Feds exploring claims of racial vigilantism in Algiers Point in days after Hurricane Katrina

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

New Clues Emerge in Post-Katrina Vigilante Shooting at Algiers Point

By ProPublica
Monday, April 12th, 2010 -- 8:32 am

Three days after Hurricane Katrina turned New Orleans into a ghost town, somebody shot Donnell Herrington twice in Algiers Point, ripping a hole in his throat.

Herrington, who is African-American, says he was ambushed by a group of armed white men who attacked without warning or provocation. He barely survived the shooting, which shredded his internal jugular vein, a key vessel that transports blood from the brain to the heart. He believes the assault was racially motivated.

No one has ever been charged in the incident, but now, more than four years later, at least two figures have come forward with information implicating a neighborhood man in the attack. These two people linked Roland Bourgeois, Jr., to the shooting in interviews with ProPublica, the Times-Picayune, and PBS’ “Frontline.”

Terri Benjamin, who lived in the area, said she saw Bourgeois, 47, pledge to shoot anybody with skin “darker than a brown paper bag ” while clutching a shotgun. At one point, she said, he held up the blood-drenched baseball cap of a man who’d just been shot.

.............


Read more: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0412/clues-emerge-postkatrina-vigilante-shooting-algiers-point/

[No Elephants]

1. Louisiana woman: "We prayed and prayed about New Orleans, and God sent us Katrina."

Read about that shortly after Katrina.

She could have been talking about race or political party or both.

(Heaven help me not to hate.)

[uppityperson]

2. k&r, glad they are going after these crimes.

[rfranklin]

3. These guys should be tried in local courts for attempted murder...

by a representative New Orleans juryl Then prosecuted by the Feds for civil rights violations.

[PatriotPaul]

4. And congrats to Pro Publica on their Pulitzer for another NOLA story!

The dominos continue to fall.  As a former Probation Officer I
can attest that in far too many law enforcement agencies
there's a code of "loyalty". If you narc out another
officer you will probably pay for it. It may be a simple
slashing of your car tires, or worse, someone not backing you
up in a dangerous situation. Until this culture of protecting
the guilty, just as it was in the Catholic Church is
dismantled we will continue to see these situations arise.

Also I wish the media would concentrate more on correcting the
mistakes it made in its reporting after Katrina. While we
believed the rumors inside, the murders and rapes in the
Superdome were not supported by evidence. We all were
controlled by fear and rumor.
                         
Paul Harris
Author, "Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and
Privilege During Katrina"