetime of love snuffed for who knows what. I wish Paul and Helen had made the selfish decision and stayed in Canada or wherever…how could we waste their gift…and this is the fifth murder in the last 14 hours. I can’t believe this couple wants our bowed heads or silent prayers. What they would want is action. I can’t take this anymore. Does anyone else feel this level of outrage?

Does anyone else feel we must get the guns off the streets, we must eliminate priviledged and underclasses, we must stop drug exploitation, we must not tolerate racism, violence, hate…

It is more than a civilized human can bear. I think of what my feelings would be if I lost my wife in such a fashion. My entire chest knots up with an icy cramp as I consider it. The other thing that causes a tightening in my chest is the realization that I, who usually try to be a good Samaritan, will not be opening the door for any late night emergencies. I have discovered fear, the mind killer, the little death. I find myself thinking in terms of dromedaries and fractured spines.

The pull of one’s roots is strong. The call of generations of Blancs, Monroes, Williamses, Martins and other blood relations is loud and persistent in my mind. This is my home, damn it! I fear that siren song of the blood is becoming a different one, still of blood but far less inviting.

I know it’s bad. It’s always been bad. Adrastos puts it succinctly:

Crime has been an intractable and recalcitrant part of life in New Orleans for as long as I have lived here. And sometimes very good people get caught up in it: Paul Gailiunas is a doctor with a passion for helping the poor. I don’t know the facts of the case yet but it wouldn’t surprise me if we learn that Paul and Helen knew the person who shot them. It’s a sad commentary on the mean streets of Debrisville that people like this may have paid such a high price for their kindness.

Sad commentary indeed. As we fight for survival the animals amongst us take lives with impunity.

By the way, before anyone gets onto the whole “it’s all black on black crime” comments, I advise that you get real. First off the idea that the issue is less pressing because it is “black on black” is David Duke logic, fuck you. Secondly, these folks were not black. Yes, race is a major issue here, particularly after our abandonment by the Feds and C. Ray’s incredibly stupid Chocolate City speech (Dr. King is STILL spinning in his grave from that one!), but no matter how you want to cast things this is more fundamental. It is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

Editor B. weighs in as someone a lot closer to the couple than we were.

This is the worst, most impossible news I’ve had occasion to pass on. I frankly am having trouble believing it’s real. Paul and Helen were Mid-City residents until their home was flooded. ROX viewers will know from episode #90, Fat — the cute vegan couple with the pet pig. I wish it was a bad dream. They just stopped by our house Sunday night. I’m too scared and angry and sad to even say more at this point, but plenty more must be said and done.

Scared, angry, and sad. That about covers it. I love my home. I love it the way only a native French Creole can. I also miss it terribly. More and more fear this to be a dark mirror held up to the already flawed face of New Orleans. It would not shock me to find that Spock has a beard.

I simply do not know if can continue here. We shall see …

ABC News: A Grisly New Orleans Murder Mystery Takes Another Twist
New Orleans is still reeling from news this week that a bartender reportedly strangled his girlfriend, dismembered her body, and cooked some of the body parts on his stove before jumping to his death.

Now, it turns out, he was an Iraq war hero.

An act that transmits the message We Are Not Okay, confirmation of my assertion (often made by the media, psychiatrists, etc) that mental health is a dwindling resources here in NOLA. Ph Fred’s words in the previous posting are well said, we are in the land of “if,” and sometimes that can send one over the brink of madness.

An Iraq War Hero ™, sounds like double dipping on the post traumatic stress disorder to me. From the atrocities of our “war,” to the devastation of America’s Forgotton City he skirted the edges of sanity until he finally snapped. Bloody hell.

as the current ad for South Park says, “Dear God, what next?”

2006 with its floods, pestilence, and piracy (yes, real pirates- no, not the imitation depp and disney variety) pales in comparison to the four “whore’s men” of the apocalypse that are now on the horizon… the eve of destruction will be far worse than what the 60’s mcguinns and mcguires ever dreamed or dreamt of…. this korean war will make hawkeye spill his martini, or better yet, do a spit take (??)…. klinger will rip his hose…. but don’t you fret, kim jong-il will buy us all a round of henessey as slim pickens comes back to sing “til we meet again”

as i walk around new orleans, it’s as if the bomb has already fallen… the naked, wasted, abandoned city, the crumbled buildings, the dashed hopes, the smells of disease and refuse, all surrounded by the symphony of the militaristic drone as hummers and tanks roll through, as another band of vigilantes fire and the mad max-like maruders and ne’er-do-wells do their mad max-like maruader and vigilante thang… and the MURDER, oh the MURDER… more vicious than the nazis more horrendous than the korean interment camps… and the worst murder one between strangily estranged lovers…. her head in a pot to boil, her limbs in the oven to roast… who is the omega man? who is the damn dirty ape? neither charlton heston nor michael moore could make this film….

you can’t make that sh*t up… i wish i could…

in “apocalypse now,” kurtz mutters that ” ‘IF’ is the middle word in ‘LIFE’ “… a scary apoco-thought is revealed… a glimmer of hope perhaps… IF is life’s crunchity goodness … IF is life’s life-affirming nugat, IF is life’s impatient licks to the center of a blow pop…. all of life’s IF’s are all these hopes sandwiched inside the four letters… L I F E…. i see the IF… i see the potential.. but like Kurtz i also have seen the horror, i’ve smelled it, tasted it, heard its screams in my sleep as i lie awake in my FEMA trailer waiting for the other shoe to drop, another shot to be fired, another robber, burglar, rapist, politician….to rob, burgle, rape, or politic me.

i can see the pot on the stove, the limbs in the oven… IF may be the middle word in LIFE, but EAT is the middle word in DEATH, and this is one last supper that i can no longer stomach…. the cook? the thief? his wife? her lover? “shall we start with the…. it’s a delicacy?”

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