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."
Translation: We wanted to keep the blacks out.
That is why there needs to be a centralized authority. Snob zoning might be OK to allow the local authorities to do, but preventing driving or walking or peddling while black when trying to evacuate before what might have been a killer storm is not.
You just can't make this stuff up can you?
I get this ...
First the Feds throw FEMA boss Brown to the gators...that takes care of the Feds sacrifice..
Next LA has to sacrfice someone...so it aint gonna be the
minority criminal mayor or the female criminal Gov...
So they done found theyselves a POE'leese chief to draw and quarter...
imo
I appreciate your compassion for the dying Dirtboy, but the best thing the residents of NO could have done was get out when they told everyone to leave.
They DIDN'T HAVE FRIGGIN' CARS. The City did NOT FOLLOW IT'S OWN PLAN for using buses to get them out. And when they tried to leave on foot to get away from Hell, THE GRETNA POLICE FORCE BLOCKED AN OFFICIAL EVACUATION ROUTE!
How much MORE BASIC does that get? This was an extreme humanitarian situation!
If the mayor is in play for criticism, so is this guy. That was an OFFICIAL evacuation route - and he blocked it when the city was flooded.
The man was an uncaring cruel paranoid racist pig. And there you have it. Period.
Not the same overpass.
Anyone who made it over the bridge was put on a bus and taken back across the bridge into jefferson parish near the causeway.
How many people were stopped? I would like an exact or close to an exact number.
Try water for starters - what they needed most. Even if it was out of a garden hose - that area didn't suffer that much damage.
The bridge your graphic shows as a "dry route to safety or needed supplies" is the one that the Gretna police sealed off.
Are you absolutely certain that the police chief wasn't concerned about the murders and rapes being committed in and around the Superdome and Convention Center?
It was only the property crime - you're certain?
"Lawson just doesn't care about black people!"
- Dirtboy West.
I sincerely doubt anyone was keeping a count.
Nice try. But we're seeing what you're all about.
RE: The bottom left "Unused Buses At Dome With Access to Highway..."
WTF? When was that photo taken? Was it during the height of the crisis? If so, Nagin belongs in prison. At the very least, he needs to be forced to publicly answer for this.
Are you absolutely certain
Now I have to be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN.
His city had been evacuated, in case you didn't read the story.
People friggin' needed HELP, not EXCUSES.
The pictures were taken on August 31st @ 10:00am.
Dear God, that makes me so angry!
You seem to be able to read his mind and discern his every motivation.
But he says in the same article that "all our people" had evacuated. There were no citizens in Gretna to be raped and murdered. He only talks about burning and looting
"Ah, so now you think people should be prevented from freedom of movement because of something they MIGHT do?"
Yep. I don't want to travel on an airplane with a small group of young men of Middle-Eastern descent, would you? As a matter of fact, on my return from Orlando this past week, a bunch of irate passengers did exactly that --- they refused to get on a plane with 7 young, middle-eastern men, and they let the airline know about it. Would you blame them?
Having walked out of One World Trade center myself on September 11, 2001, I wouldn't.
Bottom line: the storm was tracked from the time it formed off the coast of Africa until it hit the Gulf Coast, 24 hours a day for the better part of two weeks. All you had to do was turn on the television and you would have had all the storm information you needed. The fact that many people did not heed the warnings and the city of NO and the state of Louisiana are run by complete idiots merely made a seriously dangerous situation that much more dangerous.
I hate to say it, but after living here in the Carolinas for a bit (and having lived in Florida, too)if you don't have the brains to skedaddle when Mother Nature comes visiting with 145 mph winds, then you deserve what you get. These folks had a minimum of 36 hours to get the hell out and instead they took to looting televisions and jewelry.
The Crescent City bridge is not the only route out of New Orleans, I'm sure. had there been better co-ordination of transportation resources under a competent regime, and people willing to take responsibility for their own safety, lives would have been saved and we would not be having this discussion.
Having said that, I've already written a $100 check to the United Way, gave a pint of blood to the Red Cross and emptied my closets of old clothing and blankets and sent them off to my local church for relief efforts elsewhere, so please don't try to paint me as being a heartless S.O.B.
The very top of the photo says 10:00 am August 31 which was wednesday.
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