NEW ORLEANS — The remaining tire marks at the intersection of Howard and O’Keefe in downtown New Orleans are faint.
Police said a dare devilish disregard for all things safe took place Sunday evening around 5:30 p.m. Seen on video, the caption “AK-47 in his hands, I’d say it’s time to call the troops Mayor Cantrell.”
A block over at the intersection of Howard and Baronne, the general manager of a locally owned G’s restaurant and bar says this is nothing new.
Yancy Theodore said it’s such a regular occurrence, he says he wonders why it’s so hard for police to deter.
“It seems like it’s the wild wild west because they can just do whatever they want whenever they want, peel off and catch the interstate and just be wherever they want to be,” Theodore said.
Theodore says between COVID, Hurricane Ida and the parade route changes, business was already bad enough.
“We already have trouble with staffing and with people not thinking the city is safe and then when they see things like that it’s confirmed,” said Theodore.
Kevin Griffin-Clark is a youth advocate that has been doing the work both directly in the community and using social media with the digital collective 2cent for over a decade.
He said, “this is what happens when you do not use the resources that we have properly.”
He believes that part of what we are seeing with the rise in crime, in general, is a trend known as “flexing for the gram.”
“It’s a one-up it’s a competition of sorts and so you have to out due whoever did it first or whoever did it prior to you,” Griffin-Clark said.
A dangerous trend that’s not limited to high-octane thrill-seekers, Griffin-Clark says gunplay is fair game as well. And sometimes “with real heavy artillery."
Griffin-Clark says he understands the need to hold youth accountable for the crimes they commit, but he says oftentimes, kids in the justice system fall through the cracks.
Griffin-Clark recently ran for the city council in District D, but as a 10-year-old he himself was in the juvenile justice system.
He says the mentors that came along that helped him grow on his path are what turned his life around.
Leading him to believe another part of the flexing for the gram trend.
A signal that something may be happening with the children on the inside.
“We all have different ways that we cry out for help. Whether it be negative or positive and this is just one of the ways young people are doing it. If you leave me alone for too long on my own, I will probably self-destruct as well.”
Little bombs across New Orleans.