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We Shut Down the Bridge
Washington Times & UPI via NRO ^ | Sep. 9, 2005 | Shaun Waterman

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."


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: donutwatch; govwatch; gretna; hurricanekatrina; incompetence; katrina; katrinafailures; leftistcrap; neworleans; nimby; selfdefense; suburbanvictims; urbanbarbarians; yellowsnowdog
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
stay or go- makes no difference to me

And notice your constant need to pose false premises. There never was a question that I was going anywhere, except in your hopeful head.

Too bad for you, you're wrong again. It clearly matters a great deal to you. (Yes, now you'll give the predictable denial of what is obvious from the tone and content of what you've said)

881 posted on 09/14/2005 12:13:44 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
Btw- when he was down and out and looking for funds from his freeper friends and ran a thread asking for help and prayers to a while ago- I was right there to help him the best I could. I may be able to find my paypal receipt.

How tacky of you. Are you going to demand he pay you back?

882 posted on 09/14/2005 12:23:07 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: cyncooper
LOL. cyn,Ok you are right- I am busted again by you - you entertain me far too much for me to want you to go anywhere. Please don't go, I would miss your kind words and thoughtful deeds.
883 posted on 09/14/2005 12:26:09 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: EllaMinnow

Is that the best you could come up with? I would think you would be concerned that he fell for my "obvious to ploy" to run him out of here starting way back when.


884 posted on 09/14/2005 12:30:30 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross

I don't think you had a "ploy" to drive him away. But I do think you are deliberately blind about the reasons he left.

And I think bringing up a bad time in his past to try to prove your own generosity is just plain tacky.


885 posted on 09/14/2005 12:34:36 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: EllaMinnow
LOL. Are you surprised that a racist,a bigot - who wants to run all the good black posters off- would have a track record of not being a bigot? A history of caring about people-even if they are black...or of trying to help them?

I supported Mike , not because I am generous, not because I wanted to feel cool to support a black man- but because I believed in him as a person- not a black person- but an American conservative person. So if I am going to get smeared all over the place for my statements, and no one else is going to mention what I have done- I will do it myself to prove a point that this is all taken out context.

Mike knows about the messages and support that I have given him and he knows that I have encouraged others to encourage him and I know that.

You claimed I was trying to run him off- I proved you wrong-so You can think whatever you want to think- but Mike knows differently.

886 posted on 09/14/2005 12:50:34 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: EllaMinnow
LOL. Are you surprised that a racist,a bigot - who wants to run all the good black posters off- would have a track record of not being a bigot? A history of caring about people-even if they are black...or of trying to help them?

I supported Mike , not because I am generous, not because I wanted to feel cool to support a black man- but because I believed in him as a person- not a black person- but an American conservative person. So if I am going to get smeared all over the place for my statements, and no one else is going to mention what I have done- I will do it myself to prove a point that this is all taken out context.

Mike knows about the messages and support that I have given him and he knows that I have encouraged others to encourage him and I know that.

You claimed I was trying to run him off- I proved you wrong-so You can think whatever you want to think- but Mike knows differently.

887 posted on 09/14/2005 12:50:36 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
LOL. Are you surprised that a racist,a bigot - who wants to run all the good black posters off- would have a track record of not being a bigot? A history of caring about people-even if they are black...or of trying to help them?

LOL..."even if they are black." That's funny!

If you had been as supportive of Mike as you say you were, then surely you can understand why he felt the need to leave.

Can you see the similarities at all between Mike and Rod's rections to "all thugs are black therefore all blacks are thugs" and your reaction to "freepers are racist"?

You cannot label all for the acts of a few in one case, then cry foul when you think you are labeled.

888 posted on 09/14/2005 1:00:53 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
Of course all the people who throw the word racist around and call people bigots are all superior to you and me becky- because they are not name callers and they treat everyone equally and they would not have kept criminals out of people's business- aren't they cool? So- Looters can not be held accountable for burning down city blocks. No, it would be racist to say that.

I agree. I am so sick of being called a racsist because I had the gall to call looting wrong.

889 posted on 09/14/2005 1:05:43 PM PDT by beckysueb (God bless America and President Bush.)
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To: stand watie
according to the mainSLIME media, he kept EVERYBODY out of Gretna.

My point exactly.

890 posted on 09/14/2005 1:06:23 PM PDT by beckysueb (God bless America and President Bush.)
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To: EllaMinnow
Um. WHy not tell it someone who thinks all thugs are black- cause that's not me. I have gone to great lengths to show that is NOT my MO- of course I am just getting called a racist for doing that. (makes a lot of sense..)

I never said that all thugs were black- I do refer to thugs from the ghetto and the FACT is that the vast majority of those thugs are black. But I don't like white thugs either- did I forget to mention that???

Yet I have been called all sorts of things by his friends and an especially fond name they have is racist and a bigot.

I think there is a good reason for people to be confused over here about why this whole thing was started if someone was just going to go to another site so those people could call really nasty names of people posting on this thread... is it do as I say- or do as I do- oh shoot! I can't keep track anymore.

891 posted on 09/14/2005 1:11:01 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: beckysueb

Here is what I tell everyone- just ignore it. Who cares if a drama queen calls you a racist anyway? ;]


892 posted on 09/14/2005 1:15:24 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: beckysueb

Do you think a town should have the right to shut down access to a US highway that's an evacuation route BEFORE THE STORM?


893 posted on 09/14/2005 1:15:53 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: beckysueb; EllaMinnow
So- Looters can not be held accountable for burning down city blocks. No, it would be racist to say that.

I have an idea!

Next time the good sheriff can compromise, let in the looters on crutches or in wheelchairs and strollers. His deputies should be able to escort them to the town limits where they can be given a good, charitable kick in the but.

.........................

Evacuees Shot At

Officials in Louisiana have said in press reports that they did all they could to help evacuations in New Orleans but received little help from the federal government or local communities in the area. Stories from evacuees saying they were turned away at gunpoint when they tried to enter other counties may add credibility to the claims of Louisiana officials.

In interviews broadcast Monday night on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" and "News night With Aaron Brown," evacuees told to flee New Orleans said that they walked across a bridge for almost two hours to the suburban city of Gretna only to be turned around at gunpoint. "We got to the top of the bridge. They stopped us with guns," said Tim Sheer, an evacuee speaking on "News night With Aaron Brown." "...and we didn't think anything when we saw the deputies there. Then all of a sudden we heard shooting."

Sheer said on the program that at least two hundred people were turned away and that many of them were elderly and injured. "We had people in wheel chairs, we had people in strollers, people on crutches, so we were a slow moving group."

Gretna's police chief denied that evacuees were shot at and said that the reason they were turned away was because his city was no more prepared to house the evacuees than New Orleans. He promised a full investigation into the incident, press reports said.

Meanwhile, missions to recover the bodies of those unable to escape the hurricane continued yesterday. As of late last night, officials reported that the death toll in New Orleans was 423. That number is expected to rise in the coming days, according to press reports.

894 posted on 09/14/2005 1:20:06 PM PDT by SJackson (“I worry that I've seen this movie before”, Rep. Mark Kirk on aid to palestinians.)
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To: EllaMinnow

That was standard operating procedure. Once Gretna was evacuated, the bridges were to be shut down because they would be unsafe for travel durring a hurricane. Then after the hurricane were to be closed to foot traffic until they could be inspected to see if they could hold thousands of people stampeding across them.


895 posted on 09/14/2005 1:20:23 PM PDT by beckysueb (God bless America and President Bush.)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross

Who started it?


896 posted on 09/14/2005 1:20:42 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
Oh really? I didn't come to this thread until I was pinged to it by mhking because I was on his ping list and have been for about two years. I later found out- after I had written a supportive message to him on this thread and by freepmail- that he was already over at clownposse calling freepers names by the time I saw this thread…So he must have thought I was such a bigot that he pinged me here to fight with him? right?

I have another idea.

I know these inter-forum things are frustrating, but why not go over there and discuss it with him. I’ve done that on several forums, including at least one at CP, which cleared up a misunderstanding. Things might work out fine, or they might not.

897 posted on 09/14/2005 1:21:17 PM PDT by SJackson (“I worry that I've seen this movie before”, Rep. Mark Kirk on aid to palestinians.)
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To: EllaMinnow

Is the Police chief being brought up on any charges?


898 posted on 09/14/2005 1:23:38 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: SJackson

What is CP?


899 posted on 09/14/2005 1:23:55 PM PDT by beckysueb (God bless America and President Bush.)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
Is the Police chief being brought up on any charges?

I have no idea. Immorality and illegality are not the same things.

900 posted on 09/14/2005 1:27:24 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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