Shooting of 5 on Simon Bolivar came on day of family celebrations

New Orleans Times Picayune ^ | Wednesday, May 30, 2012, 10:15 PM | Danny Monteverde

[robowombat]

It was meant to be a day of joy. The Allens and Andersons had gathered Tuesday evening in the 1200 block of Simon Bolivar Avenue to celebrate a family member's 10th birthday. A few hours earlier, the Pierce family celebrated at a West Bank restaurant after one of its youngest members marched across the stage during graduation ceremonies for KIPP Central City Academy.

RUSTY COSTANZA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Payton Thompson holds a sign reading 'Thou Shalt Not Kill! Please Stop' during a vigil for five year old murder victim Briana Allen in New Orleans, Louisiana, Wednesday, May 30, 2012. Vigil for Five Year Old Murder Victim Briana Allen gallery (23 photos)]

But the twin celebrations ended in bloodshed and grief. About 5:45 p.m., three men carrying guns and an assault rifle unleashed a volley of bullets in the street in front of the Anderson home on Simon Bolivar. When the gunfire stopped, 5-year-old Briana Allen and a 33-year-old Shawanna Pierce were injured and would die soon after. Three others were wounded, including a 10-year-old who suffered a gunshot wound to his neck. None of those injuries was life-threatening. The shooting was one of four Tuesday that left four dead and four injured four shootings in a period of about three hours. Two of the men injured on Simon Bolivar were the intended targets of gunmen, police believe, and both men have been "less than cooperative" with authorities, according to Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas. One of them is Briana's uncle.

[robowombat]

I wish all would read the entire article. Murder is a commonplace in New Orleans but an indescriminate attack by three gunmen (one with an AK-47, which is a popular weapon here) on a child's birthday party to try and kill the child's uncle has produced a lot of uproar even here. Note the uncle is stone walling the police 'he be no snitch'. Note how a totally uninvolved motorist was killed by a stray AK round hundreds of feet away. I regularly remark on the depraved evil that many in the hood embrace here is a perfect example.

[svcw]

I just do not get the mentality.
These areas are no different than the war lord ruled tribes in Africa.

[corbe]

OK, robowombat, I read the entire article and even the comments.
I moved back to Texas in 1991 from Nawlins and have never, ever looked back, don't even miss it anymore.

It's another Chicago, an Amish thing.

I remember how the locals treated the Military when GWB called them in after Katrina, Now that is Nation Building on a smaller scale.

Think Iraq, Afganistan and how gratweful they are to US shedding our precuious Blood and our Treasure, it would be the same there. This is their MESS, let them clean it up.

Sorry, but some days I'm just much more cynical than others, apparently this is one of those days.

[Uncle Slayton]

Here is another perfect example of people in a community who do not want to report violent crime to the police, when it is one of their own who commits the violent crime.

In Brooklyn where Ultra Orthodox refuse to report child molestation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/nyregion/ultra-orthodox-jews-shun-their-own-for-reporting-child-sexual-abuse.html?pagewanted=all

[robowombat]

I very much agree this is a problem for the ‘black community’ to deal with. Unfortunately the ‘community leaders’ are far more invested in mau mauing whitey than they are in trying to start reversing the pathological attitudes present. The people of this community have created their hell. As I constantly point out New Orleans had about as many black residents in 1960 as today. In 1960 the city recorded 72 homicides for a city of 600K. Today a city of maybe 350K racks up somewhere north of 200 murders a year. So the problem is with the black community. Admittedly white politicians have helped a lot by underwriting programs that institutionalized dependency and destroyed the traditional family unit. But blacks own the ‘no snitching’, ‘he be bad’, glorification of the thug lifestyle and a generally underachieving/non-achieving dysfunctional culture. Until their leaders begin to own the problem and call for reformation nothing will happen. Which is what I expect will happen. New Orleans is hardly alone in this. Houston, Baton Rouge, Little Rock, Memphis just to count the big cities of the west gulf states display the same sort of pathology. It just may be a bit more florid in New Orleans but it is in many places north and south in big cities and in ones as small as Helena and Pine Bluff Arkansas. While many simply move away there is something badly amiss with the US when the urban core of so many large cities reflects such devastation and dysfunction.