[jyl]

From the post by tech

"As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander’s assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn’t cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the six-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their city. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans."

Seems pretty obvious [but see my edit below] that race was a factor in the New Orleans response. Anyone think a group of 200 white people trying to escape from the city would have been turned back at gunpoint?

Edit: I need to soften what I just said. I mean that race was a factor in the incident that the guy wrote about. And maybe in some other incidents during the most chaotic periods. I do not believe, still, that race has been a factor in the organized part of the relief effort.