Killers come back to New Orleans

AP/Washington Times:

Police were investigating six fatal shootings that occurred within 24 hours, the latest round of killings as the city struggles to rein in violence that has shadowed the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
Three brothers and a friend were killed in a neighborhood not far from the French Quarter, and two persons were fatally shot in separate incidents hours later, authorities said Saturday.
Last month, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco sent the Louisiana National Guard and state police to New Orleans after five teenagers were fatally shot in a single attack.
Such sensational slayings have a crippling effect on the city's struggle to rebuild its tourism industry and persuade evacuees to return, said City Council member James Carter, who leads the council's committee on crime.
"The spotlight Katrina put on the city showed the real reason for these murders -- abject poverty and a poor education system," Mr. Carter said. "We have to go from looking at this as a strict law-enforcement situation and take a more holistic approach."

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That statement is an insult to the poor and uneducated who do not resort to killing. What is more likely is that drugs and turf wars are involved. People without inhibitions in violating those laws wil also lack inhibitions in violating laws against murder. I am glad they left Houston.