From the Houston Chronicle this morning:
Houstonian tied to 5 slayings
A Houston man is connected to at least five recent killings — including the slaying of a 15-year-old Hurricane Katrina evacuee — all stemming from a battle over narcotics trafficking, police said.
Antonio Lee Williams, 26, was charged with capital murder and two other murder counts. Houston police detectives also linked him to a double slaying.
I’m sure the editors at the Chronicle don’t read Polimom, but it’s hard to avoid seeing a connection between this post (and dialogue) and that headline.
Did it catch your eye? And if so, why?
From an AP article last night, it seems Williams is suspected in seven murders altogether:
HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston man is charged or suspected in at least seven homicides in 11 weeks stemming from what authorities describe as a war between entrenched Houston drug dealers and their newly arrived rivals from New Orleans.
[snip]
Homicide investigator Sgt. Bobby Roberts said the killings were the result of a turf war between Houston-based drug dealers operating in apartment projects in the area and Katrina evacuees trying to take over the business.
Fascinating. Seven murders is a pretty significant number in the larger murder statistic. Reminds me of B-Stupid, in fact…
So does this mean that the largest newspaper in town is going to start drawing some lines between perpetrators and victims, and where they’re from?
I suppose one could make the argument that those poor Houston drug dealers wouldn’t have been compelled to start killing if those mean ole evacuees hadn’t put them under so much pressure…. and one could also argue that those poor drug dealers who were forced to re-start their businesses here were just trying to get by.
Of course, those would be pretty bizarre positions to take — because the truth is, Houston had plenty of criminals, the storm brought some more, and the confluence brought it all out in the open….which is what many of us have been saying all along.
But I have to tell you, that headline was like a breath of fresh air.