Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03464940.htm

Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 3 (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.

...

Several residents of the impromptu shantytown recounted two horrific incidents where those charged with keeping people safe had killed them instead.

...

"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 windscreen and they shot him dead."

...

"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.

[flamingyouth]

1. I have no words.

:cry:

[coffeenap]

2. Who have we become?

[Julius Civitatus]

3. WTF??? Just WTF????

If these reports are correct, last night a few cowboys were let loose on the frightened, beaten-down victims of the hurricane and shot people with impunity!

What the fuck is this?

This is not America. Not anymore. We have become HAITI, god dammit!

People looking for help to stop rapes get shot by police? And then shot again in the head, execution style?

:grr:

[Angry Girl]

4. Total fucking bedlam. A horror sci-fi, mind-bending

Rapes, murders, the National Guard and police killing innocent civilians and threatening to beat up reporters who approach the makeshift morgues.

Disease will soon follow.

The New Orleans people are known for their powerful magic. Let us hope that the curse to come will not be more terrible than the suffering that caused it.

Nightweed's Hurricane Katrina Aid Organizations

[StellaBlue]

5. :P

I think I am going to vomit.

[emald]

6. oh shit

our country is gone, gone to the gestapo types. No money, no life, no justice. This will spread, it will be huge. Just wait. It's coming. The pirating of america by the corporations will end but it won't be pretty. I feel safe prophisying a violent end to our little experiment in greed. It takes very little, as the story above illustrates, to descend into hell.

[LeftyElvis]

7. What do we expect?

Bush has inflamed African Americans and they are acting out the contempt they feel for him. They know he is a racist in the mold of Hitler and would kill them all if he could.

[stickdog]

18. Your post is 100% crap. The NG & police did the killings.

But nice try at misdirection.

[cbear70]

8. I will post until I get an answer

What can we do... can we set up a massive effort to alert all we can to what is going on? Can we set up one area where there are talking points, references and get this out there to as many as possible.

I am so tired of this being about the bad blacks... that is not what this is about. Its about people being abandoned, left to their own devices, situations out of control, armies taking over and shooting to kill. I cannot take this anymore. I don't know what to fucking do. I am shaking so hard and crying. We have to do something. We have to mobilize our efforts here at DU, we have over 75000 members. What can we do. I am new to activism but there has to be something we can fucking do.

I can't just sit here and read about it, we have to try and do something.

Please.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[msongs]

10. rapes/killings hit Los Angeles & NO hurricane - why the hysteria over NO ?

and how many rapes/killings occur in NO in an average week?

probably more of both in Los Angeles the past week than in all of Louisiana, MS and AL combined. Maybe Los Angeles needs a hurrican to reduce the crime rate?


why the media hysteria?

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[progressivebydesign]

23. Because rapists and thugs are preying on victims who have lost everything.

That's why. Again I ask, why is it so important for people on DU to deny the violence there against the evacuees? Yes, there has been incidents of excessive force in that volitale situation. But what will it take for you people to fucking admit that women and children have been raped and attacked there?? Why is that so hard to accept that it is so unbelievably wrong and sick? They have lost everything then are preyed upon by a group of thugs... could it get any worse than that? It's not racist to say that the violence against the victims has occured and is wrong, no matter who does it. We condemn that behavior in other countries against refugees and the weak, why are we excusing it here? And only condeming it if it is something a police officer had done? If you lose everything and are living without food for days is it okay for someone else who has lost everything to rape you? How about your daughter?

The reports of crimes are NOT conspiracies... why are you all so hung up on that. Anytime you get thousands of people crammed into squalor, with no resources, and no laws, you are going to have an element preying on the weaker ones. It's the worst of the worst in human behavior. And it is part of the story and the tragedy of this crisis. If you'd like to really assign blame for all of this, assign upon the officials do fucked up beyond belief and allowed these deplorable conditions festered into a lawless hell.

[Tomee450]

11. I don't believe half of what is

being reported. Yesterday, an expert on crowd behavior, said in reference to the looting and sniping, that it is rare that those things happen after a natural disaster. She said that she believe that the accounts of lawlessness are exaggerated. Many people in this country are always ready to believe any account of violence supposedly perpetrated by blacks. Reporters have been known to fabricate. A representative of the FAA has just stated that they have been monitoring flights and have received no reports of any shots being fired at planes trying to help the victims. I believe there is a great deal of lying going on. It's not uncommon for disorder to occur after a disaster. It occurred after the Asian tsunami. However, I have strong doubts that violence has occurred in New Orleans on the scale reported.

[0rganism]

12. I understand mistrusting press, bt you're still able to believe the feds?

Tell me again why anyone should believe a representative of the bush government, which has made deceit and misinformation the currency of its success.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. low level agency officials are generally civil servants,

good people, and do not have an axe to grind. Yes I believe the FAA official who is contradicting the media bullshit that planes were being fired on.

Every video I saw of helicopters showed exactly what one would expect: desperate starving people scrambling to get the food and water out of the chopper and out to the crowd.

[Tomee450]

19. She was not a member of the

Bush Administration. If she had been, I would not have paid any attention to her.

[Judi Lynn]

15. When the dust settles and the truth is clearer the people who've been

the opportunists, who have been riding the wave of hysteria and misinformation and deliberate lies cynically added are going to be completely discredited.

If they were decent people they would have never considered contributing this deceptive crap to the common conversation in the first place.

It's a matter of character, in the end.

[Tomee450]

20. "It's a matter of character, in the end."

Yes. It's sad that there are so many unprincipled politicians and media persons. I remember the riots that occurred after the Rodney King verdict. The media made it appear as though only blacks were looting stores and committing violence. Investigations later showed that many groups were involved, whites, blacks,Asians. Most of those arrested were not black.

[stickdog]

17. Of course the crowd violence is being hyped way out of proportion.

Anybody who can't see that is sick and demented.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. Read this story carefully - pop quiz coming up.

Ready?


OK Here We Go:

1) in the story there are how many reports of a murder?
a) 1
b) 2
c) none
d) 135
.
2) in the story who did the killing?
a) looters and thugs
b) african american men
c) african american grandmas
d) the police
.
3) Did you find the headline misleading?
a) yes
b) yup
c) of course
d) catapult that propaganda
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Answers:
(1)a, (2)d.

The bullshit stream continues.

[progressivebydesign]

22. 3 murders. 1 rape. and answer 2, both a and d.

The woman being raped was murdered, obviously. so that was three.

[stickdog]

16. Thank God they sent in the murderers to RESTORE ORDER!!!

:eyes:

[RedRocco]

21. .

"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"

the govt. response in microcosm

[I7G0D]

24. All I can say is OMG !!!! n/t