With all due respect for city leadership and the statistics they like to cite, asserting that New Orleans is getting safer…It doesn’t feel any safer to us. The elderly, the very young, those already grappling with the criminal justice system and those with no such experience, sons and daughters and parents and friends—nobody is sheltered from the violence. The month of May has seen an unbearable sequence of especially cruel tragedies, as Olander and Alphathada Cassimere were slaughtered in their Gentilly home, 13-year-old Shaka-Daquan Miller lost his life to a petty, childish dispute over drugs, and Qian Sabaiter was shot when used as a shield at an Uptown bar.
Tomorrow night, SilenceIsViolence will join the Pigeon Town Steppers Social Aide and Pleasure Club to walk through a particularly afflicted zone of Uptown, including the site where Qian lost her life. We will hold a brief memorial for Qian at Hickory and Leonidas streets while walking through Pigeon Town. Second District Commander, Major Little, is sending representation from his district to join the citizens who walk for peace.
We invite all who feel that community action is a crucial part of our public safety, and all who mourn the violent loss of our citizens, to join the Pigeon Town Steppers on Thursday evening. The full route should take less than an hour and is listed below. Confronting violence with peace, and claiming our right to our own streets, is one way we seek to heal our neighborhoods.
Pigeon Town Steppers Social Aide and Pleasure Club
PEACE WALK
6PM, THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2009
START: Leondias and Willow St. Walk down Willow to Monroe St. Right turn on Monroe to Green St. Turn left on Green; out Green St. to Gen.Odgen St. Turn right on Gen. Odgen to Hickory St. Turn right on Hickory St. to Leondias St. Turn left on Leondias St. to Corn St. Turn right on Cohn St. to Joliet St. Turn left on Joliet St. to Panola St. Turn Right on Panola St. Out Panola to Cambronne St. Right turn on Cambronne St. Out Cambronne St. to Willow St. Turn Right on Willow St to Leondias St. to end where we began.
www.silenceisviolence.org
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