Katrina and American society (political)

[mikea]

Head #1 rolls by ......

FEMA Chief Relieved of Katrina Duties

The new replacement.

 

[Missa]

I think if we all were taught this repeatedly at home and in school from the time we were 5 yrs old we would all be a lot better off and we would not have had such problems in this hurricane, what do you think?

1. It is wrong to expect the anyone, especially the government to look after you. You have to learn to look after yourself.

2. If your fellow man is in need, offer a helping hand.

You gotta start ithis long before they turn 5...

 

[mikea]

You might have caught Geraldo doing one of his meltdowns on Fox screaming that the people at the Superdome should have been allowed to walk across the bridge and find a way to survive.

On last night's Nightline we heard why they couldn't leave. The police in the next parish, which is upscale, were sending them back across the bridge at gunpoint.

They were protecting a nearby shopping center which had been looted and set on fire. Y'know, they all were criminals.

The chief of police was incoherent about what they did. Let's hope he's going to have to answer for it.

http://a.abcnews.com/podcast/050905ntl.mp3

I know that I would go out my own and tell them to go ahead and shoot, but since my skin is a different shade I probably wouldn't have to.

I'm ashamed and disgusted.

If you have a chance listen to "This American Life" this week. There's a story from a white woman who was part of a group of 8 attending a union convention in New Orleans. They were told that there were buses on the bridge. When they got there the sheriff's police in Gretna were SHOOTING at people at the bridge.

The show should be available on the web next week:
http://thisamericanlife.com/

http://www.jpso.com/lee.htm

 

[mikea]

If you have a chance listen to "This American Life" this week. There's a story from a white woman who was part of a group of 8 attending a union convention in New Orleans. They were told that there were buses on the bridge. When they got there the sheriff's police in Gretna were SHOOTING at people at the bridge.

The woman is quoted in this story originally from the New York Times:

Suburban police blocked evacuees, witnesses say

Gardiner Harris
New York Times
Sept. 10, 2005 12:00 AM

Police agencies to the south of New Orleans were so fearful of the crowds attempting to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina that they sealed a crucial bridge over the Mississippi River and turned back hundreds of desperate evacuees, according to two paramedics who were in the crowd.

The paramedics and two other witnesses said officers sometimes shot guns over the heads of fleeing people, who, instead of complying immediately with orders to leave the bridge, pleaded to be let through, according to the paramedics and two other witnesses. The witnesses said that they had been told by New Orleans police to cross this same bridge because buses were waiting for them there.

Instead, a suburban police officer angrily ordered about 200 people to abandon an encampment between the highways near the bridge. The officer then confiscated their food and water, the four witnesses said. The incidents took place in the first days after the storm last week, they said.
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The police kept saying, 'We don't want another Superdome,' and 'This isn't New Orleans,' " said Larry Bradshaw, a San Francisco paramedic who was among those fleeing.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0910katrina-flee10.html