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."
If the plan called for closing the bridge if NOLA melted down, the plan is still an ass and should be ignored.
If closing the bridge cost a single life, there should be criminal charges...
Well, you already know my evaluation of this administration's competence, and the Katrina episode has certainly done nothing to alter my previous assessment.. In fact, were it not for that, I wouldn't even be on this forum or concerned with politics much at all, but rather happily under my rock as before 9/11. =)
PLEASE DON'T LEAVE.
If YOU go, I don't know how my betrothed and I can be too far behind you.
I understand as much as I can what motivates you, but I must tell you, in the most blunt terms, that you cannot let the bastards win.
With all my best,
jp
bookmark
Just for the hell of it I just called the Gretna police dept. and talked to an operator.I asked her why their police blocked the bridge. She got REALLY angry and said, "We did NOT block the bridge". Right then I heard a male voice ask her something and she said, "it's about the bridge".He got on the line with a big attitude.I asked him the same and added that people had been killed.He screamed that they did not block the bridge and he said that "I am coming over to "fu#king kill you" I said "nice attitude" (No $h*t!)
Are you serious?
Figure it out yourself.
I don't buy this story, at least not the way it is related here. Re-reading the articles and the posts, it seems that a lot of posters got certain elements twisted around, missed other important particulars, and made too many assumptions.
For example, the "racist" angle - - did you see that the population of Gretna is about 40% black? Wouldn't it be intersting to see how many of these "redneck" Gretna cops firing shots over people's heads were black?
Also, the cops were apparently only stopping foot traffic. Several posters, I think even including Michael, appeared to be under the impression that the bridge was closed to buses and other vehicular traffic.
Also, did you catch this snippet?:
Lawson says that his officers "acted in the manner they were instructed to" and defends the order to close the bridge as "the right decision."
He said that in addition to his security concerns, an unmoored vessel on the river "raised the threat that it might crash into and breach the levee, which would have flooded Gretna."
He says that his officers did assist about 4000 people who "arrived at the doorstep of (Gretna City)" either by crossing the bridge before it was closed or approaching from another route.
"We commandeered public transit buses and we took them to higher and safer ground" at the junction of Interstate-10 and Causeway Boulevard where "there was food and shelter," he said.
That police chief doesn't sound here like the evil racist killer that many posters make him out to be. I'm sure he saw and heard on TV the same things the rest of America was seeing and hearing - - the chaos and open looting, the rapes and murders, the anarchy and gunshots, police and rescue workers getting fired upon....
I'm afraid I simply cannot join so many others here in calling for this police chief to get thrown into the fires of hell for doing what he thought was necessary at the time to protect his town. It sure is easy to be safely in another part of the country and sit at a keyboard and give away other people's homes (and money) but I say again that if I was a homeowner in Gretna, I would be extremely grateful to have a police chief like Lawson.
Let me guess - - people who disgree with you?
I could not agree more. I can't believe FReepers have accepted the story without bothering to question the sources, the allegations, and facts.
Here is the entire story, as posted by the two Socialist "EMS" workers.
http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-2/556/556_04_RealHeroes.shtml
I genuinely can't believe people believe this crap.
The it was justified, they were OK, dog won't hunt. In fact, that dog is so stone cold dead, that it has transmogrified into a water moccasin, slithering around in the toxic waters, ready to bite the unwary. And the whole thing was illegal as hell. That is where my guild come in. We will be heard from. Bank on it.
Don't worry. With any justice, the guy will be without a job, and without a gun, and in jail with a bunch of the hood.
In post 91 I commented more on the detail.
Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking city) was accurate. Just as dusk set in, a sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces and screamed, “Get off the fucking freeway.” A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.
Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of “victims,” they saw “mob” or “riot.”
http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-2/556/556_04_RealHeroes.shtml
The Man (all the law enforcement agencies) was trying to keep the Socialist workers down in New Orleans.
If you find a cop who was black was firing over the heads of the pedestrian powered evacuees at the end of a long bridge, trying to avoid the ravages of an advertised in advance killer storm, forced to turn back to their fate in the savage merciless city of wind, storm, flood, and anarchy, let me know. Because there is a special place for them.
Sheesh. What part of the story did you not get? Maybe the part about the cops not even securing the bridge until long after the hurricane had come and gone?
"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.
Yes, this was a true incident. That is my wife that called the police dept. I was there ( here ) when she called. The guy had a real attitude. A police officer threatening a person over the phone, just because she has the nerve to ask a question.
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