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

Shelly Midura vs. Cynthia Hedge Morrell the fight of the minute!

So tell me if you’ve heard this one: The city council goes on retreat…

“I don’t buy it, Cynthia!” Midura shouted from her chair. “It’s to cover your political backside and I don’t believe you!”

Hedge-Morrell, who by now had risen from her chair and was standing over Midura, shouted back, “You think you’re Miss Goody Two Shoes,” her voice rising and face tightening, “and you sit there on your damn high horse!”

Ah professionalism, you’ve got to love it! The whole story is here on nola.com, be sure to read the comments. A few excerpts from the vox populi response:

NOLALARRY: A divided City Council, rotten DA office, Choc City Mayor that is M.I.A., Police force that can’t keep up with crime,…. what a dysfunctional mess.

1NOLANATIVE: You all miss the point. They were in a retreat. NONE of what was discussed during the retreat should have made it out of the hotel room, let alone into the newspaper. A retreat is supposed to be a place where you can vent, argue, cuss - whatever it takes - to get the tension and skeletons off their chests IN PRIVATE.
They’re going to argue. But, it should not have been made public.

MINDS: A retreat — how riduculous — what does that mean — we drink and then we tell each other you stink! How riduculous. I hope she went home to do something better than that! Get these fools on video. We want to see how you act in private. Have you got a different face?

So. It’s been two years. The memorials and the commemorations and the celebrations are ramping up, and I have to admit, I won’t be attending any of the hullabaloo.

This time last year, I was living in my gutted house as my man and I put it back together around us. It was hot and exhausting and I’ve never worked so hard in my life. When I asked anybody, everybody, if they were going to any of the K-related festivities, the answer was always the same: “Hell no.” They were working on their own houses, going to their jobs, living their lives. The consensus was that the memorials were more political photo-ops for the money-rich or time-rich, than they were for the populace of a city for whom the hard work had only just begun.

Therefore, that I’m moved to write this now makes me something of a hypocrite, doesn’t it? And yet, I don’t want to talk about that rainy, windy, bitch, or the failure of our federal government to protect us with the money we gave them for that purpose, or the crazy, exhausting blur of the last two years as we all try to regain some normalcy in the midst of lives that even before, had anything but.

What I want to do is congratulate all of you who have dug in, soldiered on, gritted your teeth, rolled up your sleeves, and are working to make your home, your city, and your lives your own again.

No one else, anywhere else, will ever understand what it is you’ve been through like we do. They may cluck with sympathy, they may have sent money on to the Red Cross, they may have housed you in a faraway land, they may have changed the channel when yet another story came on about stupid, destroyed New Orleans who got what it deserved, but here, we GET it. Like it or not, we have been made into one extended, dysfunctional family with a shared reality. Where else in the world can such an innocuous question as “How much water did you get?” take on such onerous overtones? Where else does a Lowe’s or Home Depot resemble a multicultural circus? Where else can you laugh, or cry, over a Wednesday afternoon cocktail as you compare skyrocketing costs of sheetrock and wiring?

I know New Orleans is aggravating, scary and crime-ridden as hell. The frightened, dangerous children, killing other children when they’re not making more or brutalizing the rest of us. The crumbling infrastructure. The caboose-less parade of corrupt officials begging forgiveness for that which they crucified their constituency. The streets that still flood, the missing road signs that confuse even the longest-term residents, the lackluster schools, the poverty cheek-by-jowl with the entitled, the escalating crime rate coupled with an overburdened, understaffed police force. The reasons to leave seem almost insurmountable.

But even these things bind us together with invisible threads of simpatico and camaraderie. The rest of the country will never understand why we fight to keep living here. They see a week of flashy parades and cheap baubles and overindulgence and can’t equate all the difficulties with a blip of perceived debauchery. But still, they visit US. And when their vacation is over they return to cookie-cutter lives replete with ticky-tacky houses, 80 hour workweeks, air-conditioned muzak elevators and two hour commutes. They drive-thru a Burger King for dinner and get home just in time to numb themselves in front of the television before passing out and doing it all over again the next day.

What they don’t understand is that here, we are free to be our ourselves, more than anywhere else I’ve ever been. I can afford to make a living as an artist here, own a home here. Here, the question is not “What do you?”, but “What are you passionate about?” Here, we have whole rooms devoted to our kink, be it costuming, painting, metalworking, music-making, glass-blowing, or…kink. Here, we can devote our lives to being ourselves, and I’ll make any sacrifice I have to in order to live the way I want, and be surrounded by people who do the same. It’s real here. We’re not isolated from the realities of life and death. We live hard every damned day, we know what we’re up against, and it makes the good times all the sweeter. We FEEL things here. We’ve learned how tenuous our hold is on life, and we respect it all the more because of that knowledge. We’ve been isolated in a plastic place, and I don’t ever want to be there again.

So to all of you who are sticking it out, working your asses off, rebuilding your homes, restarting your lives, and are using this hellish setback as an opportunity to make better, brighter lives for yourselves and your city, thank you.

You are the ones who make it all worth it.

-Marrus

Evidently a few bare minutes ago there was a shooting at Antoine’s restaurant here in the French Quarter. To use a classic internet acronym, WTF? One of the oldest and poshest restaurants in town, in the middle of the most heavily trafficed part of the city and there is a shooting in broad daylight?

Obviously the marching and ranting against crime has resulted in no real net gain. This is bloody horrible, not only because someone may well be dead now, but also because the day to day killings in impoverished parts of the city do not get the attention lavished upon them that this will. Nauseating.
To steal a line from Joeseph Conrad, “The Horror, The Horror…”

More to come as I get info

The Infamous memo that Matt Mcbride leaked to the media, the one that caused all the media outlets to jump on the “defective pumps,” bandwagon. Where is it, what does it actually say?

Well, if you go here you will find it. How much “mea culpa,” on paper does it take before we can force the Corps to be held accountable?

This is a great example of why blogging is important, the media has consistently been months behind on most stories nd usually seems to cull their material from the local blogs. Damn fine to see a local blogger once again being the whistle blower. Tell him thanks when you stop by his site, he more than deserves it!!!

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Gee whiz, golly! The Corps installed faulty pumps in New Orleans to make up for their failed levees! Everyone who is surprised please raise your hands…

Yup, thought so.

From Yahoo News via the AP wire:

NEW ORLEANS - The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet

President Bush

’s promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The Churchillian verbiage of the infamous Speech at Jackson Square continues to prove that talk, no matter how lordly, is cheap. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, the US seems to have declared war on the city. Granted we have our own batch of lackwits running the show, but the Federal efforts seem almost deliberately geared towards stamping us out under the guise of assisting us.

We lived here because we were told by the Army Corps of Engineers that it was safe within certain parameters. That was a lie. The Cat 5 part of the storm ht the MS gulf coast and obliterated it. The winds that hit New Orleans were clocked at Cat 2, one level below what the levees were supposed to be rated for. They failed. “Act of God, ” try “Act of Man.”

So our supposed protection, promised before last hurricane season has been provided by these pumps:

The pumps failed less-strenuous testing than the original contract
called for, according to the memo. Originally, each of the 34 pumps was
to be “load tested” — made to pump water — but that requirement for all
the pumps was dropped, the memo said.Of eight pumps that were load tested, one was turned on for a few
minutes and another was run at one-third of operating pressure, the
memo said. Three of the other load-tested pumps “experienced
catastrophic failure,” Garzino wrote.

What is it going to take for pink slips to start being issued? Or even better, we make it law that members of the Corps, politicians, and mebers of the Levee Board have to live in house that back directly up to the levess.

This is not simple dishonesty, these are people’s lives! Something has got to give, we need a serious change in the way these people are paid, contracted, and held accountable for works that directly affect the lives of an entire city.

One of my favorite little details, one I will end on, is about the company that made the pumps (a company that still got 80% of the mony for the job). They have *GASP*connections to the Bush family:

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov.

Jeb Bush
in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has
donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the
Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.

MWI has run into trouble before. The U.S. Justice Department sued
the company in 2002, accusing it of fraudulently helping Nigeria obtain
$74 million in taxpayer-backed loans for overpriced and unnecessary
water-pump equipment. The case has yet to be resolved.

Because of the trouble with the New Orleans pumps, the Corps has
withheld 20 percent of the MWI contract, including an incentive of up
to $4 million that the company could have collected if it delivered the
equipment in time for the 2006 hurricane season.

xposted on HumidCity, DefendNOLA, LJ New Orleans, Powers and Morrison

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, now, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going dow
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

-Buffalo Springfield

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I have been trying to come up with words to express my feelings about the Chimp In Chief and his notable non-mention of New Orleans during the State of the Union Address the other night. I cannot. It is horrific that the home of veterans like my father, who spent two years in a Viet Namese prison camp, and my grandfather, who served during WWII, is found not worthy of mention.

Of course it was government (in)actions that led us to this sorry state of affairs. We have been told for decades that the levees would protect us. The Federal levees. The ones that were built in a knowingly substandard fashion by a Federal organization, the Army Corps of Engineers. People ask why we live below sea level. The best answer I have heard was someone comparing the levees to a passenger plane. We trust that it is safe because we have been told so by people whose job is to know and certify such things. If the Corps made a plane the wings would fall off shortly after takeoff, the parachutes and oxygen masks would not work, and the surviving family would be barred from legal recourse.

Yeah, no surprise we did not get a mention. Now many have weighed in on the subject, but I think the best take on it so far is this little gem from the HUffington Post. Enjoy.

The Blog | Robert J. Elisberg: It’s Official: New Orleans Declared No Longer Part of the U.S. | The Huffington Post
Oh, sure, when he gave his State of the Union Address a mere five months later, he only devoted 85 words to the disaster. But that’s 47 more than Captain Kirk devoted to “Space, the final frontier…” And that was about exploring new worlds and new civilizations. So, 85 words for a mere hurricane is pretty darn good.

Plus, it’s 85 more words than he devoted to New Orleans on Tuesday night, in his next State of the Union Address.

Yes, that’s right. The number of words devoted to the city of New Orleans that had been wiped off the map only 17 months earlier was zippo. The same number of words as calories in Diet Coke. Seven fewer words than “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Two fewer words than what the President was telling the city to do to itself.

Now, in fairness, it’s possible that the President and his Administration gentlefolk looked around but simply weren’t able to find the words anywhere, most likely because they’re hidden in the same place as Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction, which they can’t find either. (Although he still was able to come up with 16 words for that.)

On the other hand, Mr. Bush was able to come up with 166 words for the person who sold a $200 million movie company to the Walt Disney Company. Not only is that 166 more words than he found for the entire city of New Orleans that was wiped off the map - it’s twice as many as he used the year before, only five months after he had showed up on his shining light beams to proclaim his heartfelt support for the just-devastated city. The President quoted the woman, a noble soul named Julie Aigner-Clark, who has subsequently devoted effort to child protection and said, “I believe that children have the right to live in a world that is safe.” What Mr. Bush himself wanted to add was, “So keep them out of New Orleans.”

EDIT: Another extremely important read, this one speaks to the attitude of many of our “fellow Americans,” about New Orleans. Just as thrilling as the Hour of the Chimp.

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.

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 …

No,We Are Not OK. In ten weeks we will have the One Year Anniversary of Katrina, yet we are still finding corpses with disturbing regularity.

Katrina victim found in New Orleans house

An autopsy found that the man had drowned. He was the 23rd apparent storm victim found in New Orleans since the forensic center took over body recovery from federal search teams in March, Gagliano said. (Emphasis mine -Loki)

Thats just since they took over in March. This March, the month that ended two months ago. Does this sound like America to you?

EDIT: Thanks to Alan at ThinkNOLA for pointing out that my caffeinne/nicotine deprivation  had led me to mis-comment on the date emphasized above. It is now corrected in the main text of the post.