A shocking report in The Nation magazine exposes how white vigilante groups patrolled the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, shooting at least eleven African American men. Local police have never conducted investigations. While most of New Orleans was deluged, word spread that Algiers Point was dry. Desperate people began heading toward the west bank, some walking over bridges, others traveling by boat. The National Guard soon designated the Algiers Point ferry landing an official evacuation site, where flood victims were to be loaded onto buses headed for safety in Texas. Facing an influx of refugees, a group of heavily armed white residents sought to seal off the area, and to rid the neighborhood of those who “didn’t belong.” As the government collapsed, the city fractured along racial lines. While the media portrayed African-Americans as looters and thugs, it is now clear that some of the most serious crimes were committed by gun-toting white males. One reporter notes, “I was startled to meet so many people with so much detailed information about potentially serious offenses, none of whom had ever been interviewed by police detectives.” Dead bodies were left, sometimes for weeks, to rot in full view of Homeland Security, State troopers, Army personnel, and police who “secured” the streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.
“Katrina’s Hidden Race War” A.C.Thompson, The Nation, December 17, 2008
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090105/thompson?rel=hp_picks
“Body of Evidence” A.C. Thompson, the Nation, December 17, 2008 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090105/thompson2/single
“Katrina’s Hidden Race War: In Aftermath of Storm, White Vigilante Groups Shot 11 African Americans in New Orleans” Democracy Now! December 19, 2008 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/19/katrinas_hidden_race_war_in_aftermath