'Racist' police blocked bridge and forced evacuees back at gunpoint

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article311784.ece

A Louisiana police chief has admitted that he ordered his officers to block a bridge over the Mississippi river and force escaping evacuees back into the chaos and danger of New Orleans. Witnesses said the officers fired their guns above the heads of the terrified people to drive them back and "protect" their own suburbs.

Two paramedics who were attending a conference in the city and then stayed to help those affected by the hurricane, said the officers told them they did not want their community "becoming another New Orleans".

The desperate evacuees were forced to trudge back into the city they had just left. "It was a real eye-opener," Larry Bradshaw, 49, a paramedic from San Francisco, told The Independent on Sunday. "I believe it was racism. It was callousness, it was cruelty."

Mr Bradshaw said the police blocked off the road on the Thursday and Friday after Hurricane Katrina struck on Monday 29 August. He and his wife Lorrie Slonsky, also a paramedic, had sheltered with others in the Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter.

[Inland]

1. Put this in the "what bad things people do in a crunch" category

with people looting plasma screens and necon repugs calling relief aid welfare.

[zanne]

10. No, it's not just stress...

It's racism, pure and simple. You can dress it up any way you want, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

[Inland]

29. I assume that there usually isn't a checkpoint at the county line.

And that law enforcement don't usually fire over the heads of people.

So it isn't racism, pure and simple, is it? It's actually racism complicated.

[Hawkowl]

22. BS

This is the old apartheid south at work. If you had ever spent any time down there you would not be surprised in the least. Open your eyes. Why do you think the south votes rethuglican? Racism. If you are poor, white and ignorant, the easiest way to smother your inferiority complex is to crow about your "blood", ancestors weren't slaves, and you aren't black.

Rethuglicans are masters at exploiting this racial divide while picking the pockets of the poor and working classes of all colors.

[tx_dem41]

24. "If you are poor, white and ignorant, the easiest way to ....

...crow about your "blood", ancestors weren't slaves, and you aren't black."

Pot meet kettle. I love me some good irony. :eyes:

[mike_c]

30. born and raised in the south during the CR movement (and white)...

...and I completely agree with you. The "new south" has made some gains, but mostly in replacing outright race hatred with racially based economic classism. Same shit, different day.

[NNN0LHI]

25. Fuck that! Not a very good attempt at putting lipstick on a pig

You call it whatever you want. I know what it is. And it ain't like someone looting a plasma TV. Imagine for a moment you and your family were running for high ground so you all don't drown and some fucker begins shooting in your direction.

Don

[Inland]

28. Yeah, whenever I leave "fuck'em" out, my posts are too subtle.

The arming of a parish border to keep out refugees is exactly the same as looting and the same as armed robbery and the same as carjakcking and police and fire abandoning their posts----during the disaster, morals and order break down as people put themselves first.

If you want to call that sort of observation putting lipstick on a pig, go right ahead.

[ixion]

2. Why this law enforcement official is not behind bars is beyond me

Such obvious abuse of power, the criminal negligence of which led to the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. And yet Sheriff Bubba is still roaming free.

There is something very wrong with this picture, IMO.

[electropop]

27. He's coming to DC next week so W can

hang the Medal of Freedom on his neck. :sarcasm:

[John_R_Kelly]

40. Gretna Sherriff is the bailiwick of the AG of Louisiana - hard to get hold

of him right now to ask for action against Sherriff Lawson, wouldnt
you say?

The other organ responsible for indictments and arrests in denial
of civil rights, the right to exit, the right to life, is the Civil
Rights Division of the Justice Department. It means AG Gonzales, Bush's boy has to send out FBI to have a little talk with the victims and with the Sherriff of Gretna.

Do you think Gonzales is going to order that without your thousands of phone calls and demands to him?

[sattahipdeep]

3. "It was a real eye-opener,"

"I believe it was racism. It was callousness, it was cruelty."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4736048&mesg_id=4739434

[gratuitous]

4. NPR had a show on this yesterday

A lot of interviews and actualities from survivors, including some who tried to cross the bridge into Gretna. One group of folks of mixed races, was stopped, and the white people in the group were told that only immediate family members would be allowed across (read: The white folks can come across, but the black people and the Puerto Rican with you are going to have to go back).

The white guy they approached immediately responded that all the people in their group were his immediate family. After some jawing back and forth, the deputies finally let all 14 people across and out of New Orleans.

While I hold the Sheriff and his deputies responsible for giving in to their worse natures, I also blame the Republicans who, for the last quarter century, have actively promoted a culture and a society of fear and loathing of your fellow citizen.

[Blue_Roses]

5. people act so damn surprised to hear this happening

good grief, just tuck it away and make believe it doesn't happen UNTIL it is forced on you. :sarcasm:

This is one thing that just boggles my mind. Those of us who have lived in the south all of our lives know this goes on and not to mention the poverty. Why do you think Clinton was and STILL IS popular among African Americans. Because he really does give a rats ass about them. The blatent disregard for things like raising the minimum wage, lack of adequate health care, tax cuts to the rich are the very things that this administration does to fuel poverty in our country.

When the hell will people with blinders on see through this?:shrug:

[NNN0LHI]

6. Wonder how many of these folks have a family member serving in Iraq?

Some were certainly veterans. Some may have served in Iraq themselves. Wouldn't that be something go to Iraq to shoot at Iraqis for the USA and then come home and be shot at by the sheriff. Could have been a real eye opener?

Don

[Catherine Vincent]

7. Hotel Monteleone,

That is where SwampRat's mom was holed up during the storm.

[Junkdrawer]

8. Think of it as a typical "inner city neighborhood" on steroids...

almost every city of any size has neighborhoods of desperately poor "people of color", riddled with drugs and violence and "contained" by aggressive police forces.

The crime of the Convention Center was simply more obvious with more direct consequences.

[zanne]

11. So it's just an "everyday" thing, then?

I might just be slow, but I don't understand what you're trying to say. Please explain, because it sounds an awful lot like the "The poor will always be with us" excuse.

[Junkdrawer]

15. No, I'm saying that there are outrages in race relations that occur...

every day in this country. We've just become accustom to it. Sometimes it take a tragedy to make us aware of what was there all along.

[zanne]

16. Thanks for clearing that up.

I'm a little paranoid about lurking freepers these days!

[rman]

9. I wonder where the order came from,

for the police to turn back people who wanted to get out of the city.
It seems implausible the cops did so on a whim, out of racist motives or otherwise.

[Mr_Spock]

12. Conservative guy here at work says police chief should be "hung"

I think he should at least be in jail.

[bribri16]

13. Has anyone seen this on the MSM?

[NNN0LHI]

14. Nothing but touchy feely, feel good stories. I turned it off

Couldn't take it.

Don

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

23. Other than the NPR story, no

Its on their website

www.npr.org

[donsu]

17. these cops should be arrested for Hate Crimes

this is what got me:

Witnesses said the officers fired their guns above the heads of the terrified people to drive them back and "protect" their own suburbs.


a plague on their "own suburbs"

[NNN0LHI]

18. Hate Crimes?

You must be joking? How many of these people drowned or were shot? We may never know? This is the kind of shit the USA is accusing Saddam Hussein of. This is a crime against humanity. Tribunals begin at home.

Don

[AbbyR]

19. I heard this on This American Life on NPR Friday ...

and I cannot believe that the police chief and his crew are not in jail. The EMTs said that after they were pushed back, they set up a camp under an overpass, and were forced from that, too.

Katrina may have brought out the best in some people, but I suppose some people just don't have any good to bring out.

[bvar22]

20. "Compassionate Conservatism" has driven me insane!

I am a man of PEACE and NON-VIOLENCE.
I used to be able to "move beyond", to "See the Bigger Picture", to "Forgive the Ignorant but attack the Ignorance".

Stories like this have led me to begin fantasizing about buying an Assault Rifle and a Long Range Hi-Powered Rifle.



The Republican Ownership Society

The FACE of Compassionate Conservatism

Republican GREED has now KILLED more Americans than Al Qaeda!

The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[daninthemoon]

21. Remind me, What exactly are the blackwater mercenaries gonna

be doing out there?

[noonwitch]

26. I believe Geraldo (I know, it's Geraldo) has it all on tape, too

FOX has probably already destroyed the footage of Geraldo (acting, but making a point) begging the cops to let people pass over the bridge.

[slipslidingaway]

32. Geraldo and Shepard Smith video on C&L

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/02.html

Another part of the story if you follow the Digby link, who decided that these tourists should go to the head of the line.

"Smith is particularly upset that the mayor sent buses to the Hyatt today and took tourists over to the Superdome and let them off at the front of the line."

[202 456]

31. Whats the name of this Police Chief?

...These goons should not have the comfort of anonymity.

[autorank]

33. This is THE STORY, THE F'ING STORY of the whole thing.

The Convention Center people could have walked across the bridge in about 20 minutes, except for those with major problems. They could have been helped across. That suffering, ALL OF IT, would not have occurred.

1) What's wrong with these racist assholes?

2) Why wasn't there a state or federal law enforcement official there to give these clowns 60 seconds to clear out or have their clearance provided for them at no cost, i.e., "make my day."

This must be the story we tell again and again -- RACISM -- ABANDONMENT.

[Raster]

34. They left people to die, and when they tried to help themselves, they

were shot at and their water was confiscated. They were forced back into hell.

[autorank]

35. Really, and what kid of country is this. Not our kind or most peoples'

This is total bull shit. It's Geraldo Rivera's only shining moment since Willowbrook, his sincere plea for help. He mentioned the bridge. Wasn't FEMA watching Faux. Just infuriates me. Must be addressed...

[bloom]

37. It's very clear that "things" were/are put ahead of people

esp. black people.

I think they didn't change the policy until they found out there were people from other countries stuck in the Convention Center and if they allowed it to to keep going as it was - there was going to worldwide hell to pay.

Even now - it seems to be a policy of security (of property - and of businesses) over people.

And the beneficiaries are the contractors, not the people in need. At least as far as what the government is paying for - our donations help get food and stuff out. But what really has the government done? Besides "security".

[DoYouEverWonder]

36. Seems that the Gretna Police were still 'kicking butt' a week later

I think we can see a pattern of behavior here. Based on this report from National Guard troops that were stationed in the area, the police were more then willing to go out and try to stir up trouble. Seems kick butting and breaking down doors is a regular thing for these guys. These officers should all be removed from duty and charged with multiple counts of police brutality.


Mission: Deterrence

September 10, 2005

Two deputies were in the cruiser and another three or four were loaded into the truck.

The deputies asked the Guard how things were going. When the soldiers said it was boring, one deputy said "I guess we'll go make a run through there to see if we can stir some (stuff) up."

"They're going in in squad size. It looks like they're loading up," one Guardsman said as the deputies pulled forward about 50 yards to get ready to make their patrol.

The Guard prepared to spread out to catch anyone running from the deputies, but the next hour or so was quiet.

"They said they went back in there and kicked everybody's door in," said Sgt. Francis Estey of Arlington.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050910/NEWS/509100365/1004

[FlemingsGhost]

38. I wonder how many of them are self-described "good Christians."

In the model of G.W. Bush, of course.

:eyes:

[Generic Other]

39. Police of Adjacent Town Used Gunfire to Keep People Trapped in NO

Police of Adjacent Town Used Gunfire to Keep People Trapped in NO
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4663607


INCREDIBLE First Person Katrina Account
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4657335