After all, how else do you explain the need to steal Cadillacs to use as patrol cars. Or to go shoe
Then there was the completely egregious gun confiscation of law abiding citizens. Remember the old lady who might have gotten sick if she drank the possibly contaminated water, so it was best for her to be tackled and have her arm busted up?
Joking aside, the police did some really bad things in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina. Remember the Danziger Bridge shooting? The police shot and killed a group of unarmed civilians and then they tried to cover it up.
Now the FBI is looking into several more incidents with two new cases. One involves the police shooting a man, dumping his body in a car, and setting it on fire. How bad was it? It was PBS Frontline Special Edition bad!
I also recall aid trucks arriving at the Superdome understocked with food and medicine because the media convinced them to prioritize body bags. I also recall helicopter rescues being called off because of false media reports of people shooting at them.
ReplyDelete"No truth in the news, and no news in the truth." -- The Unit, Episode 1
ReplyDeleteI think Lesson #2 underplays exactly how corrupt and incompetent the NOPD was before the storm, blaming the media for crappy cops doing a horrible job.
ReplyDeleteThe NOPD had been a troubled institution for years before Katrina because of various policies, including completely unqualified individuals being made officers because of political pull, such as Antoinette Frank.
Frank lied on her application and failed a psychological evaluation before becoming an officer, yet was made an officer anyway due to her father's influence and later killed her partner and a family while robbing a restaurant where she'd previously done off-duty security work.
I'm starting to think that maybe "Brownie" was doing a great job after all...
ReplyDeleteLet me agree with Brandon and go one step further, on how degenerate NO got to be/still is.
ReplyDeleteDuring the coverage of Katrina, everyone I knew, would look at the landmarks on TV, and then remark "hey see that mail box, I puked my guts out right there" and comments similar. When your town if famous for partying to excess, it is unlikely your town will be ready for disaster.
I've heard that of the 500 police officers that fled New Orleans, 422 were non-existent. I can't confirm that though.
ReplyDelete***"No truth in the news, and no news in the truth."***
ReplyDeleteActually stolen from the Russian people, and a saying about the two leading Soviet-era newspapers, Pravda and Isvestiya. "Pravda" means "truth" and Izvestiya means "news."
The (rightfully) cynical Soviet citizenry used to say "There is no truth in Izvestiya, and no news in Pravda."
Well not to worry because when we went the other direction on the story we went too far as well. No there were no stacks of bodies in the cooler in the Superdome but it wasn't sweetness and light in there either. Here is the FIRST HAND ACCOUNT of an officer right across the street from New Orleans Convention Complex...it is a gripping first hand account.
ReplyDeleteRead the rest here
http://pierrelegrand.net/2007/07/30/nopd-officer-who-worked-convention-center-describes-the-days-after-katrina.htm
Dumas Carter, 30, eight-year veteran NOPD officer, one of six local cops who stayed on duty at the Convention Center complex in the days after Katrina:
The day before, we all go in for roll call and we’re basically told that we’re reporting for work and we pretty much won’t be able to leave until this is over. Some of [the officers] were whining, but all week long we had been told, you’re a police officer, and once you go active we’re going to be on active duty for the remainder. Make sure that your families are out and your houses are taken care of, because we can’t have you worrying about your family, your house, your dog, and be a police officer. That made sense to me. But a lot of people were like, fuck this, I’ve got to go with my family. So they left. My district wasn’t like any other district. Ninety-eight percent of the people stayed. The Sixth District. The real district. Fort Apache. You’ve seen that on the news.
NOPD had big problems prior to Katrina but so did all of New Orleans government. This was a city that was about to collapse anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that caused a lot of the problems was lack of communication. When the radio tower went down no one knew what was going on. A mobile command center from a neighboring parish was set up at the base of the bridge in Gretna. It had to be disbanded because the officers couldn't protect themselves much less anyone else. A friend of mine was there to set it up.
Small groups of criminal gangs caused havoc and with no communication system police didn't know when or where to respond. Lots of confusion.
FWIW I've also heard about the 500 phantom cops. They were on the books to get more Federal money.
If you watched the MSM's 5 year anniversary, partly as a way to bash Bush some more, the commentary is very clearly that they discovered a new and effective way to cover large events. They are proud of the way they covered Katrina.
ReplyDeleteLooks like your Number 1 lesson needs some work:)