Five youths dead in New Orleans shooting

[MaineDem]

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Five teenagers were shot to death early on Saturday morning in New Orleans in one of the worst mass killings in the history of the city, police said.

A 16-year-old, a 17-year-old and three 19-year-olds were found shortly before dawn in and near a sport utility vehicle surrounded by semi-automatic handgun shell casings, said police spokesman John Bryson.

"The carnage and the number of deaths appear to be leading toward (a motive) of retaliation and/or drug related. I don't think we have ever in the history of the city had five people gunned down inside a vehicle," he said.

The central city area where the youths were killed has also been the scene of previous drug-related arrests, he said.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-06-17T173828Z_01_N17244829_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-NEWORLEANS.xml&src=rss

[seriousstan]

1. It looks like NO really is coming back to it's old self.

Sorta makes you wonder why the former population isn't falling over itself to get back in the city.

[pitohui]

2. if you can go somewhere else you probably should

we would be willing to leave the area if we could afford to

the murder rate per capita in orleans has been at the pre-K rate for some weeks -- and now the crime is spreading into other areas that were formerly peaceful, such as river ridge, where a police officer was killed yesterday by a houston man

another horrific murder recently in a formerly peaceful metairie neighborhood concerned an older woman (50ish) out jogging who was raped and then run over until dead by the young man in question -- that is not a crime of poverty or lack of opportunity, that is a crime of sheer "there's something wrong with that boy"

i may be wrong about this, but i have the impression that when you have a frontier society -- mostly young men in the construction trades in our case -- and no balancing "feminine" population of women and families, i think it's pretty much classic demographics that violence and murder will be high, even where there are lots of jobs, too much testosterone and young men get into challenging each other -- some historian or demographer can correct me on this if i'm too far off-base

in this most recent case tho i suppose it's just another drug killing, such as were occurring regularly before the storm but not considered worthy of national news, the officer interviewed may be technically truth-telling to say he can't remember five people being blown away all in one killing, but there were gang killings last summer where onesies and twosies were being killed back and forth and at the end of the week it really added up, i'm no police officer and off the cuff i can certainly think of incidents involving three people -- one of the victims last summer included a 7 year old girl killed apparently so no witness would be left alive to the repeated slaughters

it is truly a depressing situation

if the drug dealers are coming back, it is not for lack of jobs here, labor is badly needed and there is good honest work to be had for strong young men

we need some national guard back if you ask me to keep some of these predators out of the city

[951-Riverside]

3. Hopefully they were all gang members or drug dealers

[Bucky]

4. As opposed to being, say, somebody's son? Yes, it would be better.

I won't say I get too choked up when drug dealers shoot each other, but they were human beings and, frankly, kids whose lifestyle choices were made available by a society that doesn't seem to give a shit about crime in poor minority neighborhoods. All these teenagers should've had better choices to make and better guidance in making them. If they find the killers, I'll bet they're all pretty young too. This is a sign of a lost generation, lost kids, and really nothing to be happy about.

[billbuckhead]

5. The gun lobby says these kids are just collateral damage

and not really missed anyhow.

On Inner-City Violence:
"…the consensus is that no more than five to ten people in a hundred who die by gunfire in Los Angeles are any loss to society. These people fight small wars amongst themselves. It would seem a valid social service to keep them well-supplied with ammunition."
Cooper's Corner, Guns and Ammo

<http://www.nraleaders.com/jeff-cooper.html>

[Kingshakabobo]

6. Yes, I hope they were dealing dime-bags of pot..........

.....that'll learn 'em.






:sarcasm:

[pitohui]

7. you know what?

i don't care what they were dealing, a drug war with heavy artillery over pot is not any safer to the innocent bystander than a drug war over crack, there are lots of jobs going begging here now, anyone dealing drugs does not get my sympathy, they are part of the problem and not part of the solution

the sign at the local burger king says, we are now hiring age 15 -- i believe every one of these teen boys was 16 or older, at least two were 19

the durn fast food places, in air conditioning, are now paying over $8 an hour plus bonus -- an unheard of starting wage in new orleans at this time last year

and real jobs, in construction are paying much more for a strong young men

we are absolutely desperate for labor here!

these teen boys had other options rather than getting involved in drugs, the people i pity are the ones who have to live in these neighborhoods where they get caught in the crossfire, jesus, as i said in my post upthread, a 7 year old child was slaughtered last year, it is past time that we stopped tolerating "thug life," it is not cute, it is not colorful, it is a plague

anyone still selling drugs in new orleans at this time of century has forfeited my sympathy

there is too much real work to be done

[saigon68]

9. $8.00 an hour ?? these clowns were making a lot more than that

You don't buy a Lexus by working at Mickey D's. No these thugs were up to their ass in the drug trade

a business that has rules and severe penalties if you break any rule, such as stiff your supplier.

[pitohui]

10. well then i hope they enjoy hell

you know what, i don't care then, i don't feel sorry for them

i don't drive a damn lexus and i am not 19 years old

my husband has worked in heavy industry his whole life, he don't drive a lexus

if they think they deserve to drive a lexus just for getting born, then <expletive deleted> them, the planet is better off without them

and new orleans sure as hell is better off w.out them

i'm tired of these effing gang wars, you lose your sense of humor REAL FAST once the bullet comes into your own living room, which actually happened to us in days gone by

[saigon68]

11. Too bad they didn't enlist to kill a few islamics

But then the military rule against smoking "Crack" probably deterred them

from that line of work

[pitohui]

12. ok you're messing w. me now :-)

but you know what? my dad had no future as a "hillbilly" and he joined the service and he was able to go to college and have a great future, it changed the direction of our entire family

the service is not always such a bad choice, this war sure stinks but for the love of pete, how can enlisting be worse than being gunned down over who has the right to distribute poison to the children in your neighborhood?

i don't think the 16 year olds should have been expected to enlist but, crap, they have summer job opportunities i would have killed for at their age!

i just don't understand people sometimes

sure, they had a lexus as teen-agers but for what? drive a damn volkswagen and work a crap job like i did and live 30 or 50 years longer, at the end of the day longer life = more opportunities to enjoy life

right?

[saigon68]

13. I enjoy your sense of humor and outlook on life

Thank You

[pitohui]

14. around here if you don't laugh you'd cry i guess EOM

.

[Kingshakabobo]

16. I hope you saw my sarcasm smiley.........

.......I was responding to the "liberal" that hoped they were drug dealers. As if they were all Pablo Escobar riding in that car. I don't suppose it crossed that poster's mind that a couple kids out of 5 were innocent or, at worst, dime-bag dealers......nah, that would be too nuanced.

[pitohui]

8. they're saying down here that it is a drug war thing

last summer at this time we were having some absolutely horrific slayings, most all drug related, but they did not get any national press

so even before the territories were messed up by katrina, the gangs were fighting for control of drug distribution

[donsu]

15. the bushmilhousegang are the biggest drug barons

nt

[Paladin]

17. The Thanks Of A Grateful Nation To The NRA......

....who worked so hard to get confiscated guns back into the hands of the people of New Orleans, thus assuring the safety of the city.

Awaiting the standard responses from our own Gun Dungeon NRA suck-ups.....