The very worst
Maybe i'm just trying to compete with jake for most depressing post:
Is this story getting mainstream press coverage? A google search reveals that it seems to have only been reported on blogs and socialist webpages. A group of about one thousand people, almost all black, try to escape from New Orleans through their only available route, the greater New Olreans bridge, which leads out of the city into a neighboring parish, and the town of Gretna (75% white.) As they try to cross the bridge, they are confronted by the sheriff of Gretna and many armed deputies, who fire "warning" shots at them and prevent them from leaving the devastated city. Later the makeshift shelter that they create is destroyed by police, who seize their meager stores of food and fresh water under the provisions of martial law.
You can hear a first hand account of this incident here at Time of Useful Consciousness radio (what an amazing name.) Go to the new programs page and scroll down to "Hurricane Katrina and the War on the Poor." I'm not sure how much of the interview is archived on the site, but it should be worth your time.
Is this story getting mainstream press coverage? A google search reveals that it seems to have only been reported on blogs and socialist webpages. A group of about one thousand people, almost all black, try to escape from New Orleans through their only available route, the greater New Olreans bridge, which leads out of the city into a neighboring parish, and the town of Gretna (75% white.) As they try to cross the bridge, they are confronted by the sheriff of Gretna and many armed deputies, who fire "warning" shots at them and prevent them from leaving the devastated city. Later the makeshift shelter that they create is destroyed by police, who seize their meager stores of food and fresh water under the provisions of martial law.
You can hear a first hand account of this incident here at Time of Useful Consciousness radio (what an amazing name.) Go to the new programs page and scroll down to "Hurricane Katrina and the War on the Poor." I'm not sure how much of the interview is archived on the site, but it should be worth your time.
posted by Chris at 8:34 AM
3 Comments:
this might make you feel a LITTLE bit better...
a powerful washington lobbyist had an epiphany and decided to send his money to relief efforts instead of politicians.
http://tinyurl.com/8wc4e
he's so cute, isn't he? look at his little fake smile.
but i guess it doesn't really change the fact that other people still suck, and he probably still does too. and that money is still evil.
ahright, i'm very annoyed because i just spent an hour searching nexis and stuff to find the citations and then friggin blogger wouldn't accept my HTML tags, so i lost the comment. f you, blogger.
here's a quick reprise since i should be actually working:
chris, you're right, most depressing aspect of katrina yet. the only people i've seen challenging the story place great emphasis on the fact that the two eyewitnesses who wrote the piece publishd it in the ... Socialist Worker.
their account
the UPI story (go moonies)
The Dirt Part I, UPI story:
[Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department] added that the small town, which he called "a bedroom community" for the city of New Orleans, would have been overwhelmed by the influx.
"There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, Lawson said. "We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people.
"If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."
The Dirt, Part II: CNN Newsnight 9/12/05, Anderson Cooper interview with property-uber-alles police chief Lawson.
CHIEF ARTHUR LAWSON, GRETNA, LOUISIANA POLICE DEPARTMENT: We had no preparations. You know we're a small city on the west bank of the river. We had people being told to come over here that we were going to have busses, we were going to have food, we were going to have water and we were going to have shelter and we had none. Our people had left. Our city was locked down and secured so for the sake of the citizens that left their valuables here to be protected by us.
-snip-
COOPER: But to your knowledge did any officers explain why? I mean you're essentially saying you didn't want those people coming here because you were afraid about what the safety of this levee?
LAWSON: I was afraid to have the people come here for the safety of this levee as well as evacuation. We had no place to house them, to feed them, water and there were security issues. Our city was already locked down. Our borders were closed at the time and our city was locked down as far as safety for the citizens of Gretna and their property.
Sometimes it's surprising when the cops come right out and say that their function is to protect property, but as incidents like this demonstrate, they exist largely for that purpose.
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