As killings persist, New Orleans parade says 'Stop Violence'

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It bore trademarks of a classic New Orleans parade — the blare of brass, the dipping and kicking of dance, the strutting of bodies moving in unison through the streets.

Winding by towering downtown hotels and modest homes and a bakery that makes bread for po'boys, they moved along.

[...] violent crime, often involving guns, has persisted even as officials have tried all types of programs to lower the rate.

The violence has, at times, spilled over into the city's parades.

Because they can attract thousands, those events can also be a convenient place to locate a rival.

Animosity has sprouted between the social clubs that stage the second lines, Lyons said, with fights breaking out over allegations of stolen dance moves and tussles over whose costumes were most extravagant, whose shoes most eye-catching.

Lyons, president of the Perfect Gentlemen Social Aid and Pleasure Club, saw his event as a show of solidarity.

The second lines share history with jazz funerals, a parade of mourners that typically follows the deceased to the somber sounds of the band.

Explaining why she was drawn to the parade, she spoke of teens' passing comments about what they'll do "if" they live into their 20s, resigned to lives cut short by gunfire.

The hollow sound of a cowbell punctuated the footsteps of marchers, some of whom questioned why attendance was lower than they'd expected, others who wondered aloud how an anti-violence second line could possibly bring a halt to the bloodshed.

[...] Rodney Richardson, driving a truck near the head of the parade, said those in this special second line were just using a means of communicating as quintessentially New Orleans as gumbo and jazz to project a positive message.

The anger has diminished with age, but he felt it again when his half brother, Warren Mayes, was shot and killed, then when the tragedy repeated, taking his oldest son, Toliver.

A tuba's vibrations and a snare drum's staccato mixed with the high-pitched squeal of a rolling bar's squeaky wheels.

Joe Stern, a 73-year-old college English teacher who leads the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club, broke into a rhythmic stomp.

[...] their destination came into view: a green expanse called A.L. Davis Park, where basketball games have ended in gunfire.

Five clusters of shiny red heart balloons tied to a fence marked the end point of the procession — and the paraders clustered for a small ceremony.

Just after the final words of admiration were spoken and the participants began to scatter, a string of pops sounded.

A 360-degree, virtual reality video, "The Second Line," documents the parade in response to gun violence in New Orleans.