NPR ....Gretna bridge incident...Morning Edition. nt.

[QuettaKid]

.

[willing dwarf]

1. Whitewashing racism

I woke up to that report this morning. I got up out of bed screaming at radio "god damned racists," which is not my usual way of getting up in the morning.

I'm sorry, but if you and your neighbor have been hit by a flood and your neighbor's home is devastated, it is your job to take him in, feed and house him. If Gretna had been a Black community and acted the way it did would there be anyone condoning the behavior of that town? No way.

All these so called Christians in Gretna were put to the test of welcoming Christ, "as you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me..." and they failed miserably. If these were Old Testament times (as some in the Bible Belt seem to wish it to be) then Gretna would be as renowned as Sodom or Gomorrah.

It doesn't matter how many posters and painted sheets of plywood they put up expressing their appreciation of the chief of police. The man's actions were racist and they were carried out to benefit the racists of his little city. Next flood, lets see if they aren't calling out to New Orleans for help and rescue. Good luck!

[baldguy]

2. "Christian" Republicans don't think they are their brother's keeper.

Jesus would disagree.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. I think they should block

the entrances and exits permanently. That way all the people from Gretna, who work, eat, play and shop in New Orleans can never go back.

[Junkdrawer]

12. Indeed. And they've been doing it since the details of the incident...

emerged.

It seems NPR is attempting to whitewash those who would actually care about the incident - liberal listeners.

We now have specialized propaganda targeted to specific audiences.

[Brewman_Jax]

3. Just heard the article

like most rethuglican racists, they're not sorry, just sorry they were caught.

[Joyce78]

4. I believe Mayor Ronnie Harris is GOP

Correct me if I'm in error.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. He's got the look

[tx_dem41]

13. He and the police chief are Democrats, sadly enough.

Mayor Harris has also contributed to Democratic campaigns.

[willing dwarf]

16. Party delusions

More evidence that if you think the name Republican or Democrat means anything, you're kidding yourself. We need to look at the fruits of their labor.

Who are the people who are working to put forward a liberal agenda of tolerance, mutual benefit, commitment to the Bill of Rights (esp. the separation of Church and State)? Politicians should rule for the good of the people, not the good of the few but for the good of all. Seems pretty obvious as I write it. (Apologies for preaching.)

[leveymg]

7. Why is this story taking so long to take hold?

The NYT waited a good ten days to confirm what had been throughly reported on the web, first at a Bay Area labor site, then at KOS, where it got picked up by DU, and spread around the web. It took a week for UPI to issue a report confirming the story, and a day later it showed up in the Grey Lady.

Is it the subject matter, which is a race and class-based abuse of police power that had fatal effect? The witnesses, white paramedics, who were found credible? Or, the fact that the story originated outside the narrow loop of recognized journalism?

Does this story mark the emergence of an influential progressive media, as the corporate news agencies abandon on-the-ground coverage under pressure from nervous executives and Pentagon censors? If that's the case, we're finally in a position to shape the really important issues.

We are now the most reliable part of the news media.

[JPZenger]

8. NPR Confirmed the Internet Account of Blocking of Escape Route

Morning Edition on NPR confirmed most of the story that has been circulated on this message board and other places about the blocking of the bridge that was an escape route from New Orleans. A long bridge over the Mississippi River provided a route out of New Orleans on foot to the south towards Jefferson Parish and the town of Gretna, which was dry. When a group of tourists who were evacuated out of a hotel could not find another way out, they decided to walk across the bridge. A number of local people joined them. At the bridge, it was blockaded by Gretna Police, the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs deputies and the bridge police, according to NPR.

According to NPR, the officials of Gretna say it was justified, and support the police chief. The Jefferson sheriff also still defends the decision. They had seen a mall had been vandalized on the New Orleans side. The Gretna officials said New Orleans officials never asked them to take in refugess. Gretna officials said they did not have any emergency supplies, and had already evacuated 5,000 people by buses. Gretna said they were afraid they were about to be flooded if their levees broke. Residents of Gretna were quoted as being happy that the police had defended them from the criminals.

The Gretna Police Chief was quoted as saying he was still investigating whether an officer was justified in shooting over the heads of people trying to cross the bridge.

As happened many times in this crisis, it appears that a small band of criminals had caused an over-reaction against all evacuees.

[leveymg]

10. Looks like NPR spun the story to justify the crime

of negligent homicide committed by the civil authorities.

The action of blocking people fleeing rising flood waters, and taking their water, was an unreasonable response. There were options -- the police could have escorted the refugees to a place of safety on the other side of the bridge, and obtained transport for them.

This was a crime, and reported as one. NPR has become Single-Party State Radio.

[ugarte]

9. Anybody else love Carol Costello on CNN?

What a breath of fresh air, a real human being. Uh, oh, I'm starting to gush.

[woodsprite]

11. That's where my 60something aunt is. Found out last night that she

signed up for the National Guard and Gretna is where they sent her. She's been down there a week now working in a hospital. She's a retired military nurse, management experience, psychiatric specialty, is currently a lawyer and has building experience. They couldn't have a better person down there helping them, but I'm really worried about her. Even there, she said looting/crime seems to be the biggest problem and is widespread. Every ambulance that goes out has 2 troups riding shotgun on either side. They are traveling to people who have decided to stay and giving everyone hepatitis shots.

She said the first few days, it was MREs, but there is someone who owned a restaurant or two in NO. His restaurants are gone, but he said he would cook for the hospital staff if they could get the food. So she said that's been working well so far.

[JPZenger]

14. Links to More Info. on Gretna Police Story

This story had been picked up by more overseas newspapers than U.S. papers. Here's some links to more stories on this matter:

Houston Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3357471

"Gretna is not the only community that views New Orleans with distrust. Authorities in St. Bernard Parish, to the south, stacked cars to seal the roads from the Crescent City into their parish. But Gretna officials have been deluged with angry e-mail messages, accusing them of racism."
---
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/17/Worldandnation/Neighboring_town_deni.shtml

"Mayor Nagin said Gretna officials "will have to live with" the decision to close the bridge.

"We were fighting for our lives to save people, and every decision we made was based upon trying to move people to safety," Nagin said. "When we allowed people to cross the Crescent City Connection because people were dying in the convention center, that was a decision based upon people." Gretna, he said, "made a decision to protect property."
-----
Washington Post - short AP article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/16/AR2005091602224.html
----
Seattle Times - discusses MSM coverage of the story

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002498314_bridge16.html

"Almost in unison, newspaper editors across the country pooh-poohed the news value of cops firing toward black people on a bridge in the Deep South. In the days following its publication in the Socialist Worker, the drama clambered onto the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle in addition to scoring a brief on UPI. The relative silence proved a maxim of print journalism: It's painful to credit other journalists, and it's really painful to credit a pair of part-time socialist journalists.

...The Times didn't showcase the story — it landed on A13 of a Saturday edition. "I think the story was important enough that we don't have to be first all the time," says Harris. Slonsky says the Los Angeles Times almost made the same judgment but declined to run a piece at the time. The Los Angeles Times refused to comment.

The Wall Street Journal passed on the bridge story, too. "When we decide we want to go along, we go along. We kill a lot of stories each day because we're judicious about what we put in the paper," says a Journal editor. Says ABC's Donvan: "I was very surprised more people didn't go for it."

[Junkdrawer]

15. By far, This American Life w/ Ira Glass had the best coverage...

Surprising stories from survivors in New Orleans. We give people who were in the storm more time than daily news coverage can to tell their stories and talk about what they're thinking. This leads to a number of ideas that haven't made it into the regular news coverage.
Prologue. Ira talks about something he read that seemed to put an end to all debate over one of the key issues swirling around right now. He checks with William Nichelson, author of the books Emergency Response and Emergency Management Law and Homeland Security Law and Policy, to see if he's correctly undertanding the issue. (5 minutes)

Act One. Middle of Somewhere. In the days following Hurricane Katrina, Denise Moore was trapped in the New Orleans Convention Center, with her mom, her niece and her niece's two-year-old daughter. There she witnessed acts of surprising humanity by armed thugs, taking charge and doing good. (15 minutes)

Act Two. Forgotten, But Not Lost. To find out more about the bridge Denise talked about in Act One, and the armed police who prevented pedestrians from crossing, This American Life producer Alex Blumberg talks with Lorrie Beth Slonsky and her husband Larry Bradshaw. They're paramedics from San Francisco who were visiting New Orleans for a convention when Hurricane Katrina hit. After the storm, they tried to escape the city in a number of ways. When they tried to leave the city on foot, they were told, at gunpoint, by police, that they must turn back. We also hear from Debbie Zelinsky, who was with them. (17 minutes)


Real Audio Link:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ra/296.ram

[gauguin57]

17. The cable news had on the couple who led the group of tourists. Had them

on just a couple of days after the Convention Center was cleared. In fact, I think TWO of the cable news networks had them on. Let them tell their story for several minutes -- talked to them about the authorities shooting at them, taking their food, etc. This was all done in prime time.

So, why the regular networks and the major papers/AP haven't glommed onto this, I'm not sure. It's a compelling (and infuriating) story, that's for sure.

That quote from the guy who turned them back: "We're not going to let Gretna turn into the Superdome." Chilling.