Amy's Robot

Hell isn't over: Photo ops, PR not enough to end violence, mayhem +++

See multiple updates below.

As everyone else celebrates the arrival of the troops and supplies, Reuters tells the stories no one else wants to:

Other survivors recounted horrific cases of sexual assault and murder.

Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, said men had wandered the cavernous convention center in recent nights raping and murdering children.

She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 a.m. on Friday morning, four hours after the young girl went missing from her parents inside the convention center.

"She was raped for four hours until she was dead," Joseph said through tears. "Another child, a seven-year old boy was found raped and murdered in the kitchen freezer last night."

Several others interviewed by Reuters told similar stories of the abuse and murder of children, but they could not be independently verified.

[source]

Earlier tonight, Nightline did a good job of reporting that despite all of today's positive spin, the hell is far from over, and no effective civil command structure is yet in place.

Meanwhile, here's FEMA chief Michael Brown:

I actually think the security is pretty darn good.

Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well.

[source]

Update: As of Saturday morning, evacuation of the Superdome has been suspended, possibly until tomorrow, leaving 2,000 people there, and until a couple hours ago no one had been evacuated from the convention center. Officials said they want to evacuate the Dome first, but then diverted all buses to the convention center. Why they are not clearing the two in parallel is beyond me.

Update (6 pm): And now more bad news. This Reuters article quotes people who say the National Guard and the police have killed two innocent people, one of whom was trying to report a gang rape. One soldier says they found a girl who had been raped and murdered, and that the crowd killed the perpetrator. Reuters reporters who attempted to reach a makeshift morgue were threatened with beatings by the Guard.

This article says 2/3 of the New Orleans police dept have abandoned their jobs. That leaves them with, what, around 500 officers? Meanwhile, federal law enforcement agencies imply everything is fine by saying, "The worst is behind us."

Update (10pm): Superdome and Convention Center are reportedly cleared. 100,000+ refugees in Houston.

categories: News
posted by adm at 1:38 AM | #