AP: Police Chief Says Race No Role in Blockade of Bridge to New Orleans

[Hissyspit]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBGSKH8PDE.html

Suburban Police Chief Says Race Played No Role in Blockade of Bridge to New Orleans

By Brett Martel
Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 16, 2005
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The police chief in a New Orleans suburb is defending himself against accusations of racism for ordering the blockade of a bridge and turning back desperate hurricane refugees.

Gretna, a town of 17,500 across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, was criticized after Police Chief Arthur Lawson Jr. ordered officers to block a bridge leading into the community, which is almost two-thirds white. New Orleans is two-thirds black.

- snip -

"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," Nagin told reporters. "Now, if they made a decision based upon assets, to protect assets over people, and to have attack dogs and armed people with machine guns, then they're going to have to live with that."

- snip -

"It was a situation that was hostile and volatile because people in New Orleans were given misinformation. And when they got there, after being in the water and walking all the way from across the river and found out they were lied to, they weren't happy," Lawson said. "Our community has been painted unfairly."

MORE

[struggle4progress]

1. "If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like ..

.. New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

http://washtimes.com/upi/20050908-112433-4907r.htm

:puke:

[bluestateguy]

2. As I heard about that story

I remember hoping in the back on my mind that an angry mob would charge the police barricade and break it down, with armed force if necessary.

[leveymg]

11. Have you no sense of how these things get spun? That would have

been used, after the fact, to justify the unjustifiable containment policy.

The MSM would have turned any violence by the crowd -- no matter how provoked -- into a front-page story about crazy rioters vs brave sheriffs protecting themselves and their community.

Geez.:eyes:

[guruoo]

18. Danziger Bridge shootings need investigating, too...

IMHO,
improbable scenario+changing stories=likely coverup
Summary of the changing versions of the story:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m15763&l=i&size=1&hd=0


Danziger Bridge:

[Skittles]

3. yeah, sure

uh huh

[orleans]

9. ditto n/t

[Romulus]

4. I'm just glad the story is getting ANY traction

but I won't be surprised if it goes nowhere . . .

[DBoon]

5. CYA

FU

[aquart]

6. I'd just like to see him hang. High.

He's a monster and I don't give a damn what his excuse is. There is NO excuse.

[daleo]

7. He should be arrested

A police chief turning back victims of a horrible natural disaster to possible death is a travesty.

[Laughing Mirror]

8. Police fired shots over crowd of hundreds to chase them away

So, we group of about 200 people, set off to the bridge, and I have to say, we must have looked like quite determined tourists with our little roll-top suitcases following behind us, and we passed near the Convention Center, and locals asked us where we were going. And we told them the great news, how the police commander said that there was going to be buses at the bridge, so you know, families grabbed their few belongs and we all started marching up towards the bridge. And our numbers doubled and probably doubled again. We were probably about 600, 700, 800 people. Just it seemed like a lot of people. So, it started to rain, and even though it started to pour down rain, we -- our -- it didn't dampen our spirits at all. We felt like, God, we have a way out of here on day four. And as we approached, there were armed Gretna deputies. And they had formed a line at foot of the bridge. And before we were even close enough to cross, they shot guns, they shot guns over our heads. They fired guns over our heads. And this group of families and, may I say, disabled people, children, tourists, I mean, just everyone, we just all scattered in all sorts of directions. And then everyone was in their own small little groups and milling around and what to do next.

And this is when Larry approached the Gretna deputies, and you know, he had his badge, his San Francisco Fire Department badge and had his hands up and asked if he could approach. And he was able to engage the deputies in some conversation. And Larry told them that we were told by the Police Command Post that we needed to come here to the bridge, because we we’re going to get on buses. And the deputy said that the Police Commander had apparently lied to us, and there were in fact no buses that were going to take us out of New Orleans. So, we asked the deputies, well, why couldn't we just cross the bridge anyway? And this is -- this is what we heard for the first time that the deputies had said to us, they said, this is not New Orleans, and there wasn't -- they were not going to have a Superdome over here, meaning, I guess in Gretna or Algiers or across the bridge. And I -- if you looked at the group that was remaining in our little group, I mean, you could only look at us and see that -- predominantly everyone was African-American or a person of color except for Larry, me, and the other gal we were with that it could only mean that if you are poor, or if you are black, you are not going to get out of New Orleans.

Lorrie Beth Slonsky on Democracy Now

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Police Chief Denies Race Role in Blockade

September 16, 2005, 10:10 PM EDT

NEW ORLEANS -- The police chief in a New Orleans suburb is defending himself against accusations of racism for ordering the blockade of a bridge and turning back desperate hurricane refugees.

Gretna, a town of 17,500 across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, was criticized after Police Chief Arthur Lawson Jr. ordered officers to block a bridge leading into the community, which is almost two-thirds white. New Orleans is two-thirds black.

Three days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Gretna officials learned that people trapped in downtown New Orleans were being told to make their way over the bridge called the Crescent City Connection.

Gretna officials quickly organized a bus caravan to take 6,000 refugees to an evacuation center about 16 miles away. But they were quickly overwhelmed, as refugees began gathering near a mall just over the bridge.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sns-ap-katrina-bridge-blockade,0,3971771.story?coll=nyc-nationhome-headlines

[mike_c]

12. his duty was to assist with disaster relief, not blockade the victims....

He should be fired, at the very least, for dereliction of duty, IMO. Then there's reckless endangerment, misuse of force, and assault. Pigs.

[fortyfeetunder]

13. He's not going to get fired

He'll probably get a commendation for "protecting Gretna City after the hurricane"....

[guruoo]

17. Gretna City Council actually passed resolution of support...

After Blocking the Bridge, Gretna Circles the Wagons
Long wary of next-door New Orleans, the town stands by its decision to bar the city's evacuees.

By Nicholas Riccardi, Times Staff Writer

GRETNA, La. — Little over a week after this mostly white suburb became a symbol of callousness for using armed officers to seal one of the last escape routes from New Orleans — trapping thousands of mostly black evacuees in the flooded city — the Gretna City Council passed a resolution supporting the police chief's move.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gretna16sep16,1,2856291.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

[anotherdrew]

21. in fact the STATE needs to un-incorporate the whole town

and add it to new new orleans, so so sorry if that tanks some property values. I would i fact like to excommunicate this town from the nation, I don't want to be a fellow citizen with these soulless freaks.

[anotherdrew]

20. exactly, the STATE needs to take action

if necessary de-certify that law enforcement division then press charges against him. It makes no difference if some people support his asinine actions, what he did was clearly illegal and unjust and far beyond his authority.

Maybe it's time to sue these bastards in civil court?

[McCamy Taylor]

14. Speak of the devil, here is my version in mixed media form

http://www.grandtheftelectionohio.com/050917.htm


And here is why the police chief is suddenly getting so defensive. I have been sending e-mails to Congress asking that the DOJ investigate his department for hate crimes and possible involvement with white supremist organizations based upon the stories I have been hearing.

http://www.gretnasucks.com/

[DoYouEverWonder]

28. Here's more evidence that you might find useful

Mission: Deterrence

September 10, 2005

By BRENDAN McKENNA Herald Staff

Vermont National Guard Sgt. Douglas Greig surveys signs in Gretna, La.


GRETNA, La. — Thursday night's mission for the Vermont National Guard members assisting the hurricane relief efforts highlighted the contrast in styles between the Vermont soldiers and local police and sheriffs.

By about 9 p.m., darkness had settled over the Guard's patrol areas and the third platoon was starting to settle into their checkpoints at the entrance to the Monterey Court neighborhood when a sheriff's cruiser and a pickup truck pulled up.

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.

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

[guruoo]

15. It's what's missing from the Police Chief's story that

I find most disturbing. I don't see as much problem in initially turning the crowd back, or even that they fired shots over their heads to do it as I do with what they failed to do afterwards.
They could have tried to get some busses. They could have tried to get food. water, and medical assistance to these people. At the very, very least, they could have allowed the persons that came across to talk for the group get out to go call for help.

[Hissyspit]

24. No. From the pov of the people who were FINALLY getting across the bridge

after all they had been through, thinking they were getting to help and safety, to find the people they were expecting help and humanity from to threaten their LIVES, it was HORRIBLE. The behavior of this town FAILED their fellow American citizens and the basic tenets of morality.

[guruoo]

26. You missed my point. n/t

[doodadem]

16. I heard this guy interviewed yesteday

He said they were just trying to keep looting out of Gretna, and protect the town. That they had already sent water and food over to New Orleans, so they figured they'd already done their part.....

[anotherdrew]

19. no, it wan't race, it was CLASS

[bluedog]

22. St.Pete Times Version (FL)

One group of 200 people in New Orleans, mostly stranded tourists, cheered when New Orleans police said buses were waiting for them in Gretna Thursday.

Their number doubled as they walked to the bridge. But there were no buses, only armed police, who shot over the group's heads, according to two visiting paramedics who wrote about their experiences for the Socialist Worker.

Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky said officers ordered them back down the bridge, away from the West Bank.

"The West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their city," Bradshaw and Slonsky recalled Gretna officers saying. "These were code words for: If you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River, and you were not getting out of New Orleans."

Police used dogs and shotguns to control the crowd, said Nagin. The evacuees were left helpless, the mayor said.

New Orleans police Chief Eddie Compass said he does not fault his officers for sending evacuees to Gretna, whether or not there was a plan to do so.

"Saving people was paramount," Compass said.

* * *




http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/17/Worldandnation/Neighboring_town_deni.shtml

[McCamy Taylor]

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

to close the bridge."

From the St Petersberg stort linked above.

Just as the countries like Switzerland that refused Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany asylum have to live with the shame. Switzerland lives with it pretty well. Doesnt seem to bother the Swiss one bit.

Ill bet the racial purity residents of Gretna dont give a single god damn about anyone who died on that bridge as long as they werent inconvenienced.

"We shut down that bridge." It isnt a statement of mere fact. It is a boast. The police chief and the citizens of Gretna are proud of the fact. Well. guess what Gretna, your town's name is going to become a byword for selfish shit.

[verminator]

25. Oct 04: FEMA knew hurricane could flood New Orleans.

OCTOBER 2004:
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

....Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City.......

[Barkley]

27. "When I was a stanger, you did not invite me in" - Matthew 25:41-46

`I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life."