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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: SJackson

That is a good idea under normal circumstances. Perhaps I will go over there so they can call me names to my face! ;] I don't think so- since most of them are here anyway or will take the message back by cut and paste.


901 posted on 09/14/2005 1:27:43 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: EllaMinnow
How about facts and reality- do you like those two words any???
902 posted on 09/14/2005 1:28:36 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
How about facts and reality- do you like those two words any???

Yes, I do. I also like "humanity" "compassion" and "dignity."

903 posted on 09/14/2005 1:31:00 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: EllaMinnow
Is that for rescue workers and fire fighters, or just crack addicts?
904 posted on 09/14/2005 1:36:21 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: EllaMinnow
Check out this article about the good sheriff.

Racism played a part in other ways. Vermont National Guard troops were taken aback to hear sheriff's deputies in Gretna, La., talk about going into the black neighborhoods to "stir" things up, to kick in doors, and to intimidate the population. It sounded like the flood had given law enforcement free rein to terrorize the local black population. Young black men were lying low.

These observations by Vermont Guard soldiers were in line with accounts emerging elsewhere. The New York Times reported the story told by a pair of emergency medical technicians who were in New Orleans to attend a conference. After the hurricane they became part of a group of several hundred that was seeking a way out of the city. The New Orleans police told them to walk to a bridge that would take them across the Mississippi where buses would be waiting for them.

At the bridge, they were met by sheriff's deputies from Gretna who blocked their way and fired guns over their heads to drive them back to the city. As the EMTs recounted it, the towns outside New Orleans were unwilling to open themselves to crowds of black people, even a crowd that included children in strollers and old people on crutches.

905 posted on 09/14/2005 1:36:42 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: Diva Betsy Ross

Was the bridge just closed to crack addicts? I must have missed that part.

Of course I have compassion for rescue workers and firefighters. I fail to see how keeping folks in NO who wanted to evacuate to the west helped the rescue workers and firefighters at all.


906 posted on 09/14/2005 1:39:33 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: beckysueb
What is CP?

The site mhking is posting at.

907 posted on 09/14/2005 1:40:40 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: Diva Betsy Ross
Is that for rescue workers and fire fighters, or just crack addicts?

What crack addicts?

Oh, code for "those people" that were crossing the bridge, right?

Keep digging, that's right up there with your "even if they are black" comment.

908 posted on 09/14/2005 1:41:57 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: SJackson

Oh.My.God...I hadn't seen that.


909 posted on 09/14/2005 1:43:02 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: SJackson
If that story is true - it is bad and wrong to turn women with children away- even if it was a result of the screwed up local NO authorities. But I have a hard time believing the Times. I have read that it was the Media who were telling people it was an evac route- so I wonder about that. I was looking to see if charges were brought up and I couldn't find anything on it. And there is no Jesse Jackson invlovelment- which I am aware of- and IMO if this were true wouldn't he be invloved-this would be a perfect story for him.
910 posted on 09/14/2005 1:43:36 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: All

I've always believed that if people are calling you a 'racist', it may be because it is true.


911 posted on 09/14/2005 1:44:12 PM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: beckysueb
...to see if they could hold thousands of people stampeding across them.

Stampeding? Nice "Wild Kingdom" imagery there.

That bridge could hold pedestrian traffic fine as long as they didn't march in lockstep.

Look at the story SJackson just posted in 894. Do you really believe SOP--or anything you've said above--justified halting 200 elderly and injured people who made it to the peak of the bridge?

Also, the bridge was closed to white people as well as black, but everyone involved knew that the VAST majority of those who had stayed behind in NOLA were black.

912 posted on 09/14/2005 1:45:17 PM PDT by Petronski (Cyborg is the greatest blessing I have ever known.)
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To: cyncooper
LOL- no code cyn- just a question. Do you see racism in every statement? Wouldn't a bigot and a racist refuse to pray for a "black" person. Wouldn't a bigot ask about a person's skin color first? Was I laying in wait all these years just to come out on this thread??? Would a racist work with gang members? Hmmm....

Reading comp is not your strong suit is it? You are fun but are not very bright.

913 posted on 09/14/2005 1:50:30 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: EllaMinnow
DId I say anything about a bridge- you are a racist if you think all crack addicts are black.
914 posted on 09/14/2005 1:52:17 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
Personally, I'd tend to believe the Guardsmen, though they could have been misquoted. Based on everything we've read about the tragedy, I'm certain a group of 200 included potential looters, drug addicts, children, the infirm, and just plain poor people.

This is a good story for Jessie.

As to charges, these are all government officials. From top to bottom barring proveable malice, they're likely clear of the grossest negligence, .

915 posted on 09/14/2005 1:53:25 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: Diva Betsy Ross

I wonder why some people here haven't invited some of the hurrican victims of New Orleans into their homes? The way some of them talk, I would think they have two or three families in their home.

They are quick to bash those who wanted their neighborhoods protected...

Just FYI for those who think everyone is a racist for wanting to protect their homes....I have free plane tickets to fly families to your home, just let me know....


916 posted on 09/14/2005 1:54:19 PM PDT by yellowdoghunter (Liberals should be seen and not heard.)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross

Betsy, Betsy, Betsy...you're getting hysterical and starting to make stuff up. Why don't you go lie down and put a wet cloth on your head?


917 posted on 09/14/2005 1:55:02 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Help stamp out unnecessary apostrophes.)
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To: Petronski; beckysueb; Diva Betsy Ross; EllaMinnow
From another article. Apparently amongst the potential looters turned away were the stranded tourists we read about. It sounds like several groups must have been turned away.

Two emergency medical workers attending a New Orleans conference when the disaster struck give an account of living under such dictatorial rule:

We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City. Those who did not have the requisite $45.00 for a ticket were subsidized by those who did have extra money. We waited for 48 hours for the buses, spending the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water, food, and clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the sick, elderly and new born babies. We waited late into the night for the "imminent" arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later learned that the minute they arrived to the City limits, they were commandeered by the military.

It gets worse:

We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the (Greater New Orleans) bridge (that crosses the Mississippi River) with great excitement and hope. As we marched pasted [sic] the convention center, many locals saw our determined and optimistic group and asked where we were headed. We told them about the great news. Families immediately grabbed their few belongings and quickly our numbers doubled and then doubled again. Babies in strollers now joined us, people using crutches, elderly clasping walkers and others people in wheelchairs. We marched the 2-3 miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It now began to pour down rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City.

They later attempted to build a small camp on the abandoned freeway, only to be attacked by police and forced to move, so they were forced to survive in other ways:

In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered once again. Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on Cilo Street. We were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew and shoot-to-kill policies.

918 posted on 09/14/2005 1:57:13 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: SJackson
I am sure we haven't seen the last of this story. I would lean to believe the Guardsman as well- if you find more on this story could you ping me please.
919 posted on 09/14/2005 1:57:21 PM PDT by Diva Betsy Ross (Code pink sinks)
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To: Diva Betsy Ross
just a question

That came from where?

Reading comp is not your strong suit is it? You are fun but are not very bright.

I understand you must feel lacking; no need to project your shortcomings onto those with superior skills.

920 posted on 09/14/2005 1:58:29 PM PDT by cyncooper
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