From:
Date: 9/13/2005
Time: 9:32:44 PM
Remote Name: 192.168.7.12
Please Forward Widely: >> > >> > -(from a friend at the Univ of Texas. It seems to me that everyone >> > should hear this - it's so easy to believe that it was mad gangs with >> > guns roaming New Orleans as we have been told when in fact there is >> > another story to tell) >> > >> > *the following message is from an african-american former graduate >> > student at UT. she, lisa moore, whom i don't know, is writing about >> > what her aunt, denise, told her. i begin in mid-message.* >> > >> > the buses came and took them to the Ernest Memorial Convention Center. >> > (yes, the convention center you've all seen on TV.) >> > >> > Denise said she thought she was in hell. they were there for 2 days, >> > with no water, no food. no shelter. >> > Denise, her mother (63 years old), her niece (21 years old), and >> > 2-year-old grandniece. when they arrived, there were already thousands >> > of people there. >> > they were told that buses were coming. police drove by, windows rolled >> > up, thumbs up signs. national guard trucks rolled by, completely empty, >> > soldiers with guns cocked and aimed at them. nobody stopped to drop off >> > water. a helicopter dropped a load of water, but all the bottles >> > exploded on impact due to the height of the helicopter. >> > >> > the first day (Wednesday) 4 people died next to her. >> > the second day (Thursday) 6 people died next to her. >> > Denise told me the people around her all thought they had been sent >> > there to die. again, nobody stopped. the only buses that came were > full; >> > they dropped off more and more people, but nobody was being picked up >> > and taken away. they found out that those being dropped off had been >> > rescued from rooftops and attics; they got off the buses delirious from >> > lack of water and food. completely dehydrated. the crowd tried to keep >> > them all in one area; Denise said the new arrivals had mostly lost > their >> > minds. they had gone crazy. >> > >> > inside the convention center, the place was one huge bathroom. in order >> > to shit, you had to stand in other people's shit. the floors were black >> > and slick with shit. most people stayed outside because the smell was > so >> > bad. but outside wasn't much better: between the heat, the humidity, >> > the lack of water, the old and very young dying from dehydration... and >> > there was no place to lay down, not even room on the sidewalk. >> > they slept outside Wednesday night, under an overpass. >> > >> > Denise said yes, there were young men with guns there. but they >> > organized the crowd. they went to Canal Street and "looted," and > brought >> > back food and water for the old people and the babies, because nobody >> > had eaten in days. when the police rolled down windows and yelled out >> > "the buses are coming," the young men with guns organized the crowd in >> > order: old people in front, women and children next, men in the back. >> > just so that when the buses came, there would be priorities of who got >> > out first. >> > >> > Denise said the fights she saw between the young men with guns were >> > fist fights. she saw them put their guns down and fight rather than >> > shoot up the crowd. >> > but she said that there were a handful of people shot in the convention >> > center; their bodies were left inside, along with other dead babies and >> > old people. >> > >> > Denise said the people thought there were being sent there to die. lots >> > of people being dropped off, nobody being picked up. cops passing by, >> > speeding off. >> > national guard rolling by with guns aimed at them. >> > and yes, a few men shot at the police, because at a certain point all >> > the people thought the cops were coming to hurt them, to kill them all. >> > she saw a young man who had stolen a car speed past, cops in pursuit; > he >> > crashed the car, got out and ran, and the cops shot him in the back. >> > in front of the whole crowd. >> > she saw many groups of people decide that they were going to walk > across >> > the bridge to the west bank, and those same groups would return, saying >> > that they were met at the top of the bridge by armed police ordering >> > them to turn around, that they weren't allowed to leave. >> > >> > so they all believed they were sent there to die. >> > >> > Denise's niece found a pay phone, and kept trying to call her mother's >> > boyfriend in Baton Rouge, and finally got through and told him where >> > they were. >> > the boyfriend, and Denise's brother, drove down from Baton Rouge and >> > came and got them. they had to bribe a few cops, and talk a few into >> > letting them into the city ("come on, man, my 2-year-old niece is at > the >> > Convention Center!"), then they took back roads to get to them. >> > >> > after arriving at my other cousin's apartment in Baton Rouge, they saw >> > the images on TV, and couldn't believe how the media was portraying the >> > people of New Orleans. she kept repeating to me on the phone last >> > night: make sure you tell everybody that they left us there to die. >> > nobody came. those young men with guns were protecting us. if it wasn't >> > for them, we wouldn't have had the little water and food they had >> > found. >> > >> > that's Denise Moore's story. >> > Lisa C. Moore >> > >> >> > >> > >> > >> >> >>