This is a tough one.

New Orleans has suffered from a terrible crime rate for a long time, though a lot of work goes into making sure the problem stays as far away from the tourist trade as possible. The biggest problem is colloquially referred to as "thug on thug" crime- one criminal or drug dealer killing his competition- but of course that's only part of the story. Some of those involved were bystanders, and most are kids who grew up in poverty and without hope. Still, the problem is so pervasive it's easy to forget all that, scan the story in the paper and then move on- after all, it happened 179 times in 2008. Hell, 6 months before it happened outside my backdoor.

I'm sorry to say that was the case here- I didn't even remember Arthur Gerald Mitchell. When I saw the marker his family had placed in Holt cemetery, I had to go back and look it up:

There's nothing online that tells the why, only then when and the where. Fifteen year old Arthur was found shot in the head next to an abandoned Central City school at 9:30 on a sweltering Saturday night. He'd been riding his bike and tried to get away, but didn't get far before collapsing. He died shortly after arriving at the hospital. Two months later another 15 year old was accused of the murder, his photo appearing in the paper- a young man looking tough in a tee shirt showing off a fistful of fanned out cash.

Presumably because he was a juvenile I couldn't find anything about the accused from 2008. I do know he was due in court in August of 2009, though whether for this case or something else I couldn't say. He skipped bail however, and is now due back in court for both the initial offence and what the court is calling "simple escape."

These "Crime Happened Here" signs are distributed by a local group called Silence is Violence, which was founded after Katrina by the families of victims, encouraging people to come forward, talk to the police, talk to their neighbors, and work together to solve the problem. They work with neighborhoods and schools, and walk the city. These signs were given out for a time as a wake up call to people who'd become tired and jaded- they popped up in the places where people had been robbed, or hurt, filled out by the victims or their families to inspire action.

I hadn't seen one in a long time, and I certainly hadn't expected to see one used as a headstone in this pauper's cemetery, alongside the railroad tracks. It takes your breath away, this young boy with his dog, killed on Saturday night and buried Friday afternoon.