I recently watched Spike Lee's "When The Levees Broke" on dvd and I have to say it was the most impressionistic docu I have seen a long time. (if impressionistic is even a word :() But its the only word I can find at the moment to describe it. In it, the spoke about how a nearby town of Gretna (located just west of NO -over a bridge on the other side of the Mississippi) turned people away from their city. Literally told people to go back to flooded NO to wait for help. People who had walked there.... across the bridge, and then only to be turned around by police armed with GUNS!!! I think its a disgrace. I hadn't heard about the story until I was the docu, but this definitely needs to be investigated. The town of Gretna is prodominately white, however.... they say it was not racial, since most of the evacuees where African-American, and the officials say they were just protecting the sanctity and order of their city. They didn't want 'thugs' causing havoc as they had been in NO.... wtf is that all about I ask????? Fuckers.

 

this is a follow up article to the original articles.... however, you won't find many on the internet... at least no where i looked. :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feds To Probe Katrina Evacuee Blockade

 

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 5, 2006--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(AP) Federal authorities will review last year's blockade of a Mississippi River bridge by armed police officers who turned back Hurricane Katrina evacuees trying to flee New Orleans.

 

The investigation will be carried out by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Orleans, along with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann said Friday.

 

The results of a state investigation have already been turned over to the Orleans Parish district attorney.

 

Several hundred evacuees claimed that police from suburban Gretna blocked them as they tried to flee New Orleans for safety on Sept. 1.

 

Many of the evacuees, who had been stranded at the New Orleans convention center without food and water, said they were told to cross the bridge to be evacuated from the city. But Gretna police confronted them on the bridge and forced them to turn around.

 

Police later said they blocked the evacuees because there were no supplies or services for them on the other side of the river.

 

The case raised widespread allegations of racism and spurred two marches across the bridge by national civil rights organizations in the months after the hurricane.

 

Gretna, a town of 17,500 across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, is almost two-thirds white. New Orleans is two-thirds black.

 

Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan plans to present the results of a state attorney general's investigation to a grand jury. Jordan has declined to reveal any details of the report.

 

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson has acknowledged that his officers fired shots into the air during the blockade in an attempt to quell what he described as unrest among the evacuees.

 

The American Civil Liberties Union has been pressing state Attorney General Charles Foti to make his investigative report public. Louisiana ACLU executive director Joe Cook said Friday he was disappointed that the report had not been released.

We all heard what was 'happening' in the Superdome.

 

Would you risk those sort of people entering your town? No you wouldnt.

 

How do you distingush who's trouble and who's not? You cant.

 

And i doubt that a small town like Gretna couldve looked after hundreds of refugees properly. They couldve ended up with thousands.

it wasn't even 'hundreds' of people rushing the bridge..... it was a few people who were told there were buses there..... besides..... the reason the things got so out of hand at the Superdome was because there was no order or authority there to help these people... if they had officials there to keep order and provide assistance like the govt. is supposed to do after a national disaster... perhaps people wouldn't have gotten so desperate.... after 5 days with no food and water in 100F degree weather....

 

just a thought.

 

 

nice humanitarian ethics we have, huh.

it wasn't even 'hundreds' of people rushing the bridge..... it was a few people who were told there were buses there..... besides..... the reason the things got so out of hand at the Superdome was because there was no order or authority there to help these people... if they had officials there to keep order and provide assistance like the govt. is supposed to do after a national disaster... perhaps people wouldn't have gotten so desperate.... after 5 days with no food and water in 100F degree weather....

 

Even then that still doesn't excuse the attempted rapes/sexual assaults that occurred.

That has nothing to do with being starving, thirsty or hot.;)

thats been proven to be a lie... :rolleyes:

 

haven't you ever heard how heat and desperation causes human to go dellusional and irrational?? Not that this is an excuse.... but it is a fact. There's no proof that those crimes (rape and sodemy) even happened. Those were rumors.....

 

 

whats TRUE is the fact that someone dropped the ball.... BIG TIME and no one has been made responsible for this crime.

I wonder why mrfool hasn't commented yet??:rolleyes:

thats been proven to be a lie... :rolleyes:

 

haven't you ever heard how heat and desperation causes human to go dellusional and irrational?? Not that this is an excuse.... but it is a fact. There's no proof that those crimes (rape and sodemy) even happened. Those were rumors.....

 

 

whats TRUE is the fact that someone dropped the ball.... BIG TIME and no one has been made responsible for this crime.

 

Thats the trouble with America - too busy pointing fingers to do anything practical.

 

Most people would be learning from the mistakes that were made and making sure this didnt happen again.

 

Instead you all do is blame Bush and brand everyone who didnt 'help' a rascist.

I'm afraid it's a clear symptom of the "me, me, me" culture which has taken over........................

Thats the trouble with America - too busy pointing fingers to do anything practical.

 

Most people would be learning from the mistakes that were made and making sure this didnt happen again.

 

Instead you all do is blame Bush and brand everyone who didnt 'help' a rascist.

 

 

LMAO!!! you're just as laughable as that other fool....

 

 

when have I ever branded anyone else a racist.... they (so called police of Gretna) are the ones who said the racist remarks lol

 

I agree.... we should all learn from mistakes made... but if no one owns up to making the mistake, then what is there to learn? Get my drift....

 

and the problem isn't "America"....... don't go genralizing an entire country for the bafoonery of one man...... see thats the problem with the rest of the world... people actually think that Bush represents 'America and the American people'..... in lament terms, he does.. he's the president.... but the 'people' didn't put him there... remember that.

Yes they did. Twice. Even Mr Bush himself said the effort didnt work well and more couldve done.

 

The gretna police heard about the problems at the superdome - at the time we didnt know they were false. Why would anyone risk having troublemakers in their city? 17,000 people in the city of which 56% were white which means 44% are non white. Doesnt sound like a racist city to me.

 

Also - Gretna had been hit by the hurricane as well - so it hadnt flooded like NO but hurricanes do cause lots of damage, They had already taken thousands of refugees and after some looting at the local mall took the decison not to let many more in.

 

Just because Spike Lee is 'cool' doesnt mean he's automatically an expert and right.

 

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Gretna,+Louisiana

We all heard what was 'happening' in the Superdome.

 

Would you risk those sort of people entering your town? No you wouldnt.

 

How do you distingush who's trouble and who's not? You cant.

 

And i doubt that a small town like Gretna couldve looked after hundreds of refugees properly. They couldve ended up with thousands.

However, a lot of what you (in London, at that) "heard" was fantastic rumor and simply not true. The documentary covers that if you care to watch it.

We didnt know that at the time thou! Ive said that already.

Looting (definition #1) - being born poor and black in America; enduring a devastating natural disaster (a natural disaster which wouldn't have been so devastating if only your government cared to fix the levees in your poor, black town); waiting for days without assistance from your government (which is busy on Broadway showing the rest of the world how much it cares by aiding others across the Atlantic in their natural disaster); and then stealing some items from your local mall.

 

Looting (definition #2) - escaping religious persecution from your country; fleeing across the Atlantic to a free land; stealing that land away from the natives and killing most of them off with your guns and diseases; years later, stealing millions of people from their countries across the Atlantic to work as slaves for you; employing those slave's descendants at your local malls to serve you food, clean your toilets, and mop your floors (sounds familiar, doesn't it?); and then expecting those descendants not to steal anything from your local malls.

 

I guess looting begets itself, doesn't it? Interesting how that doesn't seem to click in the United States of America. But I guess looting is okay as long as you employ defintion #2, rather than definition #1. Because definition #1 might land you in jail or in your own coffin, but defintion #2 might land you in your very own gated, posh neighborhood with a country club where you and your fellow residents are seriously talking about building your own malls.

We didnt know that at the time thou! Ive said that already.

 

Understood. I didn't read the entire thread before posting. :)

Yes they did. Twice. Even Mr Bush himself said the effort didnt work well and more couldve done.

 

The gretna police heard about the problems at the superdome - at the time we didnt know they were false. Why would anyone risk having troublemakers in their city? 17,000 people in the city of which 56% were white which means 44% are non white. Doesnt sound like a racist city to me.

 

Also - Gretna had been hit by the hurricane as well - so it hadnt flooded like NO but hurricanes do cause lots of damage, They had already taken thousands of refugees and after some looting at the local mall took the decison not to let many more in.

 

Just because Spike Lee is 'cool' doesnt mean he's automatically an expert and right.

 

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Gretna,+Louisiana

 

:lol: thats a good one.... :dozey:

 

so 44% non-white huh... define then what exactly makes up the 44% if not white.... it could be anything... but the fact of the matter is..... armed police men shot in the air... threatening ANYONE who came across the bridge to safety. Gretna was NOT hit by the storm as badly as Western Louisiana was....... they didn't have dead bodies floating in the waters that flooded the streets, did they? The made racist comments...... the words actually came out of their mouths..... I NEVER said that because they were people of color they turned them away.... these mother fuckers actually said racist remarks to these evacuees!!!!!!!!! Thats what I am saying......... its not the effect that they told them "no"..... besides...... it was a national tragedy.... and even if they ran the risk of 'looting' and 'chaos'.... isn't helping your fellow man the HUMAN thing to do????

 

Pretty selfish of a city to turn people away because they're scared. I guess they didn't have much faith in their police force to keep the peace.

:lol: thats a good one.... :dozey:

 

so 44% non-white huh... define then what exactly makes up the 44% if not white.... it could be anything... but the fact of the matter is..... armed police men shot in the air... threatening ANYONE who came across the bridge to safety. Gretna was NOT hit by the storm as badly as Western Louisiana was....... they didn't have dead bodies floating in the waters that flooded the streets, did they? The made racist comments...... the words actually came out of their mouths..... I NEVER said that because they were people of color they turned them away.... these mother fuckers actually said racist remarks to these evacuees!!!!!!!!! Thats what I am saying......... its not the effect that they told them "no"..... besides...... it was a national tragedy.... and even if they ran the risk of 'looting' and 'chaos'.... isn't helping your fellow man the HUMAN thing to do????

 

Pretty selfish of a city to turn people away because they're scared. I guess they didn't have much faith in their police force to keep the peace.

 

ditto.

I never get involved in these debates anymore, get a little sick of Camu LAUGHING at people and REITERATING her EXACT same point OVER and OVER by using PUNCH words in CAPS!

:lol: thats a good one.... :dozey:

 

so 44% non-white huh... define then what exactly makes up the 44% if not white.... it could be anything... but the fact of the matter is..... armed police men shot in the air... threatening ANYONE who came across the bridge to safety. Gretna was NOT hit by the storm as badly as Western Louisiana was....... they didn't have dead bodies floating in the waters that flooded the streets, did they? The made racist comments...... the words actually came out of their mouths..... I NEVER said that because they were people of color they turned them away.... these mother fuckers actually said racist remarks to these evacuees!!!!!!!!! Thats what I am saying......... its not the effect that they told them "no"..... besides...... it was a national tragedy.... and even if they ran the risk of 'looting' and 'chaos'.... isn't helping your fellow man the HUMAN thing to do????

 

Pretty selfish of a city to turn people away because they're scared. I guess they didn't have much faith in their police force to keep the peace.

 

Are you really that stupid??

 

Gretna was hit by excatley the same hurricane - Its right on the otherside of the river - its about 2-3 miles from the Superdome. It had no Electricity or water and yet people expect it to look not only after its own people who've been hit hard, but thousands of evacuees some of which went to cause alot of trouble.

 

So they shot rounds into the air? So? Its a form of crowd control.

 

A disaster has just occured and your expecting people to behave normal? People where stressed out, and when people are stressed tempers get lost. I bet you think the Evacuees were saints and never said a word out of line and lined up politely and that the looting and burning of the local mall was down George Bush.

 

Your source was wrong, Gretna wasnt mostly white as its claimed but just over half.

Are you really that stupid??

 

Gretna was hit by excatley the same hurricane - Its right on the otherside of the river - its about 2-3 miles from the Superdome. It had no Electricity or water and yet people expect it to look not only after its own people who've been hit hard, but thousands of evacuees some of which went to cause alot of trouble.

 

So they shot rounds into the air? So? Its a form of crowd control.

 

A disaster has just occured and your expecting people to behave normal? People where stressed out, and when people are stressed tempers get lost. I bet you think the Evacuees were saints and never said a word out of line and lined up politely and that the looting and burning of the local mall was down George Bush.

 

Your source was wrong, Gretna wasnt mostly white as its claimed but just over half.

 

 

learn your geography.... its not 2 or 3 miles from the Superdome... and if you KNEW anything about the storm.... the storm's eye was no where near NO...... in fact it was a Cat. 3 storm when it made landfall... 90 miles east of the city of NO, Gretna is approx. 6 miles from the superdome..... and if we remember, people at the Superdome weren't flooded.... it was the neighborhoods of the lower 9th that were..... it was in fact the floods that came AFTER the storm that caused havoc...... this is my point....... still inhumane, whether its racist or not, we could debate that for years..... bottom line, its just not right.

 

have you ever lived thru a storm of that magnitude? right..... thats what I thought.

I never get involved in these debates anymore' date=' get a little sick of Camu LAUGHING at people and REITERATING her EXACT same point OVER and OVER by using PUNCH words in CAPS![/quote']

 

 

 

are you kidding me? :rolleyes: fuck off Reilly.... your just as deplorable. :P

Not true, I dismiss other people's viewpoints in a much neater and wittier way.

 

THIS is just LAME!!! Im ANGREHHH CAMUUUU ARRGGHHH

 

:P

Not true, I dismiss other people's viewpoints in a much neater and wittier way.

 

THIS is just LAME!!! Im ANGREHHH CAMUUUU ARRGGHHH

 

:P

 

:laugh3: THAT'S why I love you..... :P