I really have no idea what to think about the Danziger Bridge incident. Like a badly-told story, “I guess you had to be there.”
It certainly looks bad when your victim is shot seven times in the back. Then again, the police maintain he was hit by seven pellets from one shotgun blast. Shots were certainly being fired at the Corps workers but it seems unlikely that the people the police killed when they arrived were the ones doing the shooting, them without guns and what not. But who knows? Right?
It’s going to be a long drawn out trial and there is going to be a lot of grandstanding by groups on either side and the truth will probably be obscured in favor of some other message someone is trying to send.
See, now that different groups have thrown their support to both the accused and the victims, said groups have interests in the outcome. If the truth begins to reveal that ones side is right and the other is wrong, one group will most likely attempt to obscure the truth in fear of losing face. Truth is not as important in this day and age as the appearance of truth. That is an, “I’m right and you are wrong” philosophy.
I certainly want justice for James Brissette and Ronald Madison. Whether the system is going to reveal anything close to that in regards to what happened to them seems doubtful. I don’t know if I will ever have enough adequate information on what happened on the bridge. Yes, there are witnesses, each with their own view of what went down as shots were being fired in the aftermath of a disaster with food, water and medicine in short supply and media helicopters flying over and snipers in windows and dead bodies in the streets.
I just hope that an innocent man doesn’t go to jail or a guilty man doesn’t go free.
It’s another chapter in the story of the Federal Flood.
Which brings me to another bridge incident that I have a cloudy opinion on, this one happened on my side of the river in those terrible days after the levees broke.
I couldn’t tell you if the group trying to cross the river were blacks or whites or looters or evacuees. I couldn’t tell you if the cops were just in their refusal to allow them to cross or if they were breaking the law. I couldn’t say weather the evacuees/looters would have found refuge/booty on the West bank or not.
I couldn’t say because I was in West Pensacola watching it all on CNN (which wasn’t exactly the best source of truth either).
It certainly seems excessive to fire shots in the air in the questionable atmosphere after the storm but then again, I don’t often hear that come up as a point of discontent among Gretna Police critics. I usually hear racism being the main arguing point. Then I see on the news that some of the crowd on the bridge was white. And I read in other articles that the group was “mostly black.” The police maintain there were no services on the West bank that could be offered to them but at the same time, wouldn’t ANYthing have been better than the scene at the Superdome and Convention Center?
Having a house in Algiers, I can’t deny that I wasn’t relieved when I heard the bridge was closed. Does that make me a racist?
Again, the truth as to what happened is most likely never going to be revealed. As has already occurred, it will instead be shrouded in politics and maneuvering.
I’m not saying the bridge incidents should be ignored, they are important, but I have severe doubts as to whether we can ever hope to extract any valuable lesson from either of them because responsibility is never going to be assumed by anyone.
And where does either incident leave New Orleans as a city? Divided as ever.
Nothing is more oppressed or looted than truth.
I am having a hard time in forming opinions on the Danzinger incident. It’s such a convoluted story, one can’t tell what went on. History may not reveal the real stories of those days following Katrina. I was not in NOLA, but on the northshore and even over here those were some very nerve-wracking days.
I feel very sad about the way the Danzinger thing is going. A close friend of mine was working on the levees at the time of the shootings so I know there were people shooting at them. whether or not the group that was fired upon by the NOPD is the same, I don’t know. I confess I haven’t had a chance to read up on this incident.
As for the CCC incident, I too was relieved when I heard the bridge was closed. I again feel sad for the devisiveness it has created in Nola. But I know I’m not racist and the people who count know. I’ve had alot of anger over this issue with people assuming anyone who felt as I did were racist. But, I have decided that I have to let it go.
It was a very chaotic and difficult time. I think the memories of just how awful it was are fading more and more every day. While I know there were those who knowingly took advantage of the situation for their own personal agendas, I also know there were those who were completely stressed and just did the best they could.
I think it’s real easy for those who weren’t here in the midst of it all to make judgements. “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone” and all that.
Leaving aside the debatable virtues of discharging weapons upon the Corps of Engineers, this is turning into yet another lamentable circus of emotions drummed up and intensified by the political posturing of both the DA and the chief of police.
Jordan has overreached by charging the officers with 1st degree murder. The charge alone reveals the move to be more politically motivated than anything else. Vince Marinello isn’t even facing 1st degree murder.
Meanwhile, I can’t help but wince at the scene of hundreds of people turning out to demonstrate their support for the accused. With so many of the facts in doubt, the demonstrators are basically signifying their support for the idea that police have the right to brutalize or kill with little or no accountability. Yes this has a great deal to do with race despite the fact that some of the accused officers are African-American.
I’d say you’re dead on in assuming the truth of this is already lost.