Big Easy carnival fun goes on despite violence

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the often raucous end to the pre-Lenten Carnival season in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Izvor: AP

Tuesday, 05.02.2008.

12:46

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Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the often raucous end to the pre-Lenten Carnival season in New Orleans, Louisiana. Characterized by family friendly parades uptown and in the suburbs — and by heavy drinking and lots of near-nudity in the French Quarter — the celebration is highlighted by 12 days of parades and parties, the AP reports. Big Easy carnival fun goes on despite violence It appears to have bounced back strongly since Hurricane Katrina flooded more than 80 percent of the city in August 2005. 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. Mardi Gras crowd estimates hovered around 1 million in the years before Katrina. They reached 800,000 last year. Police declined to project how big the crowd will be on Tuesday, but hotel occupancy was expected to exceed 90 percent for the long weekend that ends on Ash Wednesday. The Krewe of Bacchus and its Mardi Gras float (Beta/AP)

Big Easy carnival fun goes on despite violence

It appears to have bounced back strongly since Hurricane Katrina flooded more than 80 percent of the city in August 2005.

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.

Mardi Gras crowd estimates hovered around 1 million in the years before Katrina. They reached 800,000 last year. Police declined to project how big the crowd will be on Tuesday, but hotel occupancy was expected to exceed 90 percent for the long weekend that ends on Ash Wednesday.

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