Nope. Not surprised at all.

Posted December 18th, 2008 by Prometheus 6

Surrounded by a crowd of sunburned white Algiers Point locals at a barbeque held not long after the hurricane, he smiles and tells the camera, "It was great! It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it." A native of Chicago, Janak also boasts of becoming a true Southerner, saying, "I am no longer a Yankee. I earned my wings." A white woman standing next to him adds, "He understands the N-word now." In this neighborhood, she continues, "we take care of our own."

You saw Katrina's Hidden Race War at The Nation, right? You're still on Color of Change's mailing list, right?

You weren't surprised, were you? You remember the seven New Orleans cops indicted for murder, right?

No?

Then you must remember the bridge to Gretna the cops blockaded.

No. no. you're thinking of the Jefferson Parish bridge the cops blockaded, that was a different one.

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Don't forget the private

On December 18th, 2008 Solar Soul says:

Don't forget the private security companies:

A possibly deadly incident involving Quinn’s hired guns underscores the dangers of private forces policing American streets. On his second night in New Orleans, Quinn’s security chief, Michael Montgomery, who said he worked for an Alabama company called Bodyguard and Tactical Security (BATS), was with a heavily armed security detail en route to pick up one of Quinn’s associates and escort him through the chaotic city. Montgomery told me they came under fire from “black gangbangers” on an overpass near the poor Ninth Ward neighborhood. “At the time, I was on the phone with my business partner,” he recalls. “I dropped the phone and returned fire.”

Montgomery says he and his men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and that they unleashed a barrage of bullets in the general direction of the alleged shooters on the overpass. “After that, all I heard was moaning and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it. Enough said.”

Then, Montgomery says, “the Army showed up, yelling at us and thinking we were the enemy. We explained to them that we were security. I told them what had happened and they didn’t even care. They just left.” Five minutes later, Montgomery says, Louisiana state troopers arrived on the scene, inquired about the incident and then asked him for directions on “how they could get out of the city.” Montgomery says that no one ever asked him for any details of the incident and no report was ever made. “One thing about security,” Montgomery says, “is that we all coordinate with each other–one family.” That co-ordination doesn’t include the offices of the Secretaries of State in Louisiana and Alabama, which have no record of a BATS company.

Blackwater Down

Welcome back

On December 19th, 2008 ProfGeo (not verified) says:

You saw Katrina's Hidden Race War at The Nation, right?

No I hadn't, so thanks for pointing it out. I have a hard copy subscription (there is no online substitute for getting a fresh Nation crossword in the mail) and I don't visit their site much. The Jan. 5 issue with this article isn't here yet.

BTW considering the source I briefly thought the editor (Ms. vanden Heuvel) was up to something.

This was interesting...

On December 19th, 2008 sweetjamaican says:

This was interesting...

"I'm not a racist," Pervel insists. "I'm a classist. I want to live around people who want the same things as me."

I wonder what wants he thinks he doesn't have in common with "lower class" people.

ETA: Okay, now that I've finished reading it, I'm sick to my stomach. I'm hoping against the odds that there will be some kind of justice.

Prometheus 6