A story from Katrina's aftermath

On last Friday's podcast from DemocracyNow they aired a story about 2 people, Lorrie Beth Slonsky of San Francisco, a retired paramedic from the San Francisco Fire Department, and Larry Slonsky, also of the SF Fire Department.

So here are 2 individuals, emergency medical workers, attending a conference when Katrina hits. They saw firsthand how the poor and black were treated by the local authorities. Here is an excerpt from the transcript below...

LORRIE BETH SLONSKY: Now it's day four and the hotels had completely run out of fuel for the generator and food and water. And sanitation, even in this very fancy hotel had become dangerously abysmal. And it seemed like our only choice was to go to the Convention Center. As we left the hotel, we came across the National Guard, and this is where they told us that we couldn't go to the Superdome nor the Convention Center, and they didn't have any suggestions where we should go, and they also said we should have gotten out there sooner. And no, they didn't have any food, and no, they didn't have any water to spare. And then the next thing we came across was the Police Command Center and this is at Harrods on Canal Street and we were told the same thing: that we are on our own, and they had no place to suggest where we should go, and they didn't have any food, but they did give us four small bottles of water to share among the probably 200 folks that had left the hotel and the downtown tourist type folks. That's what they had to give us was four small bottles of water to spare.

So, right across the street from this Police Command Center was this amphitheater type place and we thought the best thing to do is to go ahead and camp across the street from the Police Command Center. Because we thought, well, we would be visual to the media and we have some sort of a protection, and before we got too comfy, the Police Commander came up to us and said we needed to go to the bridge because they were going to be buses waiting there to take us out of the city. You know, this crowd of 200 that had left the hotel in the downtown area, we just let out a big old cheer, but Larry called everyone back and said to the police officer and to the folks that, you know, we have been given so much misinformation and was he sure there were buses? And I have to tell you, Amy, that he looked at us directly and he said, I swear to you that the buses are there.

So, we group of about 200 people, set off to the bridge, and I have to say, we must have looked like quite determined tourists with our little roll-top suitcases following behind us, and we passed near the Convention Center, and locals asked us where we were going. And we told them the great news, how the police commander said that there was going to be buses at the bridge, so you know, families grabbed their few belongs and we all started marching up towards the bridge. And our numbers doubled and probably doubled again. We were probably about 600, 700, 800 people. Just it seemed like a lot of people. So, it started to rain, and even though it started to pour down rain, we -- our -- it didn't dampen our spirits at all. We felt like, God, we have a way out of here on day four. And as we approached, there were armed Gretna deputies. And they had formed a line at foot of the bridge. And before we were even close enough to cross, they shot guns, they shot guns over our heads. They fired guns over our heads. And this group of families and, may I say, disabled people, children, tourists, I mean, just everyone, we just all scattered in all sorts of directions. And then everyone was in their own small little groups and milling around and what to do next.

And this is when Larry approached the Gretna deputies, and you know, he had his badge, his San Francisco Fire Department badge and had his hands up and asked if he could approach. And he was able to engage the deputies in some conversation. And Larry told them that we were told by the Police Command Post that we needed to come here to the bridge, because we we’re going to get on buses. And the deputy said that the Police Commander had apparently lied to us, and there were in fact no buses that were going to take us out of New Orleans. So, we asked the deputies, well, why couldn't we just cross the bridge anyway? And this is -- this is what we heard for the first time that the deputies had said to us, they said, this is not New Orleans, and there wasn't -- they were not going to have a Superdome over here, meaning, I guess in Gretna or Algiers or across the bridge. And I -- if you looked at the group that was remaining in our little group, I mean, you could only look at us and see that -- predominantly everyone was African-American or a person of color except for Larry, me, and the other gal we were with that it could only mean that if you are poor, or if you are black, you are not going to get out of New Orleans.

...how's that for 'to protect and serve'? Apparently all those poor folk stuck in New Orleans, trying to flee on foot, were turned away by ARMED police. They were prisoners in their own city, unable to leave or flee the disaster.

I am just outraged by this. I had to share it, because the story of Katrina is not told by talking heads in Atlanta or Washington, but by the individuals who witness it firsthand. May we all listen to them and not forget the lesson of where we are being led as a nation by crony politicians and our own selfishness.