Will There Be Justice in New Orleans?

This week The Nation reports on a stunning scandal in New Orleans. Our cover story, Katrina's Hidden Race War, is the result of a tireless 18-month investigation by A.C. Thompson, exposing for the first time a rash of vigilante shootings in New Orleans, as white residents in the Algiers Point neighborhood formed an ad hoc militia and opened fire on black residents fleeing the Lower Ninth Ward for the nearest rescue point. In total, our report uncovered 11 separate incidents.

The investigation shows lawlessness, but also a stunning inhumanity. Thompson interviews unrepentant vigilantes, and a video accompanying the article includes footage of vigilantes joking that shooting blacks "was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it." Thompson details the suspicious death of Henry Glover, who according to eyewitnesses was shot by vigilantes and then bled to death in his car while police beat his would-be rescuer. Most troubling in all of this is the role of law enforcement, as witnesses allege that New Orleans police covered up and destroyed evidence, authorized the shootings and savagely beat witnesses.

To date, not a single incident has ever been investigated. New Orleans police, Homeland Security and the State of Louisiana have refused to answer questions for over 8 months, and Thompson (with the invaluable support of the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute) had to sue to gain access to autopsy records. In total Thompson reviewed over 800 autopsies and state death reports, and amassed a pile of evidence that substantiate his report. "As a reporter who has spent more than a decade covering crime," he wrote, "I was startled to meet so many people with so much detailed information about potentially serious offenses, none of whom have ever been interviewed by police."

The full extent of the disregard for poor African-Americans and the embarrassing failure of leadership laid bare by Katrina still remains unknown. New Orleans, and gulf reconstruction, were barely mentioned in the 2008 campaign, and to many the storm is something we would rather put behind us. But Thompson's investigation -- and the extent of evidence about these attacks -- offer the promise of justice for New Orleans. In an editorial accompanying Katrina's Hidden Race War, we wrote that "If we as a nation are ever truly to transcend race, tolerance for racist violence in our midst must come to an end."

The Nation, and our friends at the advocacy group Color of Change, are calling for a full investigation into the vigilante attacks. We are urging Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to appoint a multi-agency task force to find the truth, and we're encouraging Representative John Conyers and Senator Patrick Leahy to use their subpoena power to compel local law enforcement to talk. Conyers has already released a statement, declaring on Thursday that he is "deeply disturbed" by the report, particularly the possibility that local police "fueled, rather than extinguished, the violence." It would be fitting if Eric Holder, after being confirmed as Attorney General, swiftly opened an investigation at the Department of Justice. There can be justice in New Orleans.

We invite everyone to read Thompson's investigation here. More importantly, we urge people of conscience everywhere to sign the petition demanding an investigation, and ensure that these brazen acts of violence do not go unsolved.

Comments

[luziannagirl]

Glad comments aren't yet closed here.Finally watched the video footage of interviews with putative residents of Algiers Point. Additional observations:

1) Only one of the Algiers Point interviewees had an authentic New Orleans/Louisiana accent. The Yankee-accented couple making the "pheasant hunting" comment actually mentioned Chicago on-camera, and pheasants aren't naturalized anywhere near Louisiana.

2) Those who actually went through such an ordeal are not likely to have "bragged" about it in such a manner, anyhow. I daresay the pheasant fellow's shooting experience is all virtual, via his TV, and his braggadocio courtesy his beer. The other, older man sounded more authentic but I question whether he actually shot anyone, either. Those who did the shooting aren't likely to speak up, even after beers, and certainly to a wet-behind-the-ears reporter from Elsewhere.

3)To my knowledge, there was no working bus evacuation zone set up at Algiers Point during the immediate post-storm period. The Harvey Canal was flooded, making the only road north impassable.

This is not an example of thorough and objective journalism. Shame on The Nation. I expect better.

[luziannagirl]

The feeling of abandonment for those who survived Katrina has been described as indescribable.

After days on one's own with little or no communication with the outside world, one began to wonder if the whole country had also been hit and destroyed by the hurricane. Where was the Red Cross? The Coast Guard? The National Guard? Where was America?

Patients died in hospitals because they ran out of medicine and fuel for generators for life support equipment. Doctors and nurses gave themselves I.V.'s so scarce food and water could go to patients. Desperate drug addicts swam underwater in attempts to break into flooded hospitals to get a fix. The jail was flooded with inmates trapped inside, and many came very close to drowning. An entire nursing home full of patients drowned because scheduled transport never arrived. People on rooftops endured 24-7 heat, thirst, and mosquitoes for days, and some acted irrationally toward rescuers.

Post-Katrina New Orleans was not America as 99% of Americans know it.

[AsheDambala]

Look...this can happen in any city in America...including yours. This story is one of thousands which occurred during that time. This story is one of desperation and the breakdown in human civility....motive (poverty, disenfranchisement, racism), means (guns) and opportunity (catastrop­he)...ever­y city in America has the first two elements....you never know when the opportunity for chaos will arise.

Lgirl, you are so right....99% of Americans have no idea what America can become under these circumstances.

[luziannagirl]

Never mind a catastrophic disaster and scarce provisions, how long do you think the civility and magnanimosity of your community would last if you didn't see hide nor hair of a policeman, fireman, or EMS for days and weeks?

Yes, some people looted. Some shot at aircraft. Some shot at other citizens. But lots more, those in not-so-desperate straits just outside the zone of total devastation, exhausted themselves helping their less fortunate neighbors, whatever color they happened to be.

I just ask that people try to show a little empathy before engaging in smuggitude. Post-Katrina was much more like a war zone than anything else.

[luziannagirl]

I have the utmost respect for the work Amy Goodman and "Democracy Now", but capturing the reality of post-Katrina New Orleans is not a part of this report.

Imagine how you-d feel if you had no electricity, water, or phone, and heard gunfire from dark to dawn night after night? If you saw the daytime sky full of black smoke from dozens of out-of-control fires and full of military, rescue, and TV media aircraft , yet none stops to help? If all you could get on your battery-powered radio were static-filled, panic-stricken media reports of widespread flooding, looting, raping, general mayhem, with no relief in sight?

How long would you last sharing your last bottle of water with one total stranger after another who wandered up, in even more desperate straits than you? How about your front porch? Your couch? Your clean clothes? Your prescription medication? In 90+ degree heat, 24-7?

I have no doubt some of the violence was along racial lines. I have no doubt a dead body laid in the street for two weeks. It was three weeks before a single drugstore opened for a few hours a day in that area, so the living could get crucial prescription drugs refilled. Some infrastructure is still not back, 3 yrs later.

Don't say what you would or wouldn't do till you've been there, too.

[Rebelyell]

I found it interesting that one of the people who was shot was trying to enter a grocery that was "shuttered," i.e. he was trying to break in. Another person was removing the baricade that the citizens had placed for their protection.
If you were to tally all the white-black and black-white violent crime, you'll find that whites are victims far more often than whites. Why doesn't anybody write about this?

[picodegallo54]

i find it interesting that when whites do it, they are "scaveging for supplies" and just trying to survive. when people of color do it, it's called "looting." why doesn't anybody write about this?

[lungfish]

I find it interesting that nobody has allowed an investigation to prove your observation, Rebelyell. If it were as easy as all that, why is nobody from FEMA to NOPD talking about this? Why won't anyone answer any questions if these killings were so "justified"?

[1will]

When you are picking up bread and some cheese from a store in the aftermath of a natural disaster it's called scavenging for supplies. When you're pushing a shopping cart full of new shoes, Ipods and purses through Wal-Mart while wearing your police uniform it's called looting.

[jsladder]

Thanks to AsheDambala the documentary film maker. There was a breakdown in civilization and humanity. New Orleans is New Orleans and the reporter didn't even know that, for God sake.
I used to live in New Orleans and Metairie before moving up north. I was also there right after the flood and dragged my brother's crap out of the successful restaurant he owned for almost 20 years (total loss). Same with his house. The tragedy was, he had to put his business up for sale and was in the process of selling when the flood hit. Why? Because the poor black people you feel sorry for would shoot you in the head on a whim. I had 50 friends back then and we all had to leave because of the violence.

[break]

jsladder, I am having a hard time understanding your comment. Are you really saying that these atrocities were justified because "the poor black pole you feel sorry for would shoot you in the head on a whim"? You can't really be saying that, because that would make you even worse than the psychopaths who committed these crimes against humanity. This reminds me of all the coverage on the news about all the "looting" during Katrina. Never mind that people were left to drown, left to die. It mattered more that rich white people were losing money because some (not all) black people were out of options and resorted to crime. Crimes against property while Bush's adminsteration, the police force of N.O., and homeland insecurity all chose to look the other way and let New Orleans drown. Regardless of whatever amount of money you lost, I hope you don't think that decent human beings will understand your flippant and racist remarks about some looters. Despite what you just said, the real tragedy is actually that fact that there are people like those white vigilanties and people like you who wish to explain it away by blaming the victims.

[Eyewideopen]

What he's saying is that it is ok to shoot a black person in your neighborhood if sometime in your life you have been robbed or carjacked by a black person.

Now let's reverse this argument and insert different acts of violence and see what conclusion we get.

[GrainOSand]

All of the poor black people that are garnering sympathy would shoot you in the head? I guess if I lived there that would apply to me as well, even though I am a proven pacifist?

Here is a snippet of my New Orleans tale. I was there a year before Katrina hit. Staying in a ritzy French Quarter hotel, on company business. The city repulsed me in the poverty and blatant narrow-minded racism that I encountered. The movie Crash came out that week. I took in the movie and found myself in tears throughout as I considered the movie in the context of all that I was seeing in New Orleans and indeed all that I had seen to that point in America concerning societal proclivity to be base. I could not enjoy the entertainment aspects of my time there (company sponsored events). I mostly stayed in my hotel room and wrote in my diary when I was there, if I was not conducting business. I did go out a few nights and I met some nice people. There was a protest occurring in front of one of the bars because a young man had been choked to death previously in front of the bar. There was also a news story about a scam in the Quarter regarding race as a reason for proprietors to overcharge patrons. I imagine your friend’s establishment was not a part of that. N.O. contains it share of thugs, racist or otherwise.

[GrainOSand]

Here is a little bit more history concernng thuggery in New Orleans. It seems it has been around quite a spell.

http://www.cwsworkshop.org/katrinareader/node/23

[marignymitch]

Come on down, stay while. Let's see how well your pacifism protects you from the rampant lawlessness.

[marignymitch]

The bleeding hearts, bless them, have no comprehension of the depth and breadth of black violence in New Orleans and therefore no empathy for those who fought back. Black and white citizens alike have been under seige for years from the punks who own the streets here.

So individuals and entire neighborhoods post-Katrina created their own security squads to protect lives and property, and I think they were right to do so. Lord knows safety is an iffy proposition here during normal times. Those Uptown, who could afford to, hired armed Blackwater troops and helicopters to keep the feral gangs at bay. A friend of mine Downtown detered looters/killers, who were armed to the teeth, with the appropriate counter display of force. I myself keep a shotgun at hand here at home for one reason: to fend off the punks. I'm itching to use it. (I've been burglarized twice, mugged four times and shot at once. By the punks.)

Word sub rosa is that police agencies in at least two parishes hereabouts seized the opportunity post-Katrina to 'thin the herd'. Angry law abiding citizens and crime victims of all races quietly applauded the action.

I invite the hearts to come on down and walk in our shoes for a awhile. Then you can judge us.

(I'm seriously sceptical of any claims that 9th Ward residents were victimized in Algiers, by the way. The two neighborhood are separated by a formidable obstacle: the mighty Mississippi River.)

[GrainOSand]

1. I am a pacifist because I have seen enough violence to last several lifetimes.

2. I do not need to come there to understand. I invite you to Detroit, or DC, or Watts, or Chi-Town, or Brooklyn, or Oakland, because you know Oakland is just like Compton (that's an inside joke). You do not know what a neighborhood under siege is for if you did you would not assume I do not, just because I am not one who does not "itch" for violence. If you had to fight those street thugs hand to hand would you be itchin', how about knife to knife, where you smell the breath of the person that you seek to devour. Only a coward puffs his or her chest out concerning a desire to be violent. The truly courageous shun violence. Any fool can pick up a gun and shoot someone first without identifying thug from normal individual just trying to live life. You cannot school me on anything concerning a war zone, terror, daily fear that you could be dead because violence might break out, or looking into the face of angry thugs and them looking into your face with murderous intent. Yet, after seeing all of that I embraced love instead of the gun. After seeing all of that, I do not live in fear of anyone or anything and I will go anywhere. I am for self-defense but never murder covered up with slick arguments of justified racism.

[lokipuck]

So glad to see you're able to justify lawlessness and evil. Go Amerca!

[marignymitch]

Justice won't be served until all the forgotten N.O. murder cases are solved and the murderers sent to prison. Don't hold your breath, tho.

[kevinem2]

A few months ago I read a novel about Katrina by the brilliant Louisianan (?) author James Lee Burke. The book alluded to similar acts to the ones in this story. I can't remember the name of the novel, but it should be easy to find. I've read all of Burke's novels about Louisiana, and feel I know the state just a little through his writing.

[truegreen]

I hope the Obama administration will take these credible allegation seriously. What happened to those victims was cruel and heartless and they deserve justice.

[darthdarcy]

No Katrina, no Justice for New Orleans...that's why they play the blues...!

Even Obama has not put any real emphasis on New Orleans has he..?

[Tanyars5]

Thank you for keeping this travesty on the minds of people. I doubt anything will be done. It is a shame that no one has gone to jail for that debacle. I will sign the petition.

[joceeco]

I lived in Louisiana from 1966 the year I was born until 1987 the year that I joined the Military and left. Honestly, I never experienced the type of racism that we are speaking of here, but I felt its presence. Baton Rouge, where I was raised was a great place to grow up, but Louisiana is filled with many Whites who tolerate Blacks only to the extent that Whites never get the impression from Blacks that they have become equal to White in that state. The best things about Louisiana are the interstate freeways leading out of the state and you must keep driving pass Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Forida and parts of Georgia. No state in America is free of racism and people with racist attitudes, especially towards Blacks and Latinos, but some southern states are still clinging to their racist beginnings. Atlanta, Austin and Ashville are the only beacons of light left in any southern state and if these cities did not have such a large number of progressive whites, Blacks, Asians and Latinos living in their midst, they would be left in the early 1800's also. America has done so much to advance civilization and democracy, but why are so many of our citizens so damn ignorant?

[Darthwave]

More than 2 years later... I wouldn't hold my breath on justice being served. America doesn't have a great track record on convictions of this sort especially in the south. The prez might be black but you can bet as sure as the sun will rise that incidents like this will continue to happen and they will continue to go unpunished.

[GrainOSand]

Standing on the corner with a bag of weed a forty and nothing on my mind and nothing to do, next thing I know I am doing time...working cafeteria detail on a ten man crew. All this for smoking a joint, some may wonder, what's this dude talking about, why is he off-topic, what's his point?

Mrs. vanden Heuvel asks will there be justice, if the above is justice (going to jail for possessing small amounts of marijuana or even large amounts) for anyone in America, then surely attempted murder has not fallen out of the sphere of that requiring justice.

[GrainOSand]

George Alec Effinger wrote a story titled, All the Last Wars at Once. It functions as an encapsulated tour through time and place of a society engaged in perpetual war. War begun based on categorizations (demographics). The story chronicles the evolution of this harmful tendency to the greatest and final act of war humans can ever wage against realized polarity -- the war on self, on inner demons, persistent fear...on hate and rage in the heart, and evil and calculation in the mind, on shame, on haughtiness, on bloated ego. In Effinger’s tale, all the last wars are bloody and/or fatal, including the final war of individual pitted against individual self. Metaphorically, America and indeed the world need to get to the conclusion of Mr. Effinger’s finely woven tale. That conclusion is, division, hate, rage, bitterness, poison...the murderous intent, starts within the individual and therefore if we all turn the muzzle of reflection and correction upon ourselves, the world would be better by orders of magnitude consistent with mass enlightenment.

Defending ones’ home against a person seeking to gain unlawful entry is a basic right. Self-defense is intelligent. Killing people in the street because they differ from you thereby causing the hate, the fear, and the haughtiness in you, to well up, such that you feel justified in wanton killing, that is a case of a need for waging war on self, for surely self is defined and determined through all credible analysis to be -- the enemy.

[azureblue]

a bit of local geography and jurisdiction (and a note- a parish is a county in Louisiana) from an expat:
Algiers, the point, Gretna, etc. are all in Jefferson parish. Metairie is in Jefferson Parish. They are not part of New Orleans, and do not have the same police departments. Read up on Harry Lee, the JP sheriff, to get an idea. New Orleans is in its own Parish, Aptly named Orleans. And the JP towns have their own city cops, too. It has its own cops. Accordingly, Jefferson Parish deputies do not have jurisdiction in Orleans Parish, and vice versa. JP is a lot less tolerant than New Orleans. As much as i love Metairie, it gets pretty rednecky once a person goes over the bridge or over the parish line.

So don't try to pin the problems of other cities and parishes on New Orleans. New Orleans is to itself, with its own history. And, until the federal Government stepped in, had no racial problems. They arose when the feds forced segregation on New Orleans, which led to a lot of problems, since the racial lines are no so well defined there.

[neesy08]

Do not make excuses. That happened, what, 40 years ago? These bigoted, red neck whites are killing men simply because of the color of their skin. That racial line stuff is a bunch of crock and you know it is. if they do not like having black peope around, I suggest they do what they tell nonwhites; "go back to where you came from."

[StillIRise]

And ...?

[GeorgeKaplan]

This is clearly a delusional and insupportable position. This is a defense of segregation and who in their right mind would buy such a flawed and devise argument? A very incredible and distorted reading of history.

" And, until the federal Government stepped in, had no racial problems. They arose when the feds forced segregation on New Orleans, which led to a lot of problems, since the racial lines are no so well defined there."

[Eyewideopen]

"And, until the federal Government stepped in, had no racial problems. They arose when the feds forced segregation on New Orleans, which led to a lot of problems, since the racial lines are no so well defined there."

Tell us, how did the government force segregation on New Orleans? Who had no racial problems? You?

WTF

[luziannagirl]

azureb

Point of correction: Gretna is in Jefferson Parish, but Algiers, including Algiers Point, is in Orleans Parish.

New Orleans has a huge violent crime problem. Isn't it again #1 murder capitol in the nation? Much of the crime, if not most of it, is drug- and gang-related, and though I haven't seen any stats, I'd be willing to bet the majority of it is blacks killing blacks.

Until the larger (so-called, "white") society appropriately addresses black-on-black crime, and begins to view it as EVERYONE's tragedy, not just tragedy befalling certain groups and certain people, New Orleans will keep having this type of societal fracture given the slightest pressure.