Orleans Parish Prison Riot: On Scene Report

An email report a commenter placed in comments brought up to here:

We shipped out Tuesday morning. We (about 600 (deleted) from all over the state) had to empty the Orleans Parish Prison which had 4,000 prisoners and transport them to state facilities in other parts of the state. They were rioting, killing each other and holding civilian hostages. This never made the news, at least not to the extent that actually played out. We had to have our State CERT teams go in there and use lethal force. I still don't have the exact count of how many had to be shot. I saw the body of one after having been shot and having fallen from the window they had broken through to escape.

Nearby I saw the body of another guy who appeared to have been robbed and killed, then thrown off the expressway that all the refugees were using to get around above the flooded street. There were bodies everywhere. Dogs were dying all over from drinking the water that was flooding the area. We were stationed on the expressway right opposite the Super Dome, about six hundred yards away.

The rioters had stolen all the mail trucks and were driving them around the non-flooded roadways, looting and stealing other vehicles. I saw one guy in the back of a mail truck carrying an AK-47 type weapon. He started to point it at us as the truck drove buy and the only reason we didn't fire was because there were also kids in the back of the truck.Fortunately, he never fired. You heard gunshots all the time. These people were shooting at National Guardsmen, police officers and rescuers in boats. I saw approximately 60 Wildlife Fish and Game Officers leave the area with as many trucks and rescue boats after having been shot at. The helicopters that were bringing food, water and people that had been picked up from roofs and other flooded areas were being shot at and they had to stop landing. I saw a caravan of FEMA vans and trucks come into town right past my checkpoint and then leave after an hour because they said it was too dangerous.

I saw, from day one, miles of charter buses come in and take out thousands of refugees, right through my checkpoint. When I finally heard the news on TV after getting home and heard Mayor Nagin complaining that he wasn't getting any help and nobody wasn't doing anything I almost got sick. I would have knocked him out if he was standing in front of me. (You have to know this man's history of running / ruining this city). There was more help and aid coming into that city from day one than you could have ever imagined.

By the third day they were setting fires to homes and businesses. It is my belief, based on experience, that a lot of fires were intentionally being set to cover up other crimes, many being capital crimes. The death toll is expected to be in the thousands and won't be known until after all the water is drained and some semblance of order is restored.

I must have given bottled water to a hundred women carrying infants in the 90+ sun and walking for miles. They were pushing the elderly and infirm in shopping carts and dragging dresser drawers with clothes and personal belongings. It was so hot we had agents close to passing out because we were in the sun, wearing our vests.

The last caravan left the prison about 7pm last night and it felt good to get home, take a shower and sleep in a bed.

P.S. We have several thousand evacuees right here in town ...

Comments

[Bigfish]

Amazing stuff thanks Dan.
BF

[Observer]

WOW!!!!!!Absolutely Outrageous!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Shari]

I know this has been an extremely difficult time for our nation and I understand the desire of keeping this story quiet. This has brought out an ugliness in America that I never knew could exist in our nation, for the majority of us are civilized people. Stories such as these should be told for all to hear, as hard as it is, and may the healing begin.

[Hooch]

Thank you for that post.

[Just Somebody's Grandma]

IMO This is why more people were not rescued out of New Orleans shortly after the hurricane. I'm in North Louisiana and we are dealing with the folks that were brought to the shelters, will not comply with the rules and have been asked to leave the shelters. They are now on our streets. A security guard was stabbed 2 blocks from a nearby hospital, homes have been broken into in the area of the shelter, purse snatchings have been reported and our normally quite city is walking on egg shells. We are locking our homes, offices and warning our family and loved ones to be "extra careful"! How do you help people who want to hurt others??

[George T.]

The anger of Watts in a new form does not excuse this atrocious behavior. We need stun guns to stop the behaviors and then prison shelters to put the perps in until we have other opportunities to deal with their civil rights.

[MarlboroGal]

I'm in North Louisiana and we are dealing with the folks that were brought to the shelters, will not comply with the rules and have been asked to leave the shelters. They are now on our streets. A security guard was stabbed 2 blocks from a nearby hospital, homes have been broken into in the area of the shelter, purse snatchings have been reported and our normally quite city is walking on egg shells. We are locking our homes, offices and warning our family and loved ones to be "extra careful"! How do you help people who want to hurt others??
Posted by: Just Somebody's Grandma | Sep 3, 2005 9:58:34 AM

Good question, Grandma. I know how I would "help" them if they broke into my house, but then again that's me. I'd send them on their way to meet Jesus.

[j aloyisius]

My good friend is at Algiers Point, sleeping with his gun and hoping he's not the next person shot in the face by some scumbag to get his stereo. He's white, all of the looters in the neighborhood are young black men. He attended a black college, has many black friends, but his faith in humanity, and in the black community, has vanished, and he feels compelled to leave. He feels like a hunted animal, and somehow, HE is to blame for the injustice that supposedly caused these people to act like hyenas on the feed. He minds his own business, bought a modest house, owns a crappy car, has a small, unprofitable business, and does odd jobs on the side. Why the hell are they trying to kill him to steal his stuff? I've talked to him a couple times a day for the past week, and, while it's getting better, he has said, "if it's going to be me or them, I'm going to come out alive." And he's going to leave the neighborhood and NO forever, leave it to the hyenas. Where in the US does a WHITE neighborhood do this to their own TODAY? Why is the WHITE America's fault? Why doesn't BLACK American own up to their responsibility for a culture that has nurtured this fat, lazy, jobless rabble who take their checks, and then sell drugs, sell their bodies, make babies without any regard for their future, and then, incredibly, when God has given them an opportunity to show that they truly are a colorless community which comes together in a crisis, they make it necessary for people to hate them, and maybe forever, as a race. I am a liberal, and I am deeply shaken by this, and I am wondering if, all along, all those nutty right-wing freaks were right, that we should condemn these people and good riddance. I know that's wrong, but right now, with my friend a stray bullet away from a senseless death, I say let them fucking die in a rain of bullets and napalm, every mother fucking drug dealing bastard that hunts people just because they have a gun.

[Hooch]

I was on another thread yesterday talking about my concern on bringing the refugees to my Texas city. Some didn't understand my concern for safety. I explained that my concern was ligit and now reading these post about them not complying in Northern LA just goes to prove it.

[homewoodmom]

Is not NO known as a murder capital? Why the surprise at this behavior? Instead of blaming the fed. gov't for their woes, why don't they take a good, long look at their mayor and their governor for being so ineffectual?

[*flo*]

RE:
I saw a caravan of FEMA vans and trucks come into town right past my checkpoint and then leave after an hour because they said it was too dangerous.
There was more help and aid coming into that city from day one than you could have ever imagined.
-------------------------

Makes you question why the military was not activated sooner, as in rapid deployment, people in war zones get fed.

[*flo*]

IMO This is why more people were not rescued out of New Orleans shortly after the hurricane
Posted by: Just Somebody's Grandma | Sep 3, 2005 9:58:34 AM
This statement you're exactly right...it was too dangerous to bring in the resources for these victims.
Any lack of urgency to deploy readiness commands to protect NO victims and apprehend a prison of 4000, I have a problem comprehending this.

[Just Somebody's Grandma]

I have a friend who lives behind me here in N. Louisiana, He is one of 7 US Airforce military men who specialize in health,food and water safety. He went to overseas last year and all he did was make sure our troops had a healthy environment to live in, safe food, and water. I pray they do not call him to go down to N.O. we enjoy his company too much to lose him to the freak show down there.

[Hooch]

Ok-what do you do in a rescue situation? You don't automatically send in military fighters ready to fight. You send in relief workers, i.e. FEMA, Red Cross, and the likes. When they were unable to do their job because they were not safe they had to abort their mission of rescue. Correct Flo? They had to get back to their command centers. Plan B had to come into play, i.e. National Guard.

Who would have thought people trying to help would get shot at or held hostage in the United States by fellow citizens.

I can't believe our own people would do that to relief workers. To hell with them and to hell with you people trying to blame our Commander in Chief.

You and those thugs are a disgrace and are most unpatriotic.

Please-stop wasting time and figure out how you can help. All this has done is slow down the relief effort.

Shame on you Flo

[lauraw]

"I am a liberal, and I am deeply shaken by this, and I am wondering if, all along, all those nutty right-wing freaks were right, that we should condemn these people and good riddance."

This is not what right wingers believe.
The system that encourages people toward a shiftless and lawless life is to blame.

You can't suspend the rules of civilization in a place for 50 years and expect those rules to magically kick in during an emergency.

[Alee]

On Wednesday about 100 trucks with citizens from around the Lafayette area gathered at 4 A.M. at the Cajan Dome. All the trucks were pulling trailors with flatbed boats. These were ordinary citizens going to New Orleans to help with the rescue. They all pulled out with a police escort. When they got close to New Orleans the convoy was stopped. They were told that there was no way to get into the city, thanked them for their help and sent them back home. It wasn't until the men got home that they found out the real reason they were sent back. It was because the escape prisoners were shooting anyone who came trying to help.

Why is the news not reporting this?? Why are they putting all the blame on the local authorities?

[Just Somebody's Grandma]

Why is the news not reporting this?? Why are they putting all the blame on the local authorities?

Posted by: Alee
Probably for the same reason the stabbing in my town was not reported! My co-workers and I heard and verified that news from hospital employees and I then later found out about the purse snatchings and break-ins from residents who live in the area. I guess the government doesn't want to panic everyone. But between the folks I work with, my family and the residents around the hospital and shelter, plenty of North Louisiana residents know what is going on.

[Alee]

I live in Central Mississippi. For the last few days we have heard of many many crimes committed all the way from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, up to Brookhaven, Jackson and even as far up as Memphis. I assumed this was because there was so many people suffering and being stressed to the max. Now I'm wondering if that's really the case.

[clintcarter]

All this 'sturm und drang' about a report that turned out to be false. All this venting over a false rumor. Scary.

It's worth noting that the same blogs griping about how prisoners got out before others cite as proof that the prisoners were gone by Sept. 1st; while the eagerly accepted 'report' above says that 'thousands' of people were being evacuated in buses that drove by (the commenter) Before Sept. 1, which proves everyone is lying about the lack of federal response!

Disgusting lies perpetrated, rather than uncovered, by the bloggers. In this case.

[*flo*]

RE: These people were shooting at National Guardsmen, police officers and rescuers in boats.

When they were unable to do their job because they were not safe they had to abort their mission of rescue. Correct Flo? They had to get back to their command centers. Plan B had to come into play, i.e. National Guard.
Posted by: Hooch | Sep 3, 2005 8:14:42 PM

Hooch, National Guards were already in place, just need to take this situation and hope our Representives will strive for improvement

Hooch...the National Guards were already in place

[Hooch]

LA National Guards Flo. Not Federal. This is a local government issues. And let me tell you it is an issue.

As I said-it's a disgrace and I am sickened. And for anyone to try to make is a Bush thing they need to be productive in helping build moral and relief.

Focus your energy there. Please, be American.

[*flo*]

LA National Guards Flo. Not Federal. This is a local government issues. And let me tell you it is an issue.

Focus your energy there. Please, be American.

Posted by: Hooch | Sep 4, 2005 4:19:20 PM

Hooch you sound somewhat confused...this became a federal issue...regardless if you like it or not or even can accept it

[curlo]

those coloreds are nasty

theyve been showin it many years - the race riots of the 60s, the rodney king celebration (when they also looted and killed)

man, theyre just animals

i dont blame anyone who wants to live apart from them

[clintcarter]

hey curlo meet ya down by the feed trough-

we'll suck some marrow and p*ss everywhere

heh?

[CONCERNED LITTLE BROTHER]

WHERE CAN I GET INFO ABOUT MY BROTHER HE WS LOCKE DUP IN OPP.

[CONCERNED LITTLE BROTHER]

IF ANYONE KNOWS WHERE TO GET INFO ON OPP INMATES PLEASE LET ME KNOW MY FAMILY AND I ARE REALLY CWORRIED PLEASE ANYONE LET ME KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[galloway]

clintcarter -

Which report do you think is false? If you are speaking of the original prison riot post, you can always view the original post at bassboatcentral.com, page 2 of the Hurricane Katrina forum...titled Three Days in New Orleans. The eyewitness actually posts his real name.

And by the way, the eyewitness account of the Lafayette area citizens who attempted to assist in rescue operations, but were turned back by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is also posted there on page 1. It is corroborated by forum regular who witnessed the departure of these good Samaritans from the Acadiana Mall.

Personally, I lived 2 miles from the Acadiana Mall for more than 10 years...the details in both postings ring true and accurate. And as I have said, there are none more honest than the residents of Acadiana.

[charles bolli]

it conserns me that there seems to be a news black out about certain news information exp.bushs'bill to end overtime thak god that one did not pass or the prison riot, no body I talk to at a party last night herd anthing about them make you wonder are we being told only what the goverment wants us to hear? are we being programed? and who is behind this censership? who has that much power that they controll what go's on the 6 oclock news ? I tell people about reports I find on web they look at me like I must be crazy poeple need to get the word out about this

[GAYNELL ROBINSON]

wHERE IS MARLIN gUSMAN, nEW oRLEANS CRIMINAL SHERIFF?

[orlando barnes]

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