Four men were killed in one shooting and a fifth was gunned down in a separate incident hours later, the latest round of killings as the city struggles to rein in drug- and gang-related violence that has accompanied the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, police said Saturday.
In mid-June, Gov. Kathleen Blanco sent the Louisiana National Guard and state police to New Orleans to help fight crime there after five teenagers were shot to death in a single attack.
5 killed in latest New Orleans shootings
AP, July 29, 2006
Sounds like New Orleans is stubborn and resilient - its violence will give in neither to the fury of Katrina, nor to the masses of law enforcement officers that came to the city afterwards. In fact, it sounds like it is time to rethink the whole approach here - that is to say, while there certainly are shrewd criminals police are simply unable to stop, when the crime is at this level it is pretty much always a social problem.
1 comment:
I don't know what the shocker is.
When 80% of the city flooded almost everything was destroyed. The previous turf lines and drug territories were washed away when the along with everything else. The gangs all have to rebuild their business, establish their hierarchy and recruit members. Gang wars are nothing new to the urban area's of this country. This is just the first time we have seen all of them war with each other at the same time. Until they either kill each other all off or straighten things out amongst themselves we are going to keep having these horrid mass slayings. Imagine if the mob in New York was forced to reestablish every aspect of their organization from scratch. It would be a blood bath. That's what is going on here.
The strange thing is, with all of these murders going on, I don't know that any city is safer for your ordinary Joe right now. The victims are hardly ever innocent. The gang banger's are fighting each other and don't have time to terrorize ordinary citizens. You hardly ever hear stories about stores being robbed or car jackings or other random acts of violence. Everything is either drug related or retaliation killings.
I also wanted to mention that the National Guard is doing a great job. Rebuilding was never going to take place as long as the vultures were picking things apart faster than you could put them back together.
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