Posted on 09/09/2005 11:06:37 AM PDT by hipaatwo
Think local officials are less to blame for deaths in New Orleans than federal officials? In the most jaw-dropping story of the week, UPI has the police chief of Gretna, Louisiana, admitting that he closed off one of the major arteries out of New Orleans on Monday, before the storm hit:
"We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.
"All our people had evacuated and we locked the city down," he said. The bridge in question -- the Crescent City Connection -- is the major artery heading west out of New Orleans across the Mississippi River.
He 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."
So why didn't Sheppard Smith just call the Red Cross and tell us why they said they couldn't deliver food and water. He is a reporter isn't he?
Rush is reading this now. Ok I want to know his freep name!
What you are injecting here is demonstrated to not be truthful. The bridge was closed long after the hurricane was gone.
That bridge was not a Gretna city street, so shouldn't this police chief be facing state or federal charges?
Rush is hitting on this right now.
After the evac.
Good points.
And wouldn't the whole point of La emergency management plans be to cover these situations?
This area's had hurricane evacs before. No one noticed this 'til now? Very unlikely.
What kind of IDIOCY is that? This bridge carried fully-loaded trucks.
You're pulling stuff out of your a** now to defend this.
the Crescent City bridge was inspected...by FEMA.
Rush not totally blaming Lawson. Yup, let's save the property. Sigh.
Did Rush just agree with the police?
Why couldn't he and his force guide people THROUGH his city and on their way? Why leave them trapped in NO?
You aren't interested in the truth. You want to spin this away.
Shep was there and saw the suffering. People could have been let out on foot. They weren't.
Sure sounded like it.
*L*
Gee, ask Governor "Blubbers" Blank-O. I think she would consider it to be "her" bridge.
The police conducted the whole thing with complete calm and professionalism and I didn't see a single person get injured or menaced.
When a few people tried to start trouble verbally, the police let them know that they would regret it if they didn't shut their mouths.
Apparently I work in the only major city in the US with a competent police force.
Oh.
I forgot. Mayor Nagin doesn't know how to drive a school bus...
Damn.
My bad...
Do you believe the police started shooting over 500 people's heads on Tuesday before they even talked to them? ...and that oif they did, a few of the enlightened ones were able to creep up on these shooting police and engage them enough to get such a story?
Read the entire report from the two so-called journalists and tell me if you think that is how it really went down. If you do...then we simply disagree because I do not.
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