Thursday, August 30, 2007

Lets Get To Work

Screw the commentary

1) A 24-year year old Harvey man was shot twice in front of his home Thursday morning, and remains in stable condition at a local hospital.
Col. Robert Garner, a spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Offfice, said that the man told deputies that shortly before 1 a.m. he was standing in front of his home in the 1700 block of Esther Street, when an unidentified man walked up to him and fired several shots in his direction.


2)A New Orleans man was found shot Wednesday night on Louisiana Avenue, police said.
The man's injuries weren't life-threatening, police spokeswoman Officer Jonette Williams said.
He was shot about 7:30 p.m. in or near a relative's home in the 1900 block of Delachaise Street, and ran to a nearby car wash on Louisiana Avenue where he collapsed, police said.


3)Elizabeth McFerrin arrived at the New Orleans Yacht Club Tuesday morning and smelled dead fish.
She looked out of a window and saw dead fish covering the Municipal Yacht Harbor and more floating to the surface five and six at a time.
By Tuesday evening, McFerrin, general manager of the club, estimated the number of dead fish to be in the tens of thousands.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

KATRINA DAY

People think Katrina was an event, like a balloon popping, that occurred and passed when the water receded. When they say, "Katrina did this to me," they think they're saying, "water destroyed my house."
But Katrina was an event more in the way Foucault would say "event". That is, the storm represented a fundamental shift in the cities perception of reality. It changed what was fundamentally "true" at any given time. Example:
Pre-K, the government will help, that was true. Post-K, the government does nothing.
Whether or not you believe these statements to be true, on the ground, in the city, they are basic truths that every action and opinion of the disenfranchised classes pivot on.
Katrina was not a storm. Katrina is the name given to the shift in perception that dictates life in New Orleans.
Today is not the anniversary of Katrina. Katrina is still happening. It is everywhere. It makes our lives impossible.

So, here is some "Katrina"
A shooting in Central City left one person wounded Tuesday night, New Orleans police said.
The shooting occurred around the 2600 block of Danneel Street, between Third and Fourth streets, at 9:30 p.m.
The victim, a man, was shot in the face, said Garry Flot, a police public information officer.


NOMB rode by this spot on their bikes around 9:00

Again, Katrina
A man was shot and killed Tuesday morning in the Desire neighborhood, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
He was found by police about 10 a.m., sprawled on the pavement at Humanity and Feliciana streets, said NOPD spokeswoman Officer Jonette Williams.
The man had been shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity has not been released.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Roommate

NOMB notices the roommate is looking peckish. We assume that it is the inevitable stress of non-profit work.
After some badgering it becomes apparent that after arriving from Baton Rouge to her office on OC Haley she decided to have cigarette on the neutral ground.
"WIth all the sound whizzing by my ears," she says. "It took me a while to realize they were shooting."
She hid behind a metal telephone pole until the cops showed up.

Here's the official word:
Two men were shot Monday evening in Central City, New Orleans police said.One was shot in the thigh, and the other in the arm. The man who was shot in the arm was found about 7 p.m. in the 2200 block of Felicity Street. The second victim, believed to have been wounded in the same incident, was found at a hospital, where he had gone on his own, police said.
Police had no suspect or motive.


Out in No-Man's Land:
A 28-year-old man was fatally shot in eastern New Orleans on Sunday night, the latest in a rash of killings in the sparsely populated area.
The man had gunshots wounds to his face and head. He was later identified as Louis Heim, 28, of New Orleans, according to John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner.


Ugh

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Readership, AT ALL TIME LOW

Moly Ried of the Times-Picayune brings you the following choice dish:

One man was killed and another injured in a gunfight Saturday morning outside a Kenner lounge.

Ron James, 28, was booked with second-degree murder after he was released from the hospital with a gunshot wound.

Responding to a report of gunshots fired outside the Backyard Café & Daiquiris, 433 Veterans Memorial Blvd., at 5:09 a.m., Kenner police found several spent bullets and casings on the Decatur Street side of the lounge.


protect your souls, dear readers, because you're going to have to reconcile the following fact,
While some in the city do their absolute best, others do their absolute worst.

Really, don't pay it lip service, reconcile it with your conscience. Preachy Sunday.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

The Emissary

When NOMB worked the case manager beat, we watched as two small Vietnamese girls sat in front of the members of Catholic Charities' Hispanic Forum and offered a partnership of sorts. A sharing of resources between two marginalized groups in the city.

But we never hear about them, until this happens:

Two people were shot to death and five others injured in an apparent barrage of gunfire late Friday night in eastern New Orleans, just a block from where a Vietnamese couple was slain in their home two weeks ago, New Orleans police said. Two victims were listed in critical condition and three people suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.

The eastern New Orleans area has been a hotbed recently for armed robberies and home invasions. Several crews of stickup men, all using the same tactics, have struck unknowing contractors and residents, police sources said.


Living out in the East with no protection. While NOPD snags some West Bankers in a 100,000 drug raid that stretched across unincorporated Grenta/Westwego, these folks are battling it out. It's a turf war. Amid other rumors, the following quote is the one true thing we know

The murders shocked the tight-knit Vietnamese community, which as been a flurry of rebuilding activity in an otherwise sparsely populated part of the city.

I would expect to see this situation become more volatile and yet completely unspoken about.

In other turf war news, Hollygrove saw two more shot on Thurs after the 17 year-old got 16 shots:

Two men in their late 20s leaving a corner bar near Eagle and Edinburgh streets were approached by two men, who opened fire, Flot said.

Don't forget about the 7th Ward:
First District officers responding to a report of a shooting shortly after 7:15 p.m. found the man lying in the middle of the street in the 2000 block of North Prieur Street, near Touro Street. He was pronounced dead the scene.
A cell phone that rang intermittently lay on the sidewalk about 40 feet from the body. A New Orleans police crime lab technician put the phone into an evidence bag.


And Central City:
Second District police responded to a report of shooting at Loyola and Washington avenues shortly before 7:45 p.m. A 17-year-old man was shot in the back, and another man was shot in the leg

Friday, August 24, 2007

Retroactive

If they die in the hospital later, of complications, to they get added to the tallY? NOMB editors say no, decidedly
Somewhere on page two of the Metro is a story about a man who died from a July shooting, but we can't find it now that we're looking. Maybe it's too early in the morning to be doing this.


Babies:
A 17-year-old boy, dead of an apparent gunshot wound, was found on a sidewalk in the Hollygrove neighborhood Thursday night, New Orleans police said.

Increasingly, the working class, the undocumented, the people who don't get a lot of press, feel the weight the most. A nice narrative:

The stickup men pulled up, parked and barged into the one-story stucco house Wednesday shortly before 9 p.m.
Inside, spread through a couple of bare, recently renovated rooms, six bone-tired day laborers ate dinner.
Two of the three gunmen forced the four men and two women together, huddled them into the middle of the kitchen and ordered them face down on the newly tiled floor, according to witnesses who asked to remain anonymous. The other assailant waited outside the house, in the 8400 block of Nighthart Street in eastern New Orleans

Thursday, August 23, 2007

The Bible

NOMB wakes up to a woman, over sixty, who says,
"Moses led his people through the desert for 40 years."
We try to interject, knowing where this could go.
"Now wait and listen to me."

Bible quotes equal threats. NOLA gives us more reasons to pray.

a 29-year-old man was shot several times in his car in front of his house in the 1200 block of Gallier Street, just north of St. Claude Avenue, about 9 p.m., police said. He was driven to University Hospital by his father . He died on arrival at the hospital, police said.

Also:
A triple shooting in which one man was critically wounded was reported eight minutes earlier in the 4800 block of Nighthart Street, police said.
Two or three men either forced their way or were let into a home in that block shortly before 9 p.m. and shot three men inside, police said.


The end days, the end of Aug that is.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

You probably already heard

But:

In a span of less than 24 hours Monday and Tuesday, New Orleans police responded to five different shootings, three of them fatal, one of them killing an 18-year-old and another wounding a 15-year-old.
1)43-year-old man lying on the sidewalk, at the intersection of Annunciation and Josephine Streets, with a gunshot wound
2)48-year-old man lying inside his FEMA trailer with several gunshot wounds to his body
3)West Carrollton neighborhood, the slaying of a teenager. The victim was shot at the intersection of Green and Monroe streets, amid parked cars and houses buzzing with air conditioning units. A shoeless boy of single-digit age stared at the body on the stretcher. "That's my brother," he repeated over and over. He did not cry.
4) Tuesday, a 15-year-old boy was wounded in the Sixth Ward, police said. The victim, whose identity was not released, was shot in the leg.
5) 40-year-old Uptown man was seriously wounded Monday evening. The victim, whose identity was not released, was sitting outside a FEMA trailer when a gunman approached and opened fire. The victim was shot in the nose


There is something about the Times-Picayunes reportage on this one. Brendan McCarthy and Daniel Monteverde have adopted a post-war French prose poem-esque style. The way the text runs togehter with, stream of consciousness, form mirrors content, etc

Maybe they've been reading Celine or something. Maybe they're tired. Lord knows we are.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Boom Bap

SO exhausted:

A 40-year-old man was shot several times and critically wounded Monday night in his Central City neighborhood, police said.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Sunday from the Porch

NOMB believes in the continuity of its reportage.
"It seems kinda fucked," someone tells us,"To be keeping track like this."
"It's a chronology," we might say,"It's meant to build in a direction."

Off Claiborne:
A 15-year-old boy who was shot in the chest Friday night while walking in Central City has been upgraded to stable condition, New Orleans police said Saturday.

Across the Lake:
A 16-year-old girl was shot in the back several times and dumped in a ditch Saturday in Fluker, a rural Tangipahoa Parish town, and the bound body of a man was found Saturday morning in his burned home near Hammond, authorities said.

Round the Corner:
Police on Friday arrested a suspect in the early morning shooting of a New Orleans man in the Faubourg St. John neighborhood. When police arrived at North Salcedo Street just after midnight, they found an 18-year-old suffering from several gunshot wounds. Emergency medical technicians said he was dead at the scene.

NOMB has some dogmatic takes on death. Our editors do, however, believe in its subjectivity.
Read back far enough, and you might see our position. More a comment on the city's attitudes as reflected in mainstream reportage, maybe? Not personal belief systems or anything so bigtime.

-end

Friday, August 17, 2007

Pudding/Proof

NOMB is glad that we have now been provided with hard, statistical data. Not that the steady stream of reportage on this blog isn't proof enough. Nothing hits harder than numbers. Not names or street corners or faces or stories. No, its the crunched numbers that move this machine forward.




People can make statistics to prove anything, 14% of all people know that.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Irony

Thy name is...

Police say the female victim [of last night's stabing in a Mid-City barroom] died this morning.

in the same breath:

Murder and Violent Crime Up in NOLA:
Not using per capita figures for the second quarter, murder rose 26 percent and armed robbery was up 95 percent. But based on a population boost of around 90,000 people, murder rose 14 percent, and overall violent crime was up 12 percent.


These number games the city is playing, what's the point? Sounds like "brand" managment to the boys down at NOMB.

Cut and Run

More instanity:
A New Orleans woman was critically injured Wednesday night when a man entered a Mid-City bar and slashed her throat, police said. The attacker, who also stabbed another patron, was arrested a short distance away, police said.

More bodies in the East:
Tuesday, New Orleans police responded to a call of shots fired about 7:15 p.m. and found Curry alive but lying on the ground in the 7700 block of Chef Menteur Highway. He had been shot several times, police said.

More heat, more sheetrock dust, more arguments, more water, more storms, more phone calls, more hits, more thoughts of leaving forever from everyone you talk to on the streets.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

SoapBox

We were so busy up on it today, we totally forget this one:

Authorities have arrested two women they say used sex to lure a man from Bourbon Street to a Metairie apartment last week, where a trio of robbers then beat him and shot him as he escaped by diving off a second-floor balcony.

The Connections

NOMB has roommates, and the roommates suspect conspiracy.
"Something's going on," they say. "With the two brother's who got shot, and now the witnesses that were shot in Treme."
"I wouldn't worry," says NOMB. "They are unrelated."
We have the official word:

Terry Johnson [one of the two shot after a basketball game] was listed as a material witness in a murder case at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.But Johnson wasn't a willing witness, prosecutors found. District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office asked a judge to place a material witness bond on him, essentially a legal leash the court can pull to ensure witnesses show up for court hearings. Dalton Savwoir, a spokesman for Jordan, said Tuesday that the murder in Treme was not motivated by Johnson's participation in the capital murder case, which has not yet been set for trial.

"We understand that it is unrelated to the case," Savwoir said.


See roomie, unrelated. The trial he's a witness in hasn't even been set for trial.

Also,Buried in a little box on the Metro page:
At 7:14 p.m., police responded to a call about gunfire and found the man shot multiple times in the 7700 block of Chef Menteur Highway, said Garry Flot, an information officer for New Orleans police. The man died Tuesday night at a hospital.

Some of the folk's over here at NOMB used to do social work. This story pretty much sums up the work environment of the social services right now. Old women threatening to jump in front of trains was not uncommon.
"Man Leaps From Ambulance"

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

How do you travel?

The second double homicide in three days? Like De La Soul will tell you, the stakes are high. NOMB passes this spot on the daily:

Two people were shot fatally and a third wounded Monday night in the Treme neighborhood, New Orleans police said.
The triple shooting occurred about 10:40 p.m. at North Villere and St. Philip streets, near Armstrong Park and Joseph A. Craig elementary school, 1423 St. Philip.


NOPD didn't want to advertise this shooting until they had something to show for it, apparently:

The New Orleans Police Department has issued an arrest warrant for an 18-year-old wanted in connection with a double shooting Sunday night in Algiers. Fourth District officers responded to a call of a shooting about 8:25 p.m. in the 3000 block of Sandra Drive and found a man who had been shot in the buttocks and a woman who had been shot in the stomach, said Officer Garry Flot, NOPD spokesman.

Truth be told, sometimes there's so much of it, NOMB forgets what's it reported on, and what's crossover.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Shh..

With the heat yesterday, the streets were empty.
In the heat this morning, the paper, the wire, the mouths of the people...empty.
NOMB takes a rest.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

All of Us

To everyone who says it's just thugs killing each other, and find their proof in the billboards on Claiborne Ave, NOMB submits the following:

A man and a woman were shot to death Saturday morning in the Village de l'Est neighborhood of eastern New Orleans.
Luong Nguyen, 38, and Anjelique Vu, 35, were found with gunshot wounds to the head by 7th District police officers responding about 9 a.m. to a report of a shooting at 4942 Savoie Court.


All this on the back of more political scandal involving senior city council members. While the official heat index puts todays temperature at 113, NOMB feels like the black shroud of death we all wear makes the heat in the city more like 400 degrees. Right Juvie?

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Hecho en NOLA

Sometimes, NOMB just likes to wallow in the details. Does it help anything? No. But there it is, in italics:

Police say an apparent murder suicide has left two people dead in unincorporated Gretna. Responding officers found the body of a 24-year-old man near apartment 1402. He was identified as Eder Bustillo. He had an address on South Causeway Blvd. Investigators say Bustillo was suffering from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
Detectives say a cocked semi-automatic handgun along with a spent shell casing was found near Bustillo's body.
Inside the apartment, deputies found the body of a 26-year-old woman.
Donielle Doucette's body was discovered in the upstairs living room. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead on the scene.


NOMB works construction. BAck in the day (in 2005/06) we heard the horror stories of bodies wrapped up in carpets in Gentily. Workers getting jacked for tools, stolen copper, threats from near by homeowners, etc...

29 year-old father to be was gunned down in while working on a home in New Orleans East. Police believe it was an armed robbery.


The Sunday paper is doing a full spread in the living section.

As a Sunday gift to ourselves, NOMB will not be reprinting anything related to the 14 year-old boy setting the 80 year-old amputee on fire.

Wait...

Friday, August 10, 2007

The Brand

Our Mayor:
Do I worry about [crime]? Somewhat. It's not good for us, but it also keeps the New Orleans brand out there

From the top down:
Officially, The City of new Orleans will no longer refer to it as violient crime. It is now "environmental branding"

A man caught spraying graffiti on a Kenner floodwall was [branded] Thursday afternoon when he tried to run from an East Jefferson Levee District police vehicle, tripped and was struck, officials said.

From our Hollygrove Office:
A New Orleans man is in guarded condition after being [branded} in the abdomen Thursday afternoon.

Keep your head down folk, people are branding all over the city.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Ask yourself

How do you really feel about this:

At about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, New Orleans police responded to a shooting in St. Roch.
Less than 12 hours later, they would respond to another shooting across town in the Irish Channel.
By the end of the day, two New Orleans men, brothers suspected in 14 murders during the past few years, were themselves killed. Their deaths marked the fifth and sixth killings in New Orleans in five days.


The answer you get will determine just how "New Orleans" you are.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Suspect Device

The best part of this headline is the use of the word "report"
NOPD reports murder in eastern New Orleans
The city's fourth murder in four days occurred Tuesday night in eastern New Orleans.
The killing took place about 10 p.m. at Coventry Street and Martin Drive, several blocks southeast of New Orleans Lakefront Airport.


It's kind of like saying, "I know, right. We just heard about it too."

In unrelated news, NOMB had the pleasure of working with some volunteers on a Treme house today. The crew was from Maryland. NOMB's supervisors requested that we not relate the Central American-esque kidnapping and ass-shooting incident.

Are we living in El Salvador now? Joan Didion is coming to spend a week.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Volunteers

Classified as unrelated incidents, except that they involved guns and human beings within the political boundaries of the City of New Orleans. Totally unrelated. No similar socio-economic factors. Prevailing cultural attittudes. Caliber of bullet.

In one of at least nine shootings over the weekend, a 38-year-old Maryland man was allegedly kidnapped from the French Quarter and taken to the nearby Iberville public housing development, where he was held against his will, cut and shot three times in the buttocks, according to police records.

Since early Saturday, at least 11 people were shot, three fatally, in unrelated incidents across the city. Some victims were still in critical condition Monday, police said.


As the non-profits gear up for the heavy volunteer/Americorp season (yes it is a season), the hoods and thugs gear up to scare them....and us

A 19-year-old man was killed in a shooting at North Rocheblave and St. Anthony streets late Monday night.
Police responded to a call of a man down in the street in the Gentilly neighbhorhood at 10:30 p.m. and found the victim lying in the street with two gunshot wounds to the upper body.


The question becomes: Is a 19 year-old really a man?
NOMB had a 22 year-old girl friend and doesn't recall ever telling her, "You's a good woman."

Monday, August 6, 2007

The Drone

Things that drone in New Orleans
Air conditioners
Air compressors
Politicians
The sound of sirens

1. An unidentified man was in critical condition at a local hospital Sunday night after being shot several times.
Garry Flot, a spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department, said the shooting occurred near the intersection of Hickory and Leonidas streets. Police responded to a call from the hospital at 7:45 p.m.


2.Officers responding to a call found a van with its front tires up on the curb and Lopez pinned underneath it. He had apparently been hit and dragged by the van until he became wedged between it and the curb, Gallagher said.
He was pronounced dead on the scene. Witnesses told police that Lopez had been seen earlier in the day working under the hood of the van in the rear alley of an apartment building on Martinique Drive, adjacent to where the van was found.


3.A Marrero man died Sunday after being struck by a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office vehicle after fleeing a traffic stop, authorities said.
Joseph Scott, 30, of 2164 Caddy Drive, was transported to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival, the news release said.


4.A St. Tammany Parish sheriff's deputy shot a Madisonville man on Saturday afternoon after he called police threatening to commit suicide and then attacked several deputies with a claw hammer when they arrived on scene.

A comment suggests that NOMB take the weekend off. NOMB suggests the gunfighters take the weekend off.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

White Linen Night

Out on Julia street, a photographer wearing a wet handkerchief around his neck and a fisherman's vest is shooting pictures of the well-dressed gallerinas. One man asks if the photographer if he will be seeing himself in the news.
"No," says the photographer, "We had a couple of kids shoot themselves over at the projects today, so it'll probably get bumped."

Sorry, man in suit, we got this to follow:

A 12-year-old New Orleans boy was accidentally shot to death Saturday afternoon, the New Orleans Police Department reported. A 13-year-old has been arrested in the case, said Officer Garry Flot, police spokesman.

Also:

A man survived a gunshot wound to the neck Friday night in Central City, New Orleans police said.
Police released few details about the shooting, which occurred shortly before 9 p.m. in the 2400 block of Amelia Street, said officer Garry Flot, a police spokesman.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Always and Forever

Upon arrival in the city after a month in Mexico, NOMB's neighbor's were treated to a story about a ballet dancing uncle who was shot in the head Uptown. Knowing the nature of our buisness, they asked NOMB for the rundown.
"Haven't heard a peep" we say.
We scan the rags.
"Ain't been reported maybe?" we ask.
We continue our work...

New Orleans police officers shot a suspect in the arm while chasing him and two other men in the 9th Ward, police said.

Some other nonsense:

SUV smash into church, imposters make home invasion, rape, etc...

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Extra Stuff

Two people, including an 11-year-old boy, were wounded Monday night in Metairie in a shooting apparently stemming from a continuing quarrel, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said.

It's too hott to think. But the visitors in the van and take 'em out of town.

Rock Show

An Australian Roadie asked me if it was safe to be standing at 1:00 AM under the N. Robertson bridge.
"I'm paranoid," I said. "so don't listen to me."
The NOPD detail had pulled off an hour ago.
"But don't go fucking around."

The reason, not six blocks away:

One man is dead and another is hospitalized in stable condition after an early morning shooting Tuesday in the 9th Ward.
Shortly before 1 a.m., 5th District police responded to a call of "male down" near the corner of Marais and Pauline streets near the Industrial Canal, officer Sabrina Richardson said.
Officers found one man with a gunshot wound in his chest and another with a gunshot wound in his buttocks, according to police.