Posted on 09/14/2005 1:40:08 PM PDT by SJackson
Vermont National Guard troops were surprised to witness up close the workings of racism in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
During the unfolding disaster, the world saw large crowds of black people, helpless, hungry, thirsty, with nowhere to go. New Orleans is a poor city with a large African-American population, and the poor had few ways of getting out of the city. Moreover, they lived in vulnerable, low-lying neighborhoods, and so it was clear that black people were suffering disproportionately from the hurricane.
These are not surprising realities. Even so, it is surely an exaggeration to claim that the administration's dilatory response to the flood was owing to the fact that the victims were mostly black. Clearly, the administration would have been incompetent no matter who was suffering.
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.
One of the nightmares of white America is the idea of a mob of black people. It is a nightmare born of deep fears that go back to the days of slavery. Nothing was more threatening to white America back then than the idea of a slave revolt and the ravishment of white womanhood.
In the days after Katrina, people in New Orleans were terrorized by looters and robbers, and police faced violence from armed gangs. Some of the looting involved people seeking food and water, but the danger and the damage from looters were real. There were also tales of rape.
Nevertheless, the suspicion grew as the days passed that the stories of rampaging blacks might well have become exaggerated because they played perfectly into white fears. Those are the fears that led law enforcement officials, not to help, but to turn people away when they were fleeing a flooded city. They are the fears that gave white police officers license to terrorize black neighborhoods.
As a definitive accounting of the disaster emerges, we will learn the extent to which crowds of needy black people — the young and the old, the strong and the weak — were transformed by the white imagination into a threatening mob. It is the way that racism works.
Either the Guardsmen and EMT personel are liars, or the sheriff is a racist.
I think the author of the article is a racist and a liar. Not all blacks are african. Many, if not most, of these people are caribean-american.
Being northern yankee vermont I'm sure they heard what they wanted. I'm sure no blacks down there were saying cracker and whitey.
Maybe it was the do-gooder carpet baggers 'stirring things up'.
From the crimes in New Orlean streets, to crimes at the SuperToilet and ConventionToilet, their fears were justified.
I think you may have confused this forum with Stormfront/Liberty Post
This backhanded swipe indicates the editor's own fundamental bias. This whole column comes from the same skewed perspective.
That said, I've got no problem believing that there are stupid white cracker cops at work in southern towns.
The Police Chief of Gretna is a bigtime Democrat:
10 records found in 0.2031 seconds.
Search Criteria:
Donor name: lawson
Donor State: LA
Cycle(s) selected: 2006, 2004, 2002
Start another search
Sort by Name
Sort by Date
Sort by Amount
Total for this search: $4,099
Contributor
Occupation
Date
Amount
Recipient
LAWSON, ARTHUR
GRETNA,LA 70053
METRO GAMING INVESTMENTS LLC
6/30/2004
$500
Kennedy, John Neely
LAWSON, ARTHUR S JR
GRETNA,LA 70053
CITY OF GRETNA
5/20/2003
$1,000
Ieyoub, Richard P
LAWSON, ARTHUR S JR
GRETNA,LA 70053
CITY OF GRETNA
6/14/2004
$500
Morrell, Arthur
LAWSON, ARTHUR S JR
GRETNA,LA 70053
CITY OF GRETNA/ADMINISTRATOR
6/28/2004
$500
Cravins, Donald Ray Sr
LAWSON, ARTHUR S JR
GRETNA,LA 70053
SELF/VIDEO POKER
6/10/2004
$500
Melancon, Charles J
And the comments supposedly reported by the Vermont National Guard - which are pure hearsay - are hard to believe.
After all, Gretna is a small community with a not-very-big police force.
We are supposed to believe that this police force was simultaneously blocking a bridge and performing illegal incursions into an area where they had no jurisdiction just to terrorize people for kicks?
The Times Argus is a leftist rag that regularly prints unbelievable crap.
Gretna Police Department
City of Gretna, Louisiana
200 Fifth St. -- Gretna, LA 70053
ZIP Code to Representative Lookup
For the ZIP code area 70053-5422, the Representative
is:
* William J. Jefferson (D) Louisiana 2nd
I noted the possibility the Guardsmen could be lying. As to the do-gooder carpetbagger nonsense, write your governor if you're in the south, and request that, in the event of a disaster, he not accept National Guard troops from anywhere above the Mason Dixon line.
Who, in their right mind, would believe anything uttered by the Vermont National Guard whose name is an oxymoron.
The Peoples Republic of Vermont!
We certainly have a enough of them in the north.
What utter leftist bullshit. I want to see film and read witnessed testimony.
Well, thankfully those days are gone. Now that we live in more enlightened times we can rejoice in the fact that a mob of black people is no threat at all.
Well, thankfully those days are gone. Now that we live in more enlightened times we can rejoice in the fact that a mob of black people is no threat at all.
Truth is the only threat they pose is to themselves.
One problem is the thugs have guns, and the peaceful, law-abiding people too frequently don't see a need to be armed.
Sometimes the armed thugs have badges
Somehow I don't think the deputies (assuming this story was true) would have been blocking the bridge, if the prospective crossers were armed as well as they were
My assumption is also that the civilian thugs decided to stay behind in order to loot.
You practically vouched for the reliability of the story with your little screed.
This is very strange, because earlier accounts said that the people who arrived at the bridge were tourists who had been told to leave a hotel and had decided not to go to the convention center or the SuperDome. In that case, it's not likely that most of them were black anyway. And they weren't even locals.
In fact, the two lefties who started making these claims were from California and are white.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.