09/11/05 "The
Independent" Louisiana police chief has admitted that he ordered his
officers to block a bridge over the Mississippi river and
force escaping evacuees back into the chaos and danger of New
Orleans. Witnesses said the officers fired their guns above
the heads of the terrified people to drive them back and
"protect" their own suburbs.
Two paramedics who were attending a conference in the city
and then stayed to help those affected by the hurricane, said
the officers told them they did not want their community
"becoming another New Orleans".
The desperate evacuees were forced to trudge back into the
city they had just left. "It was a real eye-opener,"
Larry Bradshaw, 49, a paramedic from San Francisco, told The
Independent on Sunday. "I believe it was racism. It was
callousness, it was cruelty."
Mr Bradshaw said the police blocked off the road on the
Thursday and Friday after Hurricane Katrina struck on Monday
29 August. He and his wife Lorrie Slonsky, also a paramedic,
had sheltered with others in the Hotel Monteleone in the
French Quarter.
When food and water ran out they were forced to head for
the city's convention centre, but on the way they heard
reports of the chaos and violence that was taking place there
and inside the Superdome where thousands of people were forced
together without running water, toilets, electricity or air
conditioning. So Mr Bradshaw spoke with a senior New Orleans
police officer who instructed them to cross the Crescent City
Connection bridge to Jefferson Parish, where he promised they
would find buses waiting to evacuate them.
They were in the middle of a group of up to 800 people -
overwhelmingly black - walking across the bridge when they
heard shots and saw people running. "We had been hearing
shooting for days. What was different about this was that it
was close by," he said.
Making their way towards the crest of the bridge they saw a
chain of armed police officers blocking the route. When they
asked about the buses they were told their was no such
arrangement and that the route was being blocked to avoid
their parish becoming "another New Orleans". They
identified the police as officers from the city of Gretna.
The following day Mr Bradshaw said they tried again to
cross and directly witnessed police shooting over the heads of
a middle-aged white couple who were also turned back.
Eventually, late on Friday evening, the couple succeeded in
crossing the bridge with the intervention of a contact in the
local fire department.
Arthur Lawson, chief of the Gretna police department, said
he had not yet questioned his officers as to whether they
fired their guns.
He confirmed that his officers, along with those from
Jefferson Parish and the Crescent City Connection police
force, sealed the bridge and refused to let people pass. This
was despite the fact that local media were informing people
that the bridge was one of the few safe evacuation routes from
the city.
Gretna is a predominantly white suburban town of around
18,000 inhabitants. In the aftermath of Katrina, three
quarters of the inhabitants still had electricity and running
water. But, Chief Lawson told UPI news agency: "There was
no food, water or shelter in Gretna City. We did not have the
wherewithal to deal with these people. If we had opened the
bridge our city would have looked like New Orleans does now -
looted, burned and pillaged."
Mr Bradshaw and his wife were evacuated to Texas and have
since returned to California. They condemned the authorities,
adding: "This official treatment was in sharp contrast to
the warm, heartfelt reception given to us by ordinary Texans.
"Throughout, the official relief effort was callous,
inept and racist... Lives were lost that did not need to be
lost."
A Louisiana police chief has admitted that he ordered his
officers to block a bridge over the Mississippi river and
force escaping evacuees back into the chaos and danger of New
Orleans. Witnesses said the officers fired their guns above
the heads of the terrified people to drive them back and
"protect" their own suburbs.
Two paramedics who were attending a conference in the city
and then stayed to help those affected by the hurricane, said
the officers told them they did not want their community
"becoming another New Orleans".
The desperate evacuees were forced to trudge back into the
city they had just left. "It was a real eye-opener,"
Larry Bradshaw, 49, a paramedic from San Francisco, told The
Independent on Sunday. "I believe it was racism. It was
callousness, it was cruelty."
Mr Bradshaw said the police blocked off the road on the
Thursday and Friday after Hurricane Katrina struck on Monday
29 August. He and his wife Lorrie Slonsky, also a paramedic,
had sheltered with others in the Hotel Monteleone in the
French Quarter.
When food and water ran out they were forced to head for
the city's convention centre, but on the way they heard
reports of the chaos and violence that was taking place there
and inside the Superdome where thousands of people were forced
together without running water, toilets, electricity or air
conditioning. So Mr Bradshaw spoke with a senior New Orleans
police officer who instructed them to cross the Crescent City
Connection bridge to Jefferson Parish, where he promised they
would find buses waiting to evacuate them.
They were in the middle of a group of up to 800 people -
overwhelmingly black - walking across the bridge when they
heard shots and saw people running. "We had been hearing
shooting for days. What was different about this was that it
was close by," he said.
Making their way towards the crest of the bridge they saw a
chain of armed police officers blocking the route. When they
asked about the buses they were told their was no such
arrangement and that the route was being blocked to avoid
their parish becoming "another New Orleans". They
identified the police as officers from the city of Gretna.
The following day Mr Bradshaw said they tried again to
cross and directly witnessed police shooting over the heads of
a middle-aged white couple who were also turned back.
Eventually, late on Friday evening, the couple succeeded in
crossing the bridge with the intervention of a contact in the
local fire department.
Arthur Lawson, chief of the Gretna police department, said
he had not yet questioned his officers as to whether they
fired their guns.
He confirmed that his officers, along with those from
Jefferson Parish and the Crescent City Connection police
force, sealed the bridge and refused to let people pass. This
was despite the fact that local media were informing people
that the bridge was one of the few safe evacuation routes from
the city.
Gretna is a predominantly white suburban town of around
18,000 inhabitants. In the aftermath of Katrina, three
quarters of the inhabitants still had electricity and running
water. But, Chief Lawson told UPI news agency: "There was
no food, water or shelter in Gretna City. We did not have the
wherewithal to deal with these people. If we had opened the
bridge our city would have looked like New Orleans does now -
looted, burned and pillaged."
Mr Bradshaw and his wife were evacuated to Texas and have
since returned to California. They condemned the authorities,
adding: "This official treatment was in sharp contrast to
the warm, heartfelt reception given to us by ordinary Texans.
"Throughout, the official relief effort was callous,
inept and racist... Lives were lost that did not need to be
lost."
