Louisiana mayor found shot to death

[donsu]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_BRF_Mayor_Killed.html


The newly elected mayor of this Louisiana town was found shot to death over the weekend, less than three days before he was set to become the community's first black leader.

Gerald "Wash" Washington, 57, was found Saturday night in the parking lot of a former high school. He had been shot in the chest, police said.

Authorities said Washington was lying by his truck with a pistol nearby. Investigators were treating the death as a homicide.

Washington, who served on the city council, was sworn in Dec. 19 as Westlake's first new mayor in 24 years. He was set to take office Tuesday.

The city council has 10 days to appoint an interim mayor, according to retiring Mayor Dudley Dixon.

Westlake, a community of 5,000 residents, is 200 miles west of New Orleans.
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will the appointed be white?

Westlake, we have your number.

[valerief]

1. I wonder if these terrorists will be caught or if they'll be Osamaed. nt

[Sugar Smack]

2. OMG. That's horrible.

[originalpckelly]

3. Yeah, there's no racism in the South anymore.

Not one bit at all.

:eyes:

[pitohui]

9. racism? a black man elected 2 to 1 as mayor in a white town?

i'm not seeing the racial issue here and i think it's a red herring, the man was overwhelmingly elected to the office by a predominantly white town

very convenient for the real murderer of course if people go off the wrong direction

if you've ever been in this town, you're not worrying so much about what color the other guy is, you're worrying about color the air is

i'll try to find a photo but it's amazing how large and overwhelming this complex of refineries and factories is, a photo might not tell the whole story because it can't capture the size of the thing

eh, google can't find any photos of the "real" westlake, just photos of bigwigs at conoco-philips and airproducts hobnobbing or photos from beauty queens, but let's just say that astoundingly ugly and polluted is the phrase that springs to mind

[tanyev]

4. Whoa.

Thought this country was past that kind of thing. Sad.

[originalpckelly]

5. No, we didn't pass it, we just looked the other way.

It's been going on all the time since then.

[verse18]

6. What in the world made you think that?

[tanyev]

7. Your sig line, I guess.

[pitohui]

8. this may be a corporate or industrial killing

i may be wearing the tinfoil a little tight -- and bear in mind i know nothing of this man except the bare fact that he was a black refinery worker -- but if you have driven by westlake (you can't miss it, it's the part of lake charles just off the interstate with all the smokestacks pumping out an unbelievably quantity of crap) then you have to wonder

was it feared that mr. washington would look into air safety issues or that he had special knowledge or interest in safety/health issues regarding those many many smokestacks?

as far as "westlake, we have your number," since the man was elected 2 to 1 by an overwhelmingly white town, i'm not sure what "number" you're talking about

i suspect corporate wrong doing if it wasn't random, sorry if i'm being too tin foil, but that's what comes to mind right away when you think of westlake -- holy shit, how can they have so many factories pumping so much shit into the air all at once?