Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans

Reuters ^ | 03 September 2004

[hinckley buzzard]

Betting this will be pulled. There seems to be a policy against discussing some facts

Every anecdote in this story is second hand, at best, and some wildly implausible. I see no evidence that there is a single fact reported here. Neither do you if you read the article.

[rineaux]

thanks for the ping.

I was at the Reunion Arena in Dallas tonight. We spoke to several people who were victims and also the police.

I can tell you first hand, Downtown Dallas has always been kind of scary, but now it is another world and it is going to get out of control.

Refugees can come and go as they please. So they are all downtown hanging out. The lights come on at 7am and go off at 11pm. It is already dirty around the building. By the way, I am including the Convention Center as well. The look on a lot of young people's faces are- who the(da) F are you.

So if my buddy in Houston had one experience, I may have another take on it.

The "victims" from NO and Biloxi we talked too told us they like Dallas and now want to stay here. Kind of scary.

Dallas Police and the DPS are/will be over worked. There is scores of cops on the street. One of the officers who shot from the hip told us he could tell us about all the fights that have broken out.

The Reunion and CC are no longer taking buses. They are sending them to Lt Rock, AR. That does not mean they are not accepting people just driving up. The officer also noted that many Dallas homeless have been coming in an jumping on the system.

I feel it will get ugly here soon.

[FarmerW]

I was just re-reading this article and noticed a couple things about it that seem odd. First, how did Steve Banka report seeing someone killed outside, but know the reason he ran was because "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street ". Just seems odd that he knows what goes on both inside and outside.

Wade Batiste says he saw a young man killed and knows his age. Just seems odd, he would know a strangers age. And why is this young man unnamed? "A member of that family, Africa Brumfield, 32, confirmed the incident but declined to be quoted about it, saying her family did not wish to discuss it. But she spoke of general conditions here." She didn't tell them his name? That wouldn't have been left out so no one could check out this story truthfulness would it?

In the reuters article Africa Brumfield is 32, Wade Batiste is 48, and Steve Banka is 28. Another person in the article is "Wvonnette Grace-Jordan, here with five children", her age is unknown.

In the LA Times, "Wade Batiste, 29, staying at the Astrodome with his wife and five children".
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-houston3sep03,0,5048892.story

The whole story is just odd. It reminds me of the women Saddam would have run from site to site telling stories of child being in every bombsite.

I couldn't find any other hits on these people names other then the reuters story.

[FarmerW]

Just noticed something else odd. In the LA Times story which is published on 9/3/5, Saturday we read :

Wade Batiste, 29, staying at the Astrodome with his wife and five children, opted not to wait for a government program. A construction worker in New Orleans, he left the Astrodome and applied for work at a McDonald's restaurant.

"I am not going to let my kids starve," Batiste said.

But in the Reuters article Mr. Batiste is relating a story he saw on Friday night:

Wade Batiste, 48, recounted another tale of horror.

"Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," Batiste said.

The young man's body lay in the street by the Convention Center's entrance on Saturday morning, covered in a black blanket, a stream of congealed blood staining the street around him. Nearby his family sat in shock.

Mr. Batiste got from NOLA to Houston and had applied for a job in this amount of time. Just me that thinks this is weird?