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