Posted on 09/06/2005 12:26:57 AM PDT by HAL9000
There were two babies who had their throats slit. The seven-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in the Superdome. And the corpses laid out amid the excrement in the convention centre.In a week filled with dreadful scenes of desperation and anger from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina some stories stood out.
But as time goes on many remain unsubstantiated and may yet prove to be apocryphal.
New Orleans police have been unable to confirm the tale of the raped child, or indeed any of the reports of rapes, in the Superdome and convention centre.
New Orleans police chief Eddie Compass said last night: "We don't have any substantiated rapes. We will investigate if the individuals come forward."
And while many claim they happened, no witnesses, survivors or survivors' relatives have come forward.
Nor has the source for the story of the murdered babies, or indeed their bodies, been found. And while the floor of the convention centre toilets were indeed covered in excrement, the Guardian found no corpses.
During a week when communications were difficult, rumours have acquired a particular currency. They acquired through repetition the status of established facts.
One French journalist from the daily newspaper Libération was given precise information that 1,200 people had drowned at Marion Abramson school on 5552 Read Boulevard. Nobody at the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the New Orleans police force has been able to verify that.
But then Fema could not confirm there were thousands of people at the convention centre until they were told by the press for the simple reason that they did not know.
"Katrina's winds have left behind an information vacuum. And that vacuum has been filled by rumour.
"There is nothing to correct wild reports that armed gangs have taken over the convention centre," wrote Associated Press writer, Allen Breed.
"You can report them but you at least have to say they are unsubstantiated and not pass them off as fact," said one Baltimore-based journalist.
"But nobody is doing that."
Either way these rumours have had an effect.
Reports of the complete degradation and violent criminals running rampant in the Superdome suggested a crisis that both hastened the relief effort and demonised those who were stranded.
By the end of last week the media in Baton Rouge reported that evacuees from New Orleans were carjacking and that guns and knives were being seized in local shelters where riots were erupting.
The local mayor responded accordingly.
"We do not want to inherit the looting and all the other foolishness that went on in New Orleans," Kip Holden was told the Baton Rouge Advocate.
"We do not want to inherit that breed that seeks to prey on other people."
The trouble, wrote Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune is that "scarcely any of it was true - the police confiscated a single knife from a refugee in one Baton Rouge shelter".
"There were no riots in Baton Rouge. There were no armed hordes."
Similarly when the first convoy of national guardsmen went into New Orleans approached the convention centre they were ordered to "lock and load".
But when they arrived they were confronted not by armed mobs but a nurse wearing a T-shirt that read "I love New Orleans".
"She ran down a broken escalator, then held her hands in the air when she saw the guns," wrote the LA Times.
"We have sick kids up here!" she shouted.
"We have dehydrated kids! One kid with sickle cell!"
The world, by and large, sees through the idiocy and fallicy of that bullshit quote.
Urban Legend. TWO things we DO know:
1) The mayor and Governor had NO plan, none.
many residents are scofflaws and or idiots
This author casually avoided the fact that five thugs who attacked (fired shots at) contractors were dropped dead by policemen.
So, toss this article in the trash. More than likely, there is substance to many of the rumors, and eventually we should know the truth. If some girls were raped but not murdred, they will show up in the news soon.
Where are the rape victims? If a mob of people killed a guy who raped a 14 year old in the Superdome, why haven't one of them spoken up and accepted praise as a hero? We know their was violence and mayhem- there are too many reports from uninterested parties, and we all saw the widespread looting on TV. But we should careful to accept all rumors as facts. This kind of situation, with chaotic communication, is the breeding ground for urban legends- witness Randall Robinson's cannibalism claim. How many people believed him without any other source, and how few of them saw his retraction. You will hear people claim that the people of New Orleans were forced to eat corpses forever, due to his irresponsible rumormongering.
The early reports about that said the the police shot and killed the contractors.
Bodies found piled in freezer at Convention Center
Let me see if I got this straight. Guardsman Mikel Brooks escorts Times-Picayune staff writer Brian Thevenot into the freezer at the convention center.
Brian Thevenot reports that Brooks tells him that there is a "7-year-old with her throat cut" in the freezer. Apparently, Mr. Thevenot does not see the girl firsthand, and it's not completely clear if Brooks has seen the girl first hand.
Later in the story Thevenot reports that "Brooks and several other Guardsmen said they had seen between 30 and 40 more bodies in the Convention Center's freezer." But aren't Thevenot and Brooks standing in the freezer when Thevenot writes that Brooks tells him, "Don't step in that blood - it's contaminated?" Doesn't Thevenot see the piles of bodies too? If so why doesn't he just report first hand that there are piles of bodies? What does the Thevenot mean when he writes the that guard "had seen?" Has some ghoul moved them? FEMA maybe?
Then Thevenot recounts the sensational third hand (at least) account that:
"One of the bodies, they said, was a girl they estimated to be 5 years old. Though they could not confirm it, they had heard she was gang-raped."
"There was an old lady that said the little girl had been raped by two or three guys, and that she had told another unit. But they said they couldn't do anything about it with all the people there," Brooks said. "I would have put him in cuffs, stuck him in the freezer and left him there."
I mean is this what passes for journalism now-days? One of the bodies a "they said." Was gang raped by a 2 or 3 men "according" to a nameless old-lady?
I don't know what's more sickening. The possibility that it's true or that someone would print sensational third hand account with even a modicum of fact checking.
"But considering the difficulties inside the Astrodome; hunger, thirst, emotional trauma and more, people could easily thought about almost every wild thing they know."
You mean the Superdome not the Astrodome. BIG difference! Where local authorities actually know what they are doing.
I thought the entire exchange strange. Mostly because I thought southern black families had a tradition of taking care of their own. I can understand a handicapped sister might be forced to live in assisted living homes, but with nine brothers and sisters, you'd think one of them would have made a home for the Father, or at shared the expense so he didn't have to live his later years on the government dole.
"No, wait - to be honest, I did get a couple of respectful disagreements from people who heard personally from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478597/posts
"I read that the NG found a woman who was raped and killed and the guy who did it was beaten to death. Why are they saying it didnt happen? Because they didnt see the bodies?"
Because they don't want to be investigated. It will be hushed up especially if the NOLA police were responsible for the watch before the troops came in. Do you really think the mayor wants the bad publicity?
I agree with you 100%.
I really, really wish Mr. Younge was forced to live amongst the New Orleans riff raff.
His skepticism is freaking so AMAZING. In Younge's world the only EVIL SOB on the scene is George W Bush. He refuses to believe the first hand testimony of the many Britons who saw the depravity and cruelty of the NO riff raff first hand.
Not only are we sure they will destroy our hanger (just spend close to 2 million dollars to totally rebuild it) but we have been instructed to lock up everything that isn't nailed down and make sure no state vehicle has keys in it or that the keys are accessible. The $400,000 in computers, plasma screens, video projectors, touch screens, and other electronics just installed in the hanger have already been written off. Female employees are advised not to go anywhere alone.
I saw something like Louisiana has the worst penalties of any state for rape. Something like LWOP for first-degree rape. Seems to me if this is true, that's the crime that police would want most to catch.""
Sure sounds good on paper. How difficult is it to prove rape there? I can hear it now--"What was she wearing? What did she say to the perp? What business did she have being where the perp was? How provacative was she? ETC, ETC."
What percentage of rapes get reported-plead down-prosecuted-judged guilty? Not nearly enough.
Children with their throats slit- That is another story. What kind of savages are these people? Please don't ship any of them into my small community. PLEASE.
Other than looting, in the end it will probably be found that crime was actually down in the New Orleans area. Given the flooded streets and the history of crime in that city, I find it hard that it would be up.""
Who exactly is keeping the records on soggy paper written with a drowned pen on a desk under water???
In all honesty, there were a number of people here who believed it.
If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
yes...the homes and even the hospitals should have done the wise thing and moved all that could be moved without endangering them further.....
why is all of this so obvious....
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