Linked

 

 

 

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans, the "Big Easy" city famous for its good times and relaxed attitude, has become the Big Uneasy in recent weeks as its murder count has soared and anger grown at local leaders unable to stop the violence.

 

Annual Mardi Gras celebrations unfolded without incident this weekend, but fear of the rampant blood-spilling and its threat to the city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina are constant topics of conversation.

 

The homicide total for a still-young 2007 climbed to 27 on Saturday with the dead of a man shot at a nightclub on Friday.

 

He was one of nine people shot in separate incidents in a seven-hour span on Thursday and Friday, and the third of them to die.

 

Local leaders, worried crime may scare away tourists who are the life-blood of the economy, stressed that the shootings did not take place at Mardi Gras events and assured visitors violent crime is largely restricted to "hot spots," or impoverished neighborhoods where visitors seldom go.

 

"The truth is that crime traditionally has gone down during Mardi Gras," Mardi Gras historian Arthur Hardy said.

 

And head shaking time for me:

A recent murder encapsulated the difficulties. After a 17-year-old was beaten up, his mother gave him a gun and told him to get revenge, and he killed the boy he fought with.

 

When police went to his home to investigate, they found the mother with cocaine and a family photo on display of the son with a gun in one hand and a fistful of cash in the other.

 

"For us to correct this, we have to look at the root of the problem. The root of the problem is our education system," Police Superintendent Warren Riley said in an interview.

 

Education system? Education starts at home, and this woman should be spending time in prison, the same sentence her son receives.

How the F is a mom giving the kid a gun and telling him to go get revenge on someone a fault of the educational system?

 

I know our educational system has big problems, but how are those two even close to related?

 

That might have been the worst use of the victim card I have ever seen.

How the F is a mom giving the kid a gun and telling him to go get revenge on someone a fault of the educational system?

 

I know our educational system has big problems, but how are those two even close to related?

 

That might have been the worst use of the victim card I have ever seen.

 

I hope this was just poor writing and bad positioning in the article. But it does hit the heart of something I believe strongly. Parents are in charge of their kids education. Every kids is home schooled. Some parents may elect to sub-contract some of the education to others, schools, after school programs, sports, Church, etc. They have to realize you can delegate authority, but not responsibility. So I will agree that child's education system broke down, but it doesn't sound like it was the school system.

New Orleans was a corrupt, crime-ridden city even before Katrina. It had some of the poorest of the poor in the country, some of the worst schools, and government that makes Daley's office look like St. Peter's gatekeepers. Katrina just opened all the festering wounds.

 

I'd think a prosecutor might take this opportunity to make a point. Charge the mom with manslaughter or homicide in some degree, being the legal guardian and arming the kid. Throw in charges for reckless endangerment of a child, drug charges, and everything else they can apply. Make sure it gets in the paper. Publicly humiliate her. And then follow that up with picking some other high profile disgusting cases like that of awful parenting, and slap them down too. Make it clear what behavior won't be tolerated, and maybe some of the parents who aren't quite that bad yet will think twice about their responsibilities.

The homicide total for a still-young 2007 climbed to 27 on Saturday with the dead of a man shot at a nightclub on Friday.

 

 

LOL