Police Chief Says Thousands Trapped in New Orleans Convention Center

AP ^ | 1-Sept-2005 | AP

[Fitzcarraldo]

The New Orleans police chief says 15-thousand people are trapped in the city's convention center. And he says some are being raped and beaten.

Chief Eddie Compass says displaced tourists are "walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."

Compass said he sent eight eleven-man teams into the convention center. But as soon as the first team arrived, he said, "they were beaten back within 30 feet of the entrance."

Earlier, the city's mayor issued a "desperate SOS" on behalf of the thousands who are stranded at the convention center.

He also gave the go-ahead for them to march across a bridge to a dry area of the city and look for whatever relief they could find.

[MikeHu]

Unfortunately, as many now realize, there's no electricity.

[nicmarlo]

Hi BG.

[livius]

Could easily be BS. Hope it's true, though.

[Blessed]

>MY GOD what is taking so long? The women and children SHOULD have been the first ones out...SOMEONE IS DROPPING THE FREAKIN BALL ROYALLY on this one!!<

Nice rant but think about limitations.One hwy open.No airports open.How would you evacuate them and how would you get supplies in? I know you would wish it all to happen.

[browardchad]

The "civic leaders" should face summary execution

Add the governor; then she'll really have a reason to cry.

[jpsb]

The "battle reports" comming from New Orleans do not sound typical of criminal activity, not at all, criminal do not stand and fight law enforcement, they run. These sounds much more organized and much more determined, of cousre it could all be hype and not true, but if there are "units" standing and fighting law enforcement then I would be incliuned to think terrorists cells, or wanta be terrorists.

[Modernman]

My best guess is terrorist cells enbedded in New Orleans, this is a golden opportunity if you are a terroist and can manage to get into New Orleans.

A golden opportunity to do what, exactly?

The city is ruined, so blowing up buildings is kind of pointless.

National guardsmen are starting to end up all over the place. Not a good environment to be in, if you're a terrorist.

[HairOfTheDog]

The thing is, we know more about their situation than they do... they've had no aid, and have been given no information! They're about to go insane from complete disconnect from ~everything~. They are mad, hungry, some are sick, and they don't know if there will be help today, tomorrow, or next week. They were told to stay there and buses would come.

[DaGman]

"I'm surprised nobody else has put two and two together here: There are thousands who could not leave because mass transit doesn't work in an emergency!"

It seems to be beyond quite a few folks that for these people, it's a little more than load up the SUV, grab the dog and cat, and let's go to grandma's for a few days.

[Rosenkreutz]

> It is your patriotic duty as an American to lend a hand.

Well, I'm not an American, but I will certainly be making a donation to the relief effort.

[pa mom]

Terrorists? Home grown, certainly, but not foreign. This is thuggish behavior, made especially bad in the total breakdown of any civic authority.

But it is not Al Queda.

[Zeppo]

I have never set foot in New Orleans, but my (mostly uninformed) guess is that we are seeing behavior that has long been part of the culture there.

Anecdotal evidence: In perhaps 1978 or 1979 or thereabouts, I was working for a major multinational corporation which held annual sales meetings for their top sales representatives at interesting tourist locations. The year in question, one of those sales meetings was held in New Orleans. The company would fly in their sales reps from all over the country (and other parts of the world, too), where they would be met at the airport and chartered buses would take them from the airport to the hotel that was the center for the company's meetings.

As I recall the story, there had been a severe rainstorm, with minor street flooding, and one or two of the buses had been temporarily stranded on a road between the airport and the hotel. What happened then was a tourist's nightmare, with armed men getting on the buses, and holding the passengers at gunpoint while their accomplices stole watches, jewelry, cameras, wallets and purses, and anything else of value that they could get their hands on.

I don't know whether or not there was any physical violence perpetrated on the passengers in that incident. I don't believe that it was an isolated incident, either. The criminal predator-vs.-prey culture that led to such an event 25 years ago is apparently still well-entrenched in New Orleans today, and probably has roots going back hundreds of years, which is why I am not all that surprised to hear of disgusting tales such as this one.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Hi nic. Thanks for all the pings today...I may not respond, but I'm reading. ;)

[Old Professer]

Surely you anthropomorphize...

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

That's what I thought. I suppose they're concerned about more innocents getting killed in a stampede once the shooting begins.

[PAR35]

My question is this, has the crime rate risen in NO the past few days or is this how it is on a typical day there and we just do not hear about it on the National News?

I don't know what it has been recently, but it used to run about one tourist a month killed. New Orleans has always been high on the per-capita murder rates, mostly friends and family type murders like any other urban area.

The crime doesn't really surprise me; the lack of response to it does. There was a guy on tv a minute ago calling from the Convention Center begging that the National Guard NOT be sent in.

[Williams]

Michael Medved put this in perspective same thing happened after Chicago, SF quake, etc. He said we can only raise families go about our work, etc because the police protect us.

Liberals don't understand there are very bad criminals in every society, and in most countries they (the sociopathic criminals) are the ones running the country. Ala Sadaam and his sons.

[joesnuffy]

It's a special case...they do not have the love of Christ in their hearts..the lawlessness is always there but is under restraint as the law was always nearby..and they feared it..

Now they know the law cannot touch them..and so they are no longer restrained...from without

They were never truly restrained from within...

They are a mob...lustful, greedy, bloodthirsty.... If not stopped violently and soon they will grow in evil and in evil deeds

Look at Angola,Mogadishu and Mugabe's government..

Democracy is not meant for everyone..only those who have Christ's law written in their hearts..(whether they acknowledge Him as the source or not)

This is what the founding father's instinctively knew and tried to protect us from

...to destroy America simply fill it with those who hate God..

And a police state filled with corrupt police will emerge.

For even a police state filled with corrupt police is better than this..

Imagine giving such a people the vote and the power to make laws the rest of us have to live under?

The heart and soul of the democrat party too boot

imo

[livius]

Wonder if any Navy SEALS are there?

I've been wondering, too. They used to train someplace around there when my son was in the Navy. He spent a really ugly week or so in a swamp there, living on nutria and snakes.

[nanetteclaret]

I heard a woman on Rush today who said that this is what has happened to her sister. Conditions at the hotel were dreadful with no plumbing, air conditioning, food, or water. The hotel charged then charged them $75.00 a person to rent a vehicle, but the vehicle was comandeered by thugs, so the hotel told the guests to walk to the convention center. She said she had not heard from her sister since they left the hotel.