Mayor Nagin: "Those people were looking to escape, and they cut off the...

[RSchewe]

last available exit route out of New Orleans."

Nagin talks about the Crescent Connection bridge issue that I and others have been writing about:

JOHN DONOVAN, ABC NEWS: The last thing I want to ask you about is the race question.

So, I'm out at the highway — it was last Thursday — huge number of people stuck in the middle of nowhere. Jesse Jackson comes in, looks at the scene, and says it looks like the scene of a, from a slave ship. And I said, "Reverend Jackson,, the imagery suggests you're saying this is about race." And he didn't answer directly, he said, "Take a look at it, what do you think it's about?"

What's your response to that?

RAY NAGIN, MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: (Sighs) You know, I haven't really thought much about the race issue. I will tell you this. I think it's, it could be, but it's a class issue for sure. Because I don't think this type of response would have happened if this was Orange County, California. This response definitely wouldn't have happened if it was Manhattan, New York. And I don't know if it's color or class.

DONOVAN: In some way, you think that New Orleans got second-class treatment.

NAGIN: I can't explain the response. And here's what else I can't explain: We are basically, almost surrounded by water. To the east, the bridge is out, you can't escape. Going west, you can't escape because the bridge is under water. We found one evacuation route, to walk across the Crescent City Connection, on the overpass, down Highway 90 to 310 to I10, to go get relief.

People got restless and there was overcrowding at the convention center. They asked us, "Is there any other option?" We said, "Well, if you want to walk, across the Crescent City Connection, there's buses coming, you may be able to find some relief." They started marching. At the parish line, the county line of Gretna, they were met with attack dogs and police officers with machine guns saying "You have to turn back..."

DONOVAN: Go back.

NAGIN: "...because a looter got in a shopping center and set it afire and we want to protect the property in this area."

DONOVAN: And what does that say to you?

NAGIN: That says that's a bunch of bull. That says that people value their property, and were protecting property, over human life.

Read the whole post...

Source: Hullabaloo (Digby) http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005_09_04_digbysblog_archive.html#112640169590719902

This is something I have not heard. It just shocked me.

[Tatiana]

1. Nagin today....

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_10.html#078692

<snip>

While Nagin has previously said he didn’t think the slow response was related to the demographic of the overwhelmingly poor, African-American crowd that needed rescuing, his thinking has evolved.
“Definitely class, and the more I think about it, definitely race played into this,” he said. “How do you treat people that just want to walk across the bridge and get out, and they’re turned away, because you can’t come to a certain parish? How do resources get stacked up outside the city of New Orleans and they don’t make their way in? How do you not bring one piece of ice?

“If it’s race, fine, let’s call a spade a spade, a diamond a diamond. We can never let this happen again. Even if you hate black people and you are in a leadership position, this did not help anybody.”

As hearings on the Katrina response start to crank up in Washington, Nagin said, those questions, among others, need to be asked.
“ I think the government ought to be asking itself, ‘What happened to the resources? Why were people promised resources and they didn’t show up? Where were the military resources? Where was the National Guard? Why were we left with a city on the verge of collapse, fighting for the soul of the city, with 200 National Guardsmen and 1,200 police?

[Kagemusha]

4. Because if reg troops had shot a looter,

would we want that on our conscience as a nation?

(Note: Quoting some deputy DHS press man whose name totally escapes me.)

[guruoo]

8. NO tourists: Police fired warning shots to stop them from leaving

Police fired warning shots, New Orleans tourists tell

Frightened Japanese, European and American tourists say police fired over their heads to end their attempt to leave New Orleans.

Stranded since Hurricane Katrina hit the city on Monday, the 200 tourists were thrown out of their hotel on Thursday morning and said they were confronted by police as they attempted to get to buses to take them to safety.

Turned back to the centre of New Orleans, where looters were still roaming the lawless streets, the tourists huddled together on their suitcases under a pavilion next to the Mississippi River.
<snip>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1452073.htm

[Mythsaje]

2. That's great

"You know, I haven't really thought much about the race issue. I will tell you this. I think it's, it could be, but it's a class issue for sure. Because I don't think this type of response would have happened if this was Orange County, California. This response definitely wouldn't have happened if it was Manhattan, New York. And I don't know if it's color or class."

AND THAT NEEDED TO BE SAID. It needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

[mzmolly]

3. That's the Republican mantra - "property before people."

aka "compassionate conservatism" :eyes:

[Erika]

5. Profit before protection

Citizens are dispensable. Money is not.

[bluestateguy]

6. Ok, I've found some local officials who deserve blame

Those pissant suburbanites who don't want to scare the children with all those scary black people coming in from New Orleans.

[RSchewe]

7. This issue of the failed response is sounding more and more complicated

by the day. I know this may sound silly but this is starting to look like a strange consipracy or something. There are a lot of unusual stories like this around, such as the EMT story (http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-2/556/556_04_RealHeroes.shtml) and that day Shepard Smith was on the highway (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/02.html#a4763). As the days go on and more stories come to light, the more questions arise.

I don't know what the heck an investigation will uncover from what happened, but I sure as hell want to know. This investigation sure as hell better be independent for the real truth to come out. At this point I don't really care who is to blame as long as they are exposed. There was a lot of crazy stuff going on and people need to know the truth.

All of the stories coming out are making this sound like a strange movie or something.

Digby is doing some amazing analyses on these kinds of stories.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

[NYC]

10. Too many instances.

Nothing you said sounds silly.

[Edgewater_Joe]

9. Well, If He Moved Those People A Week BEFORE The Hurricane ...

... there wouldn't have been a problem, would there?

Or so I suspect Rushbo's thinking abot between Oxy Tabs.

[wanpete]

11. I don't trust Nagin. I think he has an agenda, and I don't think he has

completely left the repugs. Many here at the DU have heralded him...I just don't trust the man. Let's wait and see what comes out of this thing when all is said and done.

and for flamers, I don't absolve * and his homicidal neglect in any way, shape or form.

[Roy]

13. No, you wait if you like.

Criminal activity has taken place costing a lot of lives.

If you see someone walking down the street killing people indiscriminately, would you still want to wait and see how it comes out when all is said and done before pointing out that crimes are talking place and people are dying? only the killer would agree with that position.
I think this is worst, because the people that caused these needless, and preventable deaths are charged with protecting society from the very events that took place.
I for one, don't think they should remain in positions to repeat those actions, we shouldn't be paying people (and very at that) to posture and congratulate each while we die

[guruoo]

12. Is this what the Danziger Bridge shootout was about?

Nobody's ever followed up on this.
What really happened here?
Were there any survivors left to say?


New Orleans Shoot Out on Bridge Leaves Several Dead
By Cris Bergman
Sep 4, 2005

Reports say that police have shot and killed five or six people Sunday on the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans. Details are sketchy, but according to the Associated Press, Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.

One report says fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.

They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help plug the breech in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.

So, apparently the gunmen opened fire on the group that was beginning to go to work and begin the repairs needed on the 17th Street Canal.

Repairs and the work needed to drain the New Orleans bowl are going to incredibly difficult if workers are going to need security or armed mercenaries to watch their backs and protect them from armed outlaws so they can complete the work.

No more details are available and the gunmen have not been identified.

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_2726568.shtml

--Cris Bergman with wire and broadcast reports.