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Sat. Sep 10, 2005

The Blocked Bridge

In the aftermath of Katrina, there are so many demonstrable points of failure, from parish officials to city officials, from the state government to the federal government. All have their share of blame, despite those who’d love to convince you otherwise. There have been a lot of shameful moments and disgraceful performances by leaders at all levels, on both sides of the aisle. But in that cavalcade of shame, there is one story that stands out to me as far more monstrous and cruel than the others. Absolutely fascist.

I linked it in the sidebar last week thusly: “They began firing their weapons over our heads” – Imagine if on 9/11 the people trying to evacuate on foot over the Brooklyn Bridge had been turned back by police gunfire. It happened last week in New Orleans.

During a time when I had comments turned off, that garnered me two e-mails. Both simply had to point out that the two people who wrote the story of police turning back 200 people from the only unflooded bridge out of town … were socialists! Elsewhere on the web we heard “there’s reason to doubt its truthfulness.” Because they’re socialists.

Yes, their story had a lot of hyperbole, as if those writing weblogs are not guilty of the same “crime” on a daily basis (you’ll read mine below). So, OK, these two EMT’s from San Francisco are not to be believed. How about a lawyer from Saint Louis? “A group of about 200 Monteleone guests decided to try to walk out of the city to the east, and got to the on-ramp at the Crescent Connection bridge, where they were met by Gretna, La., police with shotguns. ‘They told us the bridge was closed to foot traffic,’ Scheer said. ‘Some locals had joined us and became extremely unruly, threatening to rush the officers. They fired their shotguns into the air.’”

Or how about this? “Cathey Golden, a 51-year-old from Boston, and her 13-year-old son, Ramon Golden, yesterday confirmed the account.”

Oh, but that’s in the New York Times, and they’re almost socialists.

Would you trust Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera? Shepard Smith said “And anyone who walks up out of that city now is turned around. You are not allowed to go to Gretna, Louisiana, from New Orleans, Louisiana. Over there, there’s hope. Over there, there’s electricity. Over there, there is food and water. But you cannot go from there to there. The government will not allow you to do it. It’s a fact.”

A Fair And Balanced Fact.

But the most indicting proof comes from the horse’s mouth:

[Gretna Police Chief Arthur] Lawson said that once the storm itself had passed Monday, police from Gretna City, Jefferson Parrish and the Louisiana State Crescent City Connection Police Department closed to foot traffic the three access points to the bridge closest to the West Bank of the river.

He added that the small town, which he called “a bedroom community” for the city of New Orleans, would have been overwhelmed by the influx.

“There was no food, water or shelter” in Gretna City, Lawson said. “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.”

But — in an example of the chaos that continued to beset survivors of the storm long after it had passed — even as Lawson’s men were closing the bridge, authorities in New Orleans were telling people that it was only way out of the city.

“The only way people can leave the city of New Orleans is to get on (the) Crescent City Connection … authorities said,” reads a Tuesday morning posting on the Web site of the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, which kept reporting through the storm and the ruinous flooding that followed.

UPI: Cops trapped survivors in New Orleans

What if on 9/11 the armada of boats and ferries that lined up along the shores of lower Manhattan to take out anyone had been blocked by FEMA? What if on 9/11 when fire fighters and rescue personnel from all over spontaneously showed up on scene as they did, FEMA had said “First Responders Urged Not To Respond.”

And what about the thousands who fled on foot to the Brooklyn Bridge, not because they wanted to go to Brooklyn, but because it was their only option? What if they’d been met by six or eight police cars blocking the bridge, and cops fired warning shots to turn them back?

What the hell have we become?

A lot of people are saying this is about race and/or poverty. Let’s reduce this to someone afflicted by nothing more than a lack of a car and bad geography, in that they live in a very low lying part of a low lying town.

City and state officials declare a mandatory evacuation, yet fail to use the more than 7,000 school buses in the state to evacuate you. They tell you instead to hoof it to the Superdome. And wait. Everyone will know you’re there.

Or, they tell you, the Superdome is full, go to the Convention Center. And wait for FEMA to find you.

It’s Day Four, and, well, not only hasn’t FEMA found you, it appears no help is forthcoming, and you are surrounded by a hell no human should have to bear any longer.

So you decided to use what you’ve got, your two feet. I know under those circumstances, it might hurt afterwards, and my surgically repaired knee would hate me, but I could walk 12 to 15 miles in a day. Through Gretna, and on down to Highway 90.

But the “leaders” of a parish police department, a city police department, and bridge security collectively decided to block the sole escape route from Hell. One recommended by both the New Orleans Mayor and the New Orleans Police. And I think I scared Susan when I first heard about this, because I told her if it had been me, I probably would have died on that bridge. Shot in the back.

Because at that level of desperation, and facing a forced return to hell, I would have been inclined to drop everything, remove my shirt, and back towards them with my hands on my head. And I would have been shouting “shoot me in the back, if you can live with yourself, because I’d rather go quick than go back to that slow death.”

And even though I’ve calmed a bit since then, I haven’t thought of a better option when faced with that level of cruel fascism in America. “Do it. See if you can live with yourself.”

Like I said, out of all the shameful stories, this one torques me the most. Perhaps because it seems many errors by various “leaders” were sins of omission … things they didn’t do. This was a sin of commission. With guns. By people who are sworn to protect and serve.

I don’t know how they can sleep at night.

And here’s some decorative icing to top off this rancid cake. If you go to the web site of the Gretna Police, you’ll see informative links in the column on the left, for things like Safety Tips, EMS, Training, etc.

None of them work. All “404 File Not Found.” There’s only one working link on the whole page. And it takes you to the bio of Chief Arthur S. Lawson, Jr. They’ve got their priorities, you know, and you damn well better be sure the Chief’s link works.