But marring the celebration this year have been sporadic reports of violence. On Wednesday, a stray bullet shattered a hotel window and struck and wounded a tour guide standing inside.
Friday night, police said, a man was wounded by gunfire near a parade route that skirts the crime-plagued Central City neighborhood; Saturday night, shortly after the Endymion parade had passed, five people were hit by gunfire downtown. And early Monday, at least one man was shot on Bourbon Street.
"The violence that happens along the parade routes here and in the city (is) not surrounding parades, it's not surrounding parade goers," said Sgt. Joe Narcisse of the New Orleans Police Department. He said most of the violence is related to drugs or involves people with personal grudges.
Spectator Winter Williams agreed.
"If you're at Mardi Gras and you get shot, it's because you're doing something you shouldn't. I'm not worried at all," Williams, 34, said Monday as she awaited the parades near her tent on the St. Charles streetcar tracks.
From Michael Tottens latest post
I met a young Marine named Austin — he did not give me his last name and he wasn't wearing his rank – who grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois. “I'm from a really bad area,” he said. “I didn't even go outside when I was a kid. Fallujah is a lot better.” I believe that from what I've read about East St. Louis. “My Mom doesn't believe me. She thinks I'm hiding stuff from her. So does my sister.”
I cannot tell you how many times I heard someone say “Mom, it's fine here,” when talking to family members back home on the phone. “Don't believe everything you see on TV.”
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