Category Archives: Katrina
Cop pleads guilty to Katrina murders
Actually, its ex-cop Michael Hunter. From ProPublica:
Former New Orleans police officer Michael Hunter pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of conspiring to obstruct justice and failure to report a felony for his role in the Danziger Bridge shootings, which occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He’s the third ex-cop to admit guilt in the ongoing case.
On Sept. 4, 2005, Hunter and other officers barraged a group of civilians with gunfire, killing two and wounding four others. The latest guilty plea, covered in depth by our partners at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, offers fresh details about that bloody day.
The judge who accepted Hunter’s guilty plea said she was “sickened by the raw brutality of the shooting and the craven lawlessness of the cover-up” by police.
Almost five years after the fact..It’s about time justice prevails in this case. PBS’s Frontline has more.
It started with a photograph
From ProPublica:
It was three days after the levees broke: Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005 — in my limited view, the day things completely fell apart in New Orleans.
The desperation was mounting. The cavalry wasn’t coming, it seemed. We were in it alone.
As we drove up Religious Street, just past the Saulet Apartments, we saw a dicey situation ahead. Police-issue Crown Victorias blocking the intersection. A parked bus and a wrecked limo. And a swarm of police officers in the street, guns drawn, facing the other direction.
Georgiev, a Macedonian national who has spent much of his life covering wars, went into gung-ho mode. He took a right — toward the lake — on Race Street. Then left at the next block, St. Thomas Street. Then left again on Richard. And suddenly, we were right in the middle of chaos.
We saw a man, clad in a white T-shirt, down on the pavement, hands behind his back, not moving. We were both sure he was dead. A lot of agitated police officers hovered around.
It seemed no one noticed, though we were less than 50 feet away. Georgiev shot off a few frames, then started to drive away. As he passed through the intersection, the cops yelled at us to stop. Some had their guns raised. I shouted to stop, and Georgiev did, not as quickly as I would have.
A few cops rushed over and stuck their guns in our faces. I said I worked for the Picayune. I was told to shut up and get out.
They threw us up against a cinderblock wall and frisked us. There was a lot of cursing, and one of the officers mentioned a shootout.
One of the cops grabbed the notebook out of my shorts. They also snatched one of Georgiev’s cameras.
Lying in the weeds
A few months ago, I reached out to Georgiev, who lives in Macedonia, and he sent me two photos of the incident. A closer look at them reveals that there seem to be two guys on the ground, not one. Georgiev’s second shot shows a human form in the street, next to one of the police cars, wearing a red shirt and hidden behind weeds.
As it happens, the existence of a second person squares with the only official account of the incident I’ve been able to get thus far. That account came from Anthony Cannatella, a semiretired deputy chief with 42 years on the force who during Katrina was the commander of the 6th District, where the incident happened.
Cannatella — to his credit, one of the only officers who will talk about any of this — was one of the cops who responded, though I didn’t see him that day. As Katrina descended, Cannatella says he told “his guys” this: “We’re gonna do basic police work until someone comes and relieves us.”
Read the rest of the article here. There are federal grand juries investigating the actions of the NOLA PD after Katrina. How they shot first and never asked questions later. In my heart, I know there were police officers that did the right thing..just as there are police officers who did not. How anyone will be able to separate them, years later, is the $50,000.00 question.
But you really can’t put a price on a human life.
From our Dept of WTF?
I couldn’t believe it. I thought perhaps it was the codeine cough medicine that was jerking me out. When I heard what The Shrub said in his cough…final Presser today about Katrina, I thought I was going to stroke the hell out.
First, he didn’t even get the number of “people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed.” correct..it took days and days for any federal help to get there. There were so many fuck ups by the Fed’s, who can name them all in five minutes? The sumbitch outright lied about Katrina today in his press conference…may Gawd have mercy on his lying ass.
Bush’s legacy will always be about Iraq, torture, loss of our constitutional rights and finally the worst…Katrina. Katrina was an abject failure of the highest order…on our own soil.
Watch Rachel and Jeb Horne tick off all the failures regarding FEMA and the Bush administration as a whole, when it comes to responding to Katrina, the levee’s failing and 1800 people dying:
One friggin week left of this lying sack of sheep shit..one more week.
Going back to bed, my throat is killing me and I now have a headache from thinking about the horror that was..and sadly still is..Katrina and how The Shrub lied his ever-loving ass off about it today.
Katrina made landfall today…
Three years ago it was the beginning of the horror that still manifests itself today in the gulf region. The Angry Black Bitch has a worthy post up about this topic as well.
Katrina however, was merely the conduit. Katrina showed us that the levees were fallible and the Bush Administration was worthless.
A noble cause still needs donations to help rebuild the NOLA area. Please consider sending them a few bucks if your able, I have done so in the past and will today to commemorate this horror that still affects hundreds of thousands of human beings. The Musicians Village fund still wants to make it right for people affected…help them if you can. Click the graphic to donate. 
Its my Right to be Left of the Center 