[R-G] The racist crime of NO grows: police called in to "gain control" of Superdome

[Fred Feldman]

MSNBC.com
Superdome exodus on hold after shots 
Looting worse, more National Guard arrive; storm deaths may be thousands

NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 8:51 a.m. ET Sept. 1, 2005


It is beginning to look like my description on one list last night of
New Orleans as a US "Caracazo," on top of a capitalism-made "natural"
disaster, was less an exaggeration than a little bit ahead of the curve.
The Caracazo was a spontaneous explosion of people suffering from
hunger, misery, and official indifference and brutality  in Caracas in
1989.  Popular outrage against the savage repression that followed
eventually led to the Venezuelan revolution of today.(I am not
predicting whether the outcome of this will be so positive.)

Notice how Gov. Barbour made Wolf Blitzer's mot juste his own, labelling
those who seek to survive or assert their rights in this situation as
"the worst in us," while the authorities take understandable pride in
representing the best.
 
It looks like the Superdome and eventually the Astrodome are slated to
become Guantanamo West. 
Fred Feldman



NEW ORLEANS - National Guard troops in armored vehicles poured into New
Orleans on Thursday to curb the growing lawlessness that included shots
fired at a helicopter airlifting people out of the Superdome and
carjackings of buses helping with evacuations. 

The operation to bus more than 20,000 people to the Houston Astrodome
was suspended  "until they gain control of the Superdome," said Richard
Zeuschlag, head of Acadian Ambulance, which was handling the evacuation
of sick and injured people from the Superdome. 

He said that military would not fly out of the Superdome either because
of the gunfire and that the National Guard told him that it was sending
100 military police officers to gain control. "That's not enough,"
Zeuschlag. "We need a thousand." 

He said medics were calling him and crying for help because they were so
scared of people with guns at the Superdome. 

Shots were fired at a military helicopter over the Superdome before
daybreak, he said, adding that when another evacuation helicopter tried
to land at a hospital in the outlying town of Kenner overnight, the
pilot reported that 100 people were on the landing pad, and some of them
had guns. 

"He was frightened and would not land," Zeuschlag said. 

Reinforcements called in
An additional 10,000 National Guard troops from across the country were
ordered into the Gulf Coast to shore up security, rescue and relief
operations. The new units brought the number of troops dedicated to the
effort to more than 28,000, in what may be the largest military response
to a natural disaster. 

Looting has also been a problem in Mississippi. 

"The truth is, a terrible tragedy like this brings out the best in most
people, brings out the worst in some people," said Mississippi Gov.
Haley Barbour on NBC's "Today" show Thursday. "We're trying to deal with
looters as ruthlessly as we can get our hands on them." [snip]


 
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/