After Blocking the Bridge, Gretna Circles the Wagons

LA Times ^ | 9/16/05 | Nicholas Riccardi, Times Staff Writer

[BurbankKarl]

Little over a week after this mostly white suburb became a symbol of callousness for using armed officers to seal one of the last escape routes from New Orleans — trapping thousands of mostly black evacuees in the flooded city — the Gretna City Council passed a resolution supporting the police chief's move.

"This wasn't just one man's decision," Mayor Ronnie C. Harris said Thursday. "The whole community backs it."

Three days after Hurricane Katrina hit, Gretna officers blocked the Mississippi River bridge that connects their city to New Orleans, exacerbating the sometimes troubled relationship with their neighbor. The blockade remained in place into the Labor Day weekend.

Gretna (pop. 17,500) is a feisty blue-collar city, two-thirds white, that prides itself on how quickly its police respond to 911 calls; it warily eyes its neighbor, a two-thirds black city (pop. about 500,000) that is also a perennial contender for the murder capital of the U.S.

Itself deprived of power, water and food for days after Katrina struck Aug. 29, Gretna suddenly became the destination for thousands of people fleeing New Orleans. The smaller town bused more than 5,000 of the newcomers to an impromptu food distribution center miles away. As New Orleans residents continued to spill into Gretna, tensions rose.

After someone set the local mall on fire Aug. 31, Gretna Police Chief Arthur S. Lawson Jr. proposed the blockade.

"I realized we couldn't continue, manpower-wise, fuel-wise," Lawson said Thursday. Armed Gretna police, helped by local sheriff's deputies and bridge police, turned hundreds of men, women and children back to New Orleans.

Gretna is not the only community that views New Orleans with distrust. Authorities in St. Bernard Parish, to the east, stacked cars to seal roads from the Crescent City.

[CobaltBlue]

Too funny. You dingbats need to synchronize your watches or something.

One of you is saying "you can't use the West Bank Expressway because the Harvey Tunnel is flooded," while the other says that the people who crossed the Crescent City Connection Bridge were being hauled back across the Huey P. Long Bridge to Causeway Blvd. and dropped off there.

In the meantime, people I know were crossing these bridges and driving to Baton Rouge, and back. Including my best friend, and my brother.

You don't have to believe me, that's how the news media were getting in and out, including Harry Connick Jr., a native New Orleanian who was on Good Morning America during this, not to mention Shep Smith from FOX, and others.

[okie01]

I don't have a problem with them setting up a cordon to keep the people moving through Gretna, but forcing them to stay in flooded New Orleans was inhuman.

D I T T O. It was completely unfair, and illegal.

Unless you don't have the manpower to enforce a cordon and safely move people thru the city and into the adjoining jurisdiction.

Given that Gretna had a.) allowed some to cross the bridge and b.) experienced looting and vandalism as a result, the Gretna authorities were totally justified in closing the bridge.

It was up to the state to provide transportation and security along the evacuation route. The state failed to do so. Consequently, the city authorities took proper steps to protect the lives and property of the citizens they were responsible for.

[deport]

Thanks for your kind words.... They are much appreciated.

[Figment]

'Too funny. You dingbats need to synchronize your watches or something'


Well moron if your brother crossed the bridge into Gretna on his way out of town , he is as stupid as you are. That ain't the way out of town.
No need to syncronize watches as you are wrong on so many points that it is too easy to shoot them down

[unsycophant]

The flooded area is marked, as are the two downtown collection points, and the Gretna roadblock. The closest point of aid for evacuees was the major collection point that had been established at the junction of the I-10 and the Causeway Road, to the west of New Orleans in Metairie (big green dot), which in turn was supplied from the airport. To help people, they had to get to this point (assuming officials continued to deny relief officials entry into the city proper, but that's another issue).

The yellow solid line is the route, nearly 20 miles by my rough estimate, crossing the Mississippi twice, that was effectively blocked by Gretna police. The dashed route, along the high ground on the north side of the Mississippi, is the route that it appears a significant number of individuals (including the two EMS techs) ultimately ended up taking to get out after it was clear the Gretna bridge was blocked.

All the Gretna policewere blocking, it turns out, was a massive detour...

http://www.snappingturtle.net/flit/archives/2005_09_10.html

[StopGlobalWhining]

I think of it terms of triage. If you can't save everyone, then concentrate your efforts on those who are salvageable.

I believe the sheriff's decision was morally defensible.

[Lancey Howard]

Excellent post!!
Thank you.

[Delta Dawn]

I agree with your premise, but I don't believe that any of the situations that you listed fit for what happened in Gretna. We are going to have to wait for the post mortem to see how this all shakes out.

[Delta Dawn]

This case is going to bounce around the courts for the next several years. If the Gretna PD did indeed fire over the heads of the people seeking refuge, I believe that there will be he(double hockey stricks) to pay.

[timestax]

Given that Gretna had a.) allowed some to cross the bridge and b.) experienced looting and vandalism as a result, the

Do you know if these statements are 100% true facts? People, including Police, and authorities have been known to make up fibs, including C.Y.A. statements.

[Delta Dawn]

And as I said, he should have been on the phone with the Governor's office seeking the assistance that he needed to deal with the fleeing people.

In a crisis like this, you do not turn people away. You provide the assistance that you can and await the arrival of the calvary.

I cannot believe that he called the Governors office and was advised to shoot over the heads of the oncoming flood of people. I guess that my point is that no sheriff has the right to do what was done here, regardless of whatever inane law was passed by the city council.
Once he could no longer handle the crowds, he has to involve the State authorities. Once the State can no longer handle the situation, they have to ask for assistance from the Federal Govt.

I stand by my earlier post. The lawsuits are going to fly.

[okie01]

Do you know if these statements are 100% true facts?

It's in the article. They set the mall on fire.

[timestax]

It's in the article. They set the mall on fire.

yeah,BUT...has anybody ever actually seen a mall w/fire damage. Seems like they (the police) would be all hanging around the mall,banks, and business to protect them. Who did "they" arrest for the nebulous "mall fire"? Anybody? Too many unanswered questions.

[wardaddy]

truth is irrelevant...it's emotion that counts friend

[CobaltBlue]

My brother's a nurse, first responder type, riding with a group put together by Exxon-Mobil. He's going in every day to give vaccinations to cops and firemen and so forth, and then going back to Baton Rouge every night.

I'll take his word over yours. Where are you, Texas? Alabama?

'Cause it seems like everything you know about New Orleans you learned at the Mardi Gras.

[CobaltBlue]

Yeah, too bad those dummies who didn't have any power so couldn't watch TV, no phones, not even cell phones, didn't realize what was going on, huh? Didn't have the eagle eye point of view, didn't have 20-20 foresight, weren't psychic.

Too bad for them.

Oh, well, that's the breaks.

Just wait until the lawsuits, though. I don't think a jury is going to be very impressed by the argument that these people should have just walked to Harahan.

[unsycophant]

LOL.Too much drama.

[CobaltBlue]

Too much drama.

You think so?

Personally, I think cops shooting at refugees is probably more drama than anybody needed at that particular juncture in life.

But then, I've got friends and relatives who haven't been heard from since the hurricane. So, to my way of thinking, they could have been one of the people trying to get out, and being shot at and sent back.

You might even know someone it happened to, yourself.

[unsycophant]

Personally, you should be embarrassed at how badly misinformed you are.

The cops shot over the heads of refugees who were threatening them. This is confirmed by many other refugees who saw it happen and gave eyewitness accounts. The cops didn't just go off half-cocked by randomly firing at people for no reason, and it does not seem to have happened more than once.

Too bad about your friends and relatives, but that doesn't mean your opinion is more valid because you personally know people who are missing. I have yet to see any specific estimates or numbers as to how many hundreds or thousands of people died because the Gretna police kept them from crossing the bridge. A few valid sources would be great!

[SJackson]

What I will point out is that it's illogical -- you can't tell by looking at someone that they're a criminal -- just because they come from New Orleans doesn't make them criminals. Even if they are poor, black, and on foot.

Sure you can, they're the ones on crutches, wheelchairs, the women and children and the group of tourists.

For a site that yaps as much as this one about religious values, these threads are laughable. Which faith is it that values property above the stranger, orphan and widow, I forget.