This newspaper article really annoying me. What wrong with National Guard and New Orlean Police?? Look at this article.
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news...rontz&ewp=ewp_news_0805katrina_no&floc=NW_1-T
Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans
By Mark Egan
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - People left homeless by Hurricane Katrina told horrific stories of rape, murder and trigger happy guards in two New Orleans centers that were set up as shelters but became places of violence and terror.
Police and National Guard troops on Saturday closed down the two centers -- the Superdome arena and the city's convention center -- but them penned them in outside in sweltering heat to keep them from trying to walk out of the city.
Military helicopters and buses staged a massive evacuation to take away thousands of people who waited in orderly lines in stifling heat outside the flooded convention center.
The refugees, who were waiting to be taken to sports stadiums and other huge shelters across Texas and northern Louisiana, described how the convention center and the Superdome became lawless hellholes beset by rape and murder.
Sunday, Sep. 4
Watch: Hurricane Leaves Thousands Stranded [Netscape News]
Gallery: See Killer Katrina's Destruction
Huge Relief Efforts Under Way [CNN]
Katrina Could Be Costliest Event Since 9/11 [Times Online]
Getting Help After the Storm: Relief Agencies for the Aftermath of Disasters [ABC News]
Were We as Prepared for Katrina as We Should Have Been? [Netscape Community]
Several residents of the impromptu shantytown recounted two horrific incidents where those charged with keeping people safe had killed them instead.
In one, a young man was run down and then shot by a New Orleans police officer, in another a man seeking help was gunned down by a National Guard soldier, witnesses said.
Police here refused to discuss or confirm either incident. National Guard spokesman Lt. Col Pete Schneider said "I have not heard any information of a weapon being discharged."
"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told Reuters. "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them, and he jumped up on the truck's windshield and they shot him dead."
Wade Batiste, 48, recounted another tale of horror.
"Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," Batiste said.
The young man's body lay in the street by the Convention Center's entrance on Saturday morning, covered in a black blanket, a stream of congealed blood staining the street around him. Nearby his family sat in shock.
A member of that family, Africa Brumfield, 32, confirmed the incident but declined to be quoted about it, saying her family did not wish to discuss it. But she spoke of general conditions here.
"There is rapes going on here. Women cannot go to the bathroom without men. They are raping them and slitting their throats. They keep telling us the buses are coming but they never leave," she said through tears.
People here said there were now 22 bodies of adults and children stored inside the building, but troops guarding the building refused to confirm that and threatened to beat reporters seeking access to the makeshift morgue.
People trying to walk out are forced back at gunpoint - something troops said was for their own safety. "It's sad, but how far do you think they would get," one soldier said.
"They have us living here like animals," said Wvonnette Grace-Jordan, here with five children, the youngest only six weeks old. "We have only had two meals, we have no medicine and now there are thousands of people defecating in the streets. This is wrong. This is the United States of America."
One National Guard soldier who asked not to be named for fear of punishment from his commanding officer said of the lack of medical attention at the center, "They (the Bush administration) care more about Iraq and Afghanistan than here."
The Louisiana National Guard soldier said, "We are doing the best we can with the resources we have, but almost all of our guys are in Iraq."
Across town at the Superdome, where as many as 38,000 refugees camped out until Wednesday night when evacuation buses first came, the 4,000 still there were corralled outside, hoping to get on four waiting buses with seats for only 200.
The scene at the sports stadium was one of abject filth. Crammed into a small area after the building was shut to them last night, those remaining sat amid heaps of garbage, piled in places waist high. The stench of human waste pervaded the interior of the now vacant stadium.
One police officer told Reuters there were 100 people in a makeshift morgue at the Superdome, mostly people who died of heat exhaustion, and that six babies had been born there since last Saturday, when people arrived to take shelter.
At the arena, too, there was much talk of bedlam after dark.
"We found a young girl raped and killed in the bathroom," one National Guard soldier told Reuters. "Then the crowd got the man and they beat him to death."
09/03/05 16:23
*NOTE FROM REDWOLF* What wrong with this picture?? National Guard shot those people just for helping other people?? Did they got orders to shoot to kill?? This city is really lawlessness right now. It gotten out of control.
This right here is just plain disgusting What are the police thinking?! First the police are looting and then they are running down and gunning people down that are seeking help! I think New Orleans needs to do a serious evaluation on every police officer they got and all other police assisting in the relief effort. Now as to the National Guard's behavior, GOOD GRIEF! These people are in our military. What they do reflects on not just them but their comrades and even the country and their leader. What are these law enforces and peace keepers thinking? Do they think because they hold authority they can just pull this fucking shit and get away with it? I bet they do. I also think that they think that they can just get away with it and make up some excuse or some story. I know things are really bad in New Orleans but it does not give them the right for this behavior! I think any police officer or military personnel behaving in this manner should be SEVERELY repimanded and SEVERELY disciplined to the fullest extent of the law!
What is wrong with the military they are sending down there? Are they brain dead? Do they have any conscience? Do they have even a fiber of caring in their bones? I mean this man was trying to get help for a woman being hurt and they just shot him dead! Goodness. I bet that they will come up with some excuse saying they thought the man was a danger or they thought he had a weapon. Some might even use the excuse that there is so much lawlessness that how were they suppose to know he wasn't going to do something. I know New Orleans is in a severe state of lawlessness but that is no excuse for the way some of the troops are acting! I dont give a flying fluke what their excuses are. They are our military and should be setting an example.
I can understand the refusal to confirm the thing about the bodies but threatening to beat reporters over seeking access is just plain wrong. Again I say, "What the hell are these brain dead troops thinking!" Do they think because they are military it gives them the right to just be so disrespectful to people?!?!?!?! I suppose their excuse to that will be stress or they are annoying. I know reporters can be annoying but it still does not give them the right to act in such a way! Now I can almost see why some are losing respect for the military down there.
BULL! If they were doing the best they could then they would be shooting people dead trying to get help! And they wouldn't be threatening to beat reporters for seeking answers! And they wouldn't be hurting people just because they are a "little" stressed!
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news...rontz&ewp=ewp_news_0805katrina_no&floc=NW_1-T
Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans
By Mark Egan
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - People left homeless by Hurricane Katrina told horrific stories of rape, murder and trigger happy guards in two New Orleans centers that were set up as shelters but became places of violence and terror.
Police and National Guard troops on Saturday closed down the two centers -- the Superdome arena and the city's convention center -- but them penned them in outside in sweltering heat to keep them from trying to walk out of the city.
Military helicopters and buses staged a massive evacuation to take away thousands of people who waited in orderly lines in stifling heat outside the flooded convention center.
The refugees, who were waiting to be taken to sports stadiums and other huge shelters across Texas and northern Louisiana, described how the convention center and the Superdome became lawless hellholes beset by rape and murder.
Sunday, Sep. 4
Watch: Hurricane Leaves Thousands Stranded [Netscape News]
Gallery: See Killer Katrina's Destruction
Huge Relief Efforts Under Way [CNN]
Katrina Could Be Costliest Event Since 9/11 [Times Online]
Getting Help After the Storm: Relief Agencies for the Aftermath of Disasters [ABC News]
Were We as Prepared for Katrina as We Should Have Been? [Netscape Community]
Several residents of the impromptu shantytown recounted two horrific incidents where those charged with keeping people safe had killed them instead.
In one, a young man was run down and then shot by a New Orleans police officer, in another a man seeking help was gunned down by a National Guard soldier, witnesses said.
Police here refused to discuss or confirm either incident. National Guard spokesman Lt. Col Pete Schneider said "I have not heard any information of a weapon being discharged."
"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told Reuters. "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them, and he jumped up on the truck's windshield and they shot him dead."
Wade Batiste, 48, recounted another tale of horror.
"Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," Batiste said.
The young man's body lay in the street by the Convention Center's entrance on Saturday morning, covered in a black blanket, a stream of congealed blood staining the street around him. Nearby his family sat in shock.
A member of that family, Africa Brumfield, 32, confirmed the incident but declined to be quoted about it, saying her family did not wish to discuss it. But she spoke of general conditions here.
"There is rapes going on here. Women cannot go to the bathroom without men. They are raping them and slitting their throats. They keep telling us the buses are coming but they never leave," she said through tears.
People here said there were now 22 bodies of adults and children stored inside the building, but troops guarding the building refused to confirm that and threatened to beat reporters seeking access to the makeshift morgue.
People trying to walk out are forced back at gunpoint - something troops said was for their own safety. "It's sad, but how far do you think they would get," one soldier said.
"They have us living here like animals," said Wvonnette Grace-Jordan, here with five children, the youngest only six weeks old. "We have only had two meals, we have no medicine and now there are thousands of people defecating in the streets. This is wrong. This is the United States of America."
One National Guard soldier who asked not to be named for fear of punishment from his commanding officer said of the lack of medical attention at the center, "They (the Bush administration) care more about Iraq and Afghanistan than here."
The Louisiana National Guard soldier said, "We are doing the best we can with the resources we have, but almost all of our guys are in Iraq."
Across town at the Superdome, where as many as 38,000 refugees camped out until Wednesday night when evacuation buses first came, the 4,000 still there were corralled outside, hoping to get on four waiting buses with seats for only 200.
The scene at the sports stadium was one of abject filth. Crammed into a small area after the building was shut to them last night, those remaining sat amid heaps of garbage, piled in places waist high. The stench of human waste pervaded the interior of the now vacant stadium.
One police officer told Reuters there were 100 people in a makeshift morgue at the Superdome, mostly people who died of heat exhaustion, and that six babies had been born there since last Saturday, when people arrived to take shelter.
At the arena, too, there was much talk of bedlam after dark.
"We found a young girl raped and killed in the bathroom," one National Guard soldier told Reuters. "Then the crowd got the man and they beat him to death."
09/03/05 16:23
*NOTE FROM REDWOLF* What wrong with this picture?? National Guard shot those people just for helping other people?? Did they got orders to shoot to kill?? This city is really lawlessness right now. It gotten out of control.
This right here is just plain disgusting What are the police thinking?! First the police are looting and then they are running down and gunning people down that are seeking help! I think New Orleans needs to do a serious evaluation on every police officer they got and all other police assisting in the relief effort. Now as to the National Guard's behavior, GOOD GRIEF! These people are in our military. What they do reflects on not just them but their comrades and even the country and their leader. What are these law enforces and peace keepers thinking? Do they think because they hold authority they can just pull this fucking shit and get away with it? I bet they do. I also think that they think that they can just get away with it and make up some excuse or some story. I know things are really bad in New Orleans but it does not give them the right for this behavior! I think any police officer or military personnel behaving in this manner should be SEVERELY repimanded and SEVERELY disciplined to the fullest extent of the law!
What is wrong with the military they are sending down there? Are they brain dead? Do they have any conscience? Do they have even a fiber of caring in their bones? I mean this man was trying to get help for a woman being hurt and they just shot him dead! Goodness. I bet that they will come up with some excuse saying they thought the man was a danger or they thought he had a weapon. Some might even use the excuse that there is so much lawlessness that how were they suppose to know he wasn't going to do something. I know New Orleans is in a severe state of lawlessness but that is no excuse for the way some of the troops are acting! I dont give a flying fluke what their excuses are. They are our military and should be setting an example.
I can understand the refusal to confirm the thing about the bodies but threatening to beat reporters over seeking access is just plain wrong. Again I say, "What the hell are these brain dead troops thinking!" Do they think because they are military it gives them the right to just be so disrespectful to people?!?!?!?! I suppose their excuse to that will be stress or they are annoying. I know reporters can be annoying but it still does not give them the right to act in such a way! Now I can almost see why some are losing respect for the military down there.
BULL! If they were doing the best they could then they would be shooting people dead trying to get help! And they wouldn't be threatening to beat reporters for seeking answers! And they wouldn't be hurting people just because they are a "little" stressed!
me
no matter what.