Such abhorrent inhumanity was NOT "incompetence" - story from the inside

[moodforaday]

DailyKos has a story "from inside N.O." that has just frightened me out of my wits, even though for the last week I've been doing little but reading such stories on DU and elsewhere. Maybe because it's so detailed and so lucidly written. It's penned by someone who was with a group of tourists, conference-goers and other visitors caught in N.O. (You've heard of them: the group who pooled cash to rent buses, which were then comandeered by the military.)

I only hope stories like this one will make it to MSM and won't be relegated to "conspiracy theory" sites and marginal books that we'll be seeing plenty of.

You really got to read the whole thing, but here's a few excerpts that I've copied into my notes. Don't anyone tell me this shit was not intentional. Note also how they were treated even AFTER they'd already been "evacuated".

All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no, others to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the City on foot. Meanwhile, the only two City shelters sank further into squalor and disrepair.(...)

"If we can't go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our alternative?" The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and hostile "law enforcement"(...)

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.(...)

Our little encampment began to blossom. Someone stole a water delivery truck and brought it up to us. Let's hear it for looting! A mile or so down the freeway, an army truck lost a couple of pallets of C-rations on a tight turn. We ferried the food back to our camp in shopping carts. Now secure with the two necessities, food and water; cooperation, community, and creativity flowered. We organized a clean up and hung garbage bags from the rebar poles. We made beds from wood pallets and cardboard. (...)

Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.(...)

Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of "victims" they saw "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in numbers. Our "we must stay together" was impossible because the agencies would force us into small atomized groups.(...)

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 (...)

Those who managed to make it out with any possessions (often a few belongings in tattered plastic bags) we were subjected to two different dog-sniffing searches. (...)

Most of us had not eaten all day because our C-rations had been confiscated at the airport because the rations set off the metal detectors(...)

Read the whole story at DailyKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/6/132725/8931

Exactly under what ORDERS were the Guard, the police and the military? Words fail.

[valerief]

1. With all the press there, why don't have footage of this?

Or do they???????????

[moodforaday]

2. They actually did, sort of

There was the clip from Fox with Geraldo Rivera holding up a baby and CRYING at the Convention Center - they cut from him to another guy, I forget his name, who was specifically saying there was a checkpoint at the gretna bridge and the guards were not letting anyone out of N.O. He described this in detail and repeated this piece of info at least twice. Croos and Liars probably still has the clip.

[moodforaday]

3. ...but some reporters had their cameras confiscated

Example here:

Another photojournalist - Lucas Oleniuk of the Toronto Star - was knocked to the ground by police, his gear taken from him initially, when he photographed them shooting at looters and then beating one. In response to the growing violence and an increasing sense of despair among the stranded survivors, some television networks have hired armed private security firms to protect their journalists as they work to cover the story.

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/09/hurricane2.html

[moodforaday]

4. And here's a good analysis from a DK diary

Daily Kos: Republicans to NOLA: Let them die to teach them obedience.

Their top priority is obtaining and maintaining power and authority. If people have to lie, fine. If people have to die, fine. Maybe this has been obvious to other people for a long time but it is only Hurricane Katrina that has made it crystal clear for me. It explains every otherwise inexplicable decision this Administration has made from day one.

Their top priority is obtaining and maintaining power and authority, and apparently the only criterion determining whether you get a job or a promotion in this Administration is whether you are willing to accept this as the primary underlying goal of all your work, regardless of what your actual job description might be according to the rest of the world. The people who receive the highest praise in this Administration are the ones who demonstrate the most consistent loyalty to this overarching goal; and the more opposition you absorb in service to that goal, the more lavishly you are rewarded. Conversely, anyone who takes any action, makes any statement, or in any way implies that other moral, scientific or spiritual factors should be taken into consideration when making policy decisions, is slapped down as severely as possible by an army of conformity enforcers.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/6/132458/0643

Squarely on the mark.

[GumboYaYa]

5. I had friends at the convention center who got out by crossing

that bridge. I posted about it last week. They spent a day and night at the conve ntion center and then managed to contact a friend in Houma using a pay phone. Their friend picked them up on the other side of the bridge.

[stillcool]

6. That sheriff was interviewed....

...on CNN earlier today. Mayor Nagin was pissed at what he had heard the sheriff had done. The sheriff said he had done it because in his parrish there was no food or water either, and he didn't want anyone looting.
....poor excuse for a human being. My God, this is so like the 60's I can't stand it.