NEW ORLEANS (AP) - With tourists streaming into town for Mardi Gras celebrations, a spasm of gun violence left two people dead and seven wounded - more bad news for a city struggling to rebuild itself and its tourism industry.

Officials noted the bloodshed did not occur near any of the parades Thursday night to celebrate Carnival, which culminates Tuesday in Mardi Gras.

The two unrelated shootings were not random or part of a robbery, and the victims were all targeted, Sgt. Joe Narcisse said.

In the first shooting Thursday evening, three people were shot, two fatally, in a car parked in the Ninth Ward, far from the heart of the party. The survivor - the car’s driver - told police he knew and had given a ride to the man who shot them, Narcisse said.

Full Story Here:
9 Shot As New Orleans Starts Mardi Gras

I’ll bet you BIG money that “Chocolate Boy” has his ass puckered up TIGHT over this news story, because THIS is only the starting point… New Orleans will never change, not until it’s under water, then we can call it the ‘modern day Atlantis’…

In January, the Convention and Visitors Bureau unveiled an aggressive advertising campaign to attract tourists to the city 18 months after Hurricane Katrina.

And I am pretty certain this isn’t going to make a lot of people want to hurry up and get there either, except for those lawless heathens looking for a place to ‘ply their trade’ and avoid being caught, because I seriously doubt the N.O.P.D. can find thier own ass, with BOTH hands and a set of directions…

“A lot of people back home told us not to come,” Lisa Pencak said. “But we have crime in Pittsburgh as well, it’s really no big deal. You have to be careful anywhere you go.”

Well Lisa, you should have listened…