Kevin Drum has linked to a UPI article confirming that the Gretna police did in fact close the only route out of New Orleans (that I described earlier here), trapping refugees inside the flooding city, with the claim that if they let the refugees out, the refugees would obviously also destroy Gretna:
If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged.
Setting aside for the moment that looting is what happens when you have people desperate to survive because they can't escape, there was no reason why they absolutely had to stay in Gretna, either. Let's even assume that Gretna was out of resources to help them (which I doubt). The town is small enough to walk across, even without vehicles, and all they had to do to get these people to another area (that perhaps could provide better assistance) was to provide water every few miles to keep them supplied and keep them moving. If you had sense, you'd scrounge up as many vehicles as possible to help get them to a shelter somewhere.
Assaulting them amounts to a crime against humanity. I hope that Arthur Lawson is held responsible and brought to trial for the deaths of those that were prevented from escaping.
Some maps have been posted at Digital Media Tree, to provide some visual context.
Update: Kevin Drum has one more update with a map, noting that the Gretna police were actually on the New Orleans side of the bridge, and not even in Gretna, and thus didn't even have any authority. On top of that, it appears that Aaron Bouchard, president of Jefferson Parish, may have some responsibility. One of Kevin's commenters linked to a Wall Street Journal article highlighting the following:
On Thursday evening, a woman called the station from Algiers in Orleans Parish. Her 8-year-old daughter had just finished their last bottle of water, and they had no electricity. Distraught, she asked the hosts how to get to Houston. They told her to wait until daybreak, and then walk to a town called Gretna, in Jefferson Parish, and take shelter in a high school.After a commercial break, the announcer's first call was from Jefferson Parish's president, Aaron Bouchard, who said he had closed his borders to incoming traffic, even pedestrians. "Jefferson Parish is no promised land," he said. "There is better food and better supplies in New Orleans. We don't even have the Red Cross here." He suggested the woman walk to the nearest police station and get a ride to the Superdome.
Related entries:
- 2005.09.08: Trapped in New Orleans... by the police
- 2005.09.17: Gretna citizens defend the indefensible
Let them know
I think everyone should contact the Gretna police and let them know how the country feels about them...(504) 366-4374.
Bridge closing, Gretna
The geraldo rivera/sheppard smith video on fox clearly shows that the checkpoint was on the Orleans side of the river, and that the bridge was closed only to predestrian traffic. There was some vehicular traffic in the background.
http://persistentvegetativestate.blogspot.com/2005/09/people-without-cars-not-allowed-into.html
[I fixed the link, which was broken. - Zed]