(Editor’s note: Colin Flaherty has done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse. WND features these reports to counterbalance the virtual blackout by the rest of the media due to their concerns that reporting such incidents would be inflammatory or even racist. WND considers it racist not to report racial abuse solely because of the skin color of the perpetrators or victims.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: The links in the following report may contain offensive language.
Just ask the beleaguered residents of Amelia Street: an “out-of-control gathering place for unruly teenagers during Mardi Gras (which) will receive increased attention this week from both police and city officials who promise to end the problem,” said the Uptown Messenger.
Which is what police said last year. And the year before. And the year before that. Now it happens year round.
And it is getting worse: The break-ins, assaults, robberies, arson, threats, vandalism, you name it, all happening on a two block stretch on a parade route between Barronne Street and St. Charles Avenue.
“I was there last year and it was absolutely crazy,” said one reader at the Uptown Messenger website. “Fights broke out, and I saw a moped catch fire.”
One of the neighbors told the Uptown Messenger about the violence and indifference:
“During the first parading weekend of 2013, a teen tried to force their way into my home in an attempt to beat me and my fiancee up – I physically prevented them from entering my front door with 911 on the phone. When police arrived, the offending teen had vanished, but the crowd still remained (90 minutes after the parade had passed) – yet the officers drove away.
I just want the violence and actual crimes to stop. This is supposed to be a fun event and this has caused fear for my personal safety and the safety of my home.”
“If we ask them to refrain from doing any of this behavior, you automatically become a target,” a neighbor identified as Angela told the Uptown Messenger. “It becomes almost a joke for a group of them to threaten and ridicule you.”
A black woman who lives nearby wonders why so many labor so hard to deny the obvious: “The resident is right. They get crazy, but look who we’re talking about here. We’re talking about black New Orleans teenagers. As much as I hate to say it, it’s pretty obvious.”
Sometimes the violence is a sport:
Other times, it starts young. On Amelia Street, it is pervasive.
The street attracts the most attention during the annual Carnival season, which began last Saturday night and features a parade that passes through area.
Lt. Frank Young of the New Orleans Police Department did not offer the neighbors much hope: “It was at least one block deep,” Young told the Uptown Messenger. “It was definitely more than the usual six-person-deep parade spectators. Something about this block is attracting them, and I could see if I lived there it being a pain.”
City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell said she, too, is aware of the problem.
“When residents have tried to address it themselves, they get met with vulgarity,” Cantrell told the Uptown Messenger. “People are afraid and intimidated. From what I understand, this has been an ongoing problem for years.”
New Orleans has a midnight basketball program that the city hoped would reduce the violence and the lawlessness. So far, not much luck.
This is the same area where police arrested 20 black people last January after a series of robberies and assaults and shootings.
Unless someone dies, New Orleans police don’t really take a crime that seriously. Dead or alive, many in the “Chocolate City” blame the high crime rates and the epidemic of black mob violence on white racism.
The murder rate is 10 times the national average – and more than 90 percent of the killers and victims are black.
Some black residents of New Orleans say racism is behind the black mob violence: Keith Hudson told the Uptown Messenger:
“They don’t see the college students doing wrong, just the black kids doing wrong. That’s how it is here in New Orleans, and our elected officials will do everything white-folks tell them to do. Why not hold a ‘Dialogue Meeting’ between the ‘alleged’ teenagers & the residents, and I bet you they don’t have a leg to stand on. That’s how you resolve a problem, but white-folks want things done their way!!!”
Others say, it is Mardi Gras, “bruh.” Get over it:
“I do not understand why someone who has such a big issue with people drinking and loitering at parades would live on a parade route. It is their own fault.”
Jordan St. Etienne told the Uptown Messenger:
“Is this a joke? Did your thought process even consider Mardi Gras before even moving there? you live in New Orleans bruh. This is nothing but complaining. if you dont like the uptown route live on Esplanade or something… or Kenner at that. Although if who ever took this serious gave me a pretty good laugh.”
A lot of people have done just that: Move. But those left behind held a conference last summer. They want to reduce what the mayor calls an “epidemic” of violence in New Orleans, by focusing on what they say is one of it root causes: Police brutality.
According to the Louisiana Weekly, New Orleans multi-cultural news source, “anti-violence advocates, led by the Rev. Tom Watson, will host a summit June 28–29 on the impact of police brutality and the city’s stubborn homicide rate on black male residents. Dubbed ‘Rage in New Orleans: Combating Black-on-Black Homicides and Police Issues.’”
Dr. Leonard Moore is one of the main organizers of the event. He is a “professor and VP of Academic Diversity at the University of Texas at Austin. He is widely considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on the topic of black males and police brutality.”
See the Big List of black mob violence.
source: WND
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