Resonant Information - Human Spirit - Comments

FYI

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:04:17 -0500

to date, the mall you are referring to, Oakwood Shopping Center, actually in Terrytown, Louisiana (an unincorporated city / town in Jefferson Parish, not Gretna) is still not open, (apparently less than 50% of the stores are not open)

Please get informed.

many homes and lives were

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 01:54:09 -0500

many homes and lives were saved due to the HEROIC efforts of our police. remember we had no outside help, just a small police force holding our city together. the people that did make it through actually set our only mall on the westbank ablaze, and as of today, Feb. 20, 2006 has yet to re-open due to the substantial amount of damage.

GET INFORMED!!!!!!!!!!!!1

listen up

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 01:51:15 -0500

if you know anything about the city, you would know that the bridge connecting Gretna to New Orleans is actually over dry land, so if anyone drowned it surely was NOT in Grenta. Once you are over the Mississippi River from New Orleans you enter into Algiers, which is STILL part of NEW ORLEANS, then you pass into Terrytown, which is an unincorportated part of Jefferson Parish, THEN you pass into Gretna, which is a Corportated part of Jerfferson Parish, with it's own government (mayor, council, etc.)

Possibly one drowning as well

Zed — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:43:58 -0400

As an additional note, there is a (currently still unsubstantiated) claim that at least one person possibly drowned when the crowd fled the gunfire at the bridge, but I consider that almost incidental to the greater crime against the several hundred.

Many died

Zed — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:36:34 -0400

As of September 21, the death toll in Louisiana was 799. We will never know how many of those people died because they were prevented from evacuating via Gretna, but the number is likely to be significantly larger than zero.

Bridge

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:29:41 -0400

How many died on the Bridge blocked by Gretna Police? 0

desperate refugees

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:23:56 -0400

What did New Orleans do for the desperate refugees? They didn't feed them. They didn't provide them with transportation. They didn't even police them. They sent them to Gretna just to get them out of their way.

NEWS

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:19:09 -0400

You are absolutely right. If your reference, all the way in Baton Rouge, is the media, your right. We all know that the media tells the truth. Dan Rather proved that. It really is meaningless for me to make any statements, considering I can't prove anything. But on the other hand, neither can you. I guess we are both banging our heads against a brick wall. I suppose that is what makes this so frustrating, yet entertaining. Thanks for the debate.

Hitchhiker

Zed — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:09:35 -0400

You don't seem to have picked up yet on the fact that I don't live in New Orleans, and never have. Between walking and hitchhiking for about 8 hours, the hitchhiker had made it to the outskirts of Baton Rogue, which is where I picked him up.

The problem is that you don't provide any references at all. You have blanket claims about police being shot at, but no names, no references, nothing to indicate that Gretna police actually were shot at. You claim that 50% of the stores aren't opening, and then don't provide any way to verify this claim. You say that Gretna provided safe transportation for 4,000 refugees... but have nothing to back this up, and the evidence I've seen (and linked to) is that this didn't actually happen.

You're expecting me to believe some random stranger on the internet on claims that are contradicted by existing evidence. Yes, when all the evidence points in one direction, I tend to find that pretty convincing. If you want to change my mind, the answer is simple: you have to actually provide some evidence of your own.

Incidentally, the Gretna police technically "abandoned their city" to put up that roadblock — they were on the New Orleans side of the bridge, and were outside of their jurisdiction. I'm quite curious to see whether that has legal repercussions for them. In any case, if you're going to send a couple dozen police to attack refugees, you can probably spare a couple to lead them to safety.

YOU GOT ME

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:54:52 -0400

It's amazing that all of these people were trapped, yet you were able to make your way to the "possible" evacuation point at I-10 and Clearview, the Oakwood Mall, the Fischer Housing Project, and still pick up a hitchhiker. Tell the police officers that were shot at that the bullets weren't real. Tell the thousand or so mall employees that their workplace is intact and that they can return to work. (By the way, over 50% of the stores are not opening, due to fire and smoke damage). I'm assuming that if the fire didn't reach the roof in the entire mall, it simply didn't happen. I guess the Gretna Police should have abandoned their city to escort New Orleans evacuees. SMART! Look, we could go back and forth all day long, but the fact still remains that New Orleans did not properly attend to the citizens. False information from the Mayor and media caused the evacuees to walk to Gretna, at which time Gretna safely provided transportation for over 4000 New Orleans evacuees. Sorry I can't give as many references as you, but you are obviously convinced of your truth.

Try providing references

Zed — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:03:46 -0400

If you want to be convincing, you might want to provide references for your assertions. In particular, the rumor that looters began burning down the local mall has been previously described to me as false (there was one incident at Oakwood Shopping Center involving a fire, and the satellite photos from shortly after the event show that it was definitely not burned down). Also, reports of gunfire have apparently been vastly exaggerated even in New Orleans, and I found exactly zero reports of gunfire exchanges in Gretna. In addition, which "evacuation point" are you referring to? The I-10 highway overpass that Chief Lawson pointed at? As far as I can tell, no official evacuations were actually taking place there and no supplies were dropped; it appears to be a dumping ground to take people away from Gretna without providing them with any real help.

When I looked at the maps, the Gretna police were blocking the only usable exit from the city from the Superdome area. There is one rather silly map that has been posted elsewhere that you're probably referring to... expecting the refugees to follow the flooded river next to damaged levees to go across the length of a mostly flooded New Orleans to reach this mythical evacuation point that nobody told them about, as opposed to walking on a dry road to the nearest shelter. It's worth noting that the Gretna police didn't even so much as suggest this route to them. Even if such a passage was possible, it wasn't known to be so at the time.

Incidentally, I'm not convinced that there was in fact a dry route to I-10 from the east side. I picked up a hitchhiker who got out that way... but only with the aid of a canoe he got from his neighbor.

And for the record, no Gretna police officers had to deal with the same conditions as the NOPD. The Gretna police were relatively well supplied, with relatively safe families and homes to go back to. New Orleans police had practically no supplies, families in neighborhoods under twenty feet of water, no communications, and were sometimes taking fire. I've seen pictures of Gretna, and I've seen pictures of New Orleans; if you are attempting to equate the two, the cluelessness is not on my part. I can also assure you that I didn't require evacuation, nor have I accepted federal emergency funds.

As a final note, nothing justifies attacking a refugee encampment with helicopters to break it up, and then stealing their supplies. If this is your shining example of true courage on the part of the Gretna police, then yes, I don't use the word like you do. Even assuming all of your claims were true, the correct action was to have a pair of police officers simply lead the group to the other exit. That would have been courage. Attacking an unarmed crowd and sentencing the entire group to possibly die because a few of the members might have been criminals is cowardice, no matter how you paint it.

Gretna Police

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:52:18 -0400

It is obvious that you are clueless. I can only assume that you were not in the City of Gretna during the hurricane, therefore you comments are unsubstantiated and clearly based on speculation. How dare you question the courage of the Gretna Police. While you were evacuated, sucking up federal monies, the officers of the Gretna Police Department were riding out the storm in a parking garage. At the earliest opportunity, the officers were fighting looters (and we're not talking about food. we're talking alcohol, cigarettes, electronics, etc) in the dark and rain. No electricity, no radio communication, taking on gunfire from New Orleans (Fischer Housing Project) regularly. 10 officers to coordinate and monitor the evacuation of over 5000 angry evacuees. Angry because they had been lied to by the NOPD concerning provisions and transportation in Gretna. Trust me, there was no transportation or provisions for these people. The Gretna Police "aquired" buses from the local bus transit to make good on NOPD's false promise. The bridge was sealed, only after, looters began burning down the local mall. The bridge was open to vehicle traffic, but no foot traffic. The story of a dead elderly woman at the roadblock, unfortunately for you, is false. I challenge anyone to produce that individual, or provide proof that she even existed. The story sounded good, in efforts to battle the racist city, but not true. If you look on a map, you will clearly see that the evacuees were not trapped, but simply had to walk approx 10 miles to the nearest evacuation point (all of which was dry), as opposed to crossing the river twice, and walking over twenty miles. Ignorance is your only excuse. In reference to courage, you have clearly proven that you do not know the true definition. You use the term loosely, in efforts to simply offend. For the record, no Gretna Police Officers walked off of the job or looted local businesses. I would like to point out that the NOPD officers that remained are true heroes. It is unfortunate that their city leaders just failed to plan, prepare, and execute. The 7 P's (Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance). I salute all officers involved, but try to refrain from speaking on topics you know nothing about. From a Proud Gretna Resident

They weren't under pressure

Zed — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 15:35:59 -0400

The Gretna police weren't trapped in a destroyed city with a lot of desperate refugees. I don't think you're in any position to make comparisons between the Gretna police, who didn't even have the courage to try to help, and the New Orleans police, who helped until they cracked under the strain.

Saved?

Zed — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 15:32:57 -0400

You seem to be under the assumption that your city would have been destroyed if you had allowed the New Orleans residents to escape. I wonder how many people you killed by trapping them in a drowning city.

Citizen Of Gretna

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 08:33:18 -0400

Yea we got what we wanted. A safe city. A house to come back to.A great police department and Chief Lawson will be relected.They risk their lives to save many. At least they didnt leave like scared rats as New Orleans police did.