We Shut Down the Bridge

Washington Times & UPI via NRO ^ | Sep. 9, 2005 | Shaun Waterman

[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."

[cyborg]

Your grandson is correct in his youthful assessment of the situation. I like his style of explanation :-)

[cyborg]

BTTT!

[Allosaurs_r_us]

It is time to make a stand against those that attack FReepers like mhking and rdb3.

 

Thanx to all that responded to this obvious insult to our long time friends!

 

mh, Rd, hope the outpouring of support helps your decisions to stay and "hang" with those of us that view your membership as essential to the continued health of this forum. We can't do it without members who contribute the way you guys do.

 

Stay with us, keep up the good work! We are behind you all the way.  All for and one for all!

[satchmodog9]

I lost the point of all this somewhere. The thread went in many directions as usual. What the hell happened? I tried to track back.

[freema]

I had to take a breather myself. Sorry I left, some of that bickering was just too much this weekend for such trivialities. NO, Floyd flashbacks, hurricane sitting to my immediate right for 2 days (2-3 days to go), 9/11 and MY favorite soldier home for the weekend....watched Extreme Home Makeover/Jessica Lynch do Lori Piestewa's dream. Cried my eyes out. We'd been warned we (Floyd survivors) could suffer PTSD from the non-stop coverage of NO-crankiness, irritability, inability to focus, etc. So I just bugged out before I reached thru the screen and slapped somebody : )

Ohio........
"I'd like to tell you my story, which I think parallels a lot of us. I was a teenager during the violent upheaval of the '60's. I had been raised in a lily white community in northern Ohio, and went into shock when I first found out how blacks were treated in the south. I listened to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. and was moved by them." That's my story too with a bit of modification. Northern Ohio, not lily white town, but an area that didn't display racism. I didn't know what it was. Only I went into major shock I actually moved south. I never in my life. Been running my own lil' underground 'education' railroad down heah for 16 years.

[BigSkyFreeper]

....then why should I stay?

If you both leave, "they" win.

As the old saying goes, "Quitters Don't Win, and Winners Don't Quit".

We don't often disagree, but when we do, I gain more respect for the two of you, and you both shine a bright light of honesty, and sincerity in your posts. Some people can't get beyond what lies at the surface, and most people see beyond that, and they see a living, breathing, intelligent, articulate, thought-provoking human being.

The both of you are champions in your cause, in my estimation.

[Shazbot29]

Mike, a lot of us are behind you. 100%

You don't have to defend squat.

Just tell us who to beat up.

I mean it.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Every open-minded person regardless of race is appalled by what has happened in the aftermath of Katrina. Certainly there has been race baiting, but it has beed done by both whites AND blacks. This does not make it right, but it shows that there are still some stereotypes that linger in our society. And unfortunately situations like these bring them to the surface.

It goes without saying, that most of the race baiting has been coming from the left. I suspect alot of it here on FR is being put into action by leftist embeds. I cannot imagine right-winged racists hitching wagons with the likes of Jackson and Sharpton and their ilk. Because that is precisely what they are doing when they are attacking black Conservatives who by all accounts have championed the ideals of success and prosperity in the black community, and the masters of the race baiting industry beat black Conservatives down with the race card.

The best defense is truth and logic, against the racists, bigots, and homophobes in our midst and in the Democrat party. No need to "lash out", that's strictly reserved for the lunatics on the left.

I quite frankly was appalled as well when race baiting suddenly reared it's ugly head during a time of national crisis. It's galling.

[Zeppelin]

Mike, just read your posts, and I wish I could apologize for the (insert expletives here) that said those things, but I cannot.

But I CAN say that I really enjoy reading your posts and listening to what you have to say on the tube. You're very insightful and straight-up, and we need more of that here. If you do decide to leave, a little bit of Free Republic will be lost, but I understand your feelings. I do hope you decide to stick around. I believe there are far more good FReepers than bad, but the negative ones always seem to be louder.

So now I'm screamin'....."MIKE, PLEASE STAY!!!"

[unsycophant]

Many people want to talk to them, to verify the story and get details that can be used to substantiate their story.

You probably noticed as many have, how it's full of inconsistencies, starting with the time frame. They were only in New Orleans for two days. Yet, they mention "Day Four", waiting 48 hours for buses that never came, sleeping another night under the bridge, and finally being "forced to leave" by the National Guard (Weren't they trying to get out?) after wandering around the city some more.

They claimed the police were shooting at people to keep them from leaving New Orleans, and this certainly needs to be investigated also.

[Allosaurs_r_us]

I am not exactly what set it off, but mh and Rdb3 were discussing leaving due to the comments of some on the Katrina threads. I look forward to mhking and Rd's pings daily and would not want them to leave due to some idiots callousness and or racial bias.

I have yet to hear back from either of them. I hope they listened to our support and didn't let ignorant posters drive them away. Hell mh is our celeb on Fox and other MSM political shows. He would certainly be missed.

[1035rep]

I have been thinking about your post for a couple of hours and your reasons for leaving and wanted to give you my thoughts.

I have only been here a short while but I quickly learned a few things. First I was very surprised to see so much unfounded criticism of our president here but after doing a little research I realized many here are DU posters. They are here to discourage us, they are here to divide and conquer us, and they will only succeed if we let them. I discovered how much of this was going on by reading some of the posts over at the DU. they get a huge kick out of this. They can’t win elections so what else do they have to do but try and take the wind out of your sails. It is mind game, just like the liberal polls they try and alter facts and influence public opinion. You can usually spot them as they generally lack facts and common sense.

So when your having a conversation with an irrational, hopeless individual just remember it could be a liberal.

[alcuin]

But the last week here, FR has not felt comfortable; it hasn't felt like that home away from home that I have come to know . . . if people don't want me here, then why should I stay?

A forum as a . . . home? Well, since it's FR, maybe---as a rEst hOme.

Napoleon wants you to stay; Mary, Queen of Scots, is not amused; and Flo, she don't know.

Really, whose opinion matters, save yours and mine?

[whershey]

Let's see some links for all these deaths from dehydration. I've heard of a few critical patients in hospitals dying and some abandoned nursing home residents but not healthy people dying as your saying.

[nyconse]

Listen...don't let a few posts drive you a way. There are ignorant posters on any forum. Most people realize that the looters were the smallest criminal percentage of NO's residents. As for closing that bridge, I think it was appalling. Also, I do not believe you can legally close an American road. The people involved in this decision should be fired and possible prosecuted. I pray for the day when we are a colorblind society.

[nyconse]

Not really, I was critical of Pres. Bush. I thought FEMA moved to slowly when they realized that the locals and the state were completely incompetent. However, in the end Pres. Bush did what had to be done. Some of us-who love President Bush (this includes me ) don't always agree with him.

[linkinpunk]

If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

He's right. If it was our homes at risk, most of us would have been on the brige guarding our city if the cops weren't there doing.

[Zavien Doombringer]

Mike,

I understand your frustration.

If you truely decide to leave us, your postings will be missed. I look forward to your opinions. Your postings and King Prouts make sense to me and I find them not only encouraging but also educative. I may get "spanked" by fellow Freepers for not thinking...m'Lord KP can tell you... he has had the opertunity to keep me in check.

I ask that if you do decide to retreat, please give some of us the luxury of finding your posting elswhere.

God Bless you,

Zav

[lentulusgracchus]

However, this IS a case of a small town police turning people trying to evacuate away.....It would have been an easy matter to permit buses to drive through the city on US 90 -- which is a limited access highway -- through Gretna (which ain't that big, mind you) on to the west.

For what it's worth, I think people on both sides of this debate have been too tough, keying on a few tough remarks made at the outset of the thread.

FWIW, I think Lancey Howard and some others have been right to regard the Socialist activists who sourced the story with suspicion, but on the other hand, Mayor Nagin told the same story to ABC's interviewer on-air, and it differed in no great particulars from the basic facts as told here. Invited by ABC News to cast the confrontation in racial terms he declined, and instead fell back on the old chestnut of class division and discrimination, but he did accuse the Gretna and Jefferson Parish authorities of that.

More background: I lived for a while in New Orleans, 30 years ago, and for some years thereafter I was a frequent visitor for social and other occasions. Later, I occasionally traveled there for business reasons, and occasionally to visit my sister, who's lived with her husband in Metairie for over 20 years, out by the lakefront off West Esplanade. She and her husband worked out a standard shelter-in-place arrangement whereby she and daughters forted up in his Tulane Hospital office, which had emergency power during hurricanes, and they parked the family cars in the hospital garage -- the cars are still there as I type. The husband being stuck in Europe, he didn't get down to Baton Rouge until two days after the storm, and picked up an old colleague, went to the State Police headquarters in Baton Rouge, and got clearance from them to go to New Orleans. From Saturday before the storm onward, my sister told me the night before the hurricane, when I called her at the hospital on her husband's fax line (it was already tough to call in), that the state police had sealed off the city and were not allowing anyone in. They were still blocking the highways on Wednesday when my brother-in-law drove down in a borrowed high-clearance 4x4, passing numerous police roadblocks and having to show his credentials and his clearance each time. The interstate into the downtown area was blocked, so he had to cross the Huey Long Bridge in Metairie, at the south end of Clearview Parkway, over to the West Bank Expressway to gain the Greater New Orleans Bridge downtown ("the G.N.O." to Orleanians, a.k.a. the "Crescent City Connection").

Ordinarily, it's about a three-mile-plus drive from the east-bank (right bank) end of "the Huey P." to the same-side end of "the G.N.O."; going the long way around, on the West Bank, is a nine-mile drive through six municipal and two parish jurisdictions from Bridge City to Algiers. The Orleans/Jefferson Parish line is near the foot of the bridge incline on the West Bank, where the viaduct begins to become the West Bank Expressway. My brother-in-law and his traveling companion saw cars and pedestrians being stopped at all the checkpoints thrown up by the state police on I-10 near the city and along the West Bank Expressway. People were basically not being allowed to move, period, unless they were "official". He, fortunately, was "official".

They got across the bridge, parked on a dryish bit at the foot of an offramp near the Superdome, and were conveyed by flat-bottomed boats belonging to either Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries or National Park Service rangers from Texas (d/o who tells it) to the hospital garage, where they grounded on a parking ramp (water was six feet deep in the street and 18" deep in the first floor of the hospital), climbed to an upper-level breezeway, and entered the hospital without wading through the septic floodwaters surrounding it.

The point is that nobody was being allowed to move around without being challenged, because of fears of looting and crime. That was the apparent mandate the state police were working under, which means that the orders were coming from Baton Rouge.

By the time he got out of town, late Wednesday afternoon or early evening, he still saw nothing much moving, and the state authorities still had the highways clamped down tightly and challenged his movement every few miles, and every few miles he had to show credentials. He's dark-complexioned, being from India, so it wasn't his "race" (being from northern India, he's as Caucasian as I am, except for whatever Dravidian heritage he might have) or color that was the issue. The issue was, he was abroad at a time when all movement was under challenge.

So that's how I heard it, from someone who traveled that same road the same day.

We'll just have to wait for the documentary proof and eyewitness accounts of who told whom to do what and follow what policy when.

Meanwhile, please don't get discouraged if people in here fall to finger-pointing themselves. I detect a whiff of troll on the wind here, and I wouldn't put it past Goat-Boy and his bat-winged queen to be behind a lot of it, since this kind of acrimony redounds to their advantage. Trust them to be stirring this stuff up from now until the People decide whether Hillary and Sink-boy are to be crowned Queen of America and God Emperor of Earth, respectively, in 2008.

One last thought. Mayor Nagin originally told this story to ABC News. Now, he has some questions to answer himself. For example, why did he tell people to walk to the West Bank? So they'd be out of his jurisdiction and off his books? What were they going to find in a string of tank-towns that all together aggregated about one-quarter New Orleans's size? And what was he planning to do with those buses sitting on the Superdome lot, and at the convention center? Did he not know about the buses in Algiers? But people were going to walk the nine miles from the convention center to the foot of the Huey Long Bridge? Walk to Boutte, the first town on the road to Houma and Morgan City? Where were they going? Or more particularly, where was he sending them? Just "away"? There are just too, too many loose ends here. Basically, all those people needed to be on buses the afternoon the storm lifted -- before the levee broke, by the way (my sister saw Tulane Avenue empty of water after the storm runoff was pumped away, and before the levee broke) -- and on their way to Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Houston. Which is where they eventually went, leaving the New Orleans buses behind, sitting on their drowned lot out in Gentilly somewhere.

And so Mayor Nagin sits down with ABC and tells us a little story about the Edmund Pettus Bridge -- make that "the G.N.O." instead -- and fat white sheriff's deputies with shotguns. Nothing like a good bedtime story to get people's minds off the buses that never came.

And yes, it would have been an easy matter to send those people across the river on buses, to drive through all those West Bank towns, and all the way to Houma, and then Lafayette and Houston if need be. But that didn't happen, did it?

Guys, why don't you stick around and see how it turns out, instead of forming a new frame of mind with incomplete information and uninformed recriminations and countercharges ringing in your ears? That "Bull Connors" story sounds really good, really convincing, doesn't it? Well, that's a stereotype, too. Unless you believe the stereotype.

[VRWCmember]

I hope you guys will not leave because of the actions of an extremely small but vocal fringe here at FR. There are literally thousands of registered and regular posters here, and a handful of them are probably somewhat bigoted and ignorant. But the VAST majority are decent people who agree with and admire you. Please don't paint anyone here with a broad brush. Stop and look at the intelligent conversations you've had here on a variety of controversial hot topics, and you will see that this place is still the sanctuary it has always been, even if it is occasionally infiltrated by disruptors and/or some of its members are not always as civil as they should be. Don't let the idiots win by forfeiting the discussion to them.