Newark to New Orleans: The Myth of the Black Sniper
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However, as the New York Times documented, these false reports had real consequences: "In the days after Hurricane Katrina, terror from crimes seen and unseen, real and rumored, gripped New Orleans. The fears changed troop deployments, delayed medical evacuations, drove police officers to quit, grounded helicopters."
A team of paramedics was barred from entering Slidell, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, for nearly 10 hours based on a state trooper's report that a mob of armed, marauding people had commandeered boats. It turned out to be two men escaping from their flooded streets, said Farol Champlin, a paramedic with the Acadian Ambulance Company.
On another occasion, the company's ambulances were locked down after word came that a firehouse in Covington had been looted by armed robbers of all its water—a report that proved totally untrue, said Aaron Labatt, another paramedic.
A contingent of National Guard troops was sent to rescue a St. Bernard Parish deputy sheriff who radioed for help, saying he was pinned down by a sniper. Accompanied by a SWAT team, the troops surrounded the area. The shots turned out to be the relief valve on a gas tank that popped open every few minutes, said Maj. Gen. Ron Mason of the 35th Infantry Division of the Kansas National Guard.
Racially tinged fears, fueled by rumor, may also have influenced suburban police to cut off one of the only escape routes from New Orleans to higher ground. A group of evacuees who had walked to a bridge leading from the city to the town of Gretna, where they had been told buses were waiting to take them to safety, instead, met a line of Gretna police armed with shotguns. One member of the group said: "We walked, probably 200 people, about a two-hour trek. We got to the top of the bridge. They stopped us with shotguns. We had people in wheelchairs, we had people in strollers, people on crutches, so we were a slow-moving group. And we didn't think anything when we saw the deputies there. Then all of a sudden we heard shooting." The mayor of Gretna later told 60 Minutes that the evacuees were turned away because Gretna lacked all services, and "you have to take care of your own population first." But he also admitted that he was affected by reports of crime and chaos in New Orleans. "So this environment of police officers being shot, citizens lying dead in the street, images of looting going on in the city of New Orleans made me realize that our community was in a crisis of far greater proportion than just of the hurricane."
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, apparently believing that his city was descending into lawless chaos, redirected virtually the entire police force from rescue operations to law enforcement. "They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas—hotels, hospitals and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said. The National Guard went considerably further, according to a report in the Army Times:
"This place is going to look like Little Somalia," Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard's Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. "We're going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control."
Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.
Dozens of military trucks and up-armored Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters….
The amphibious assault ship Bataan… kept its helicopters at sea Thursday night after several military helicopters reported being shot at from the ground.
Numerous soldiers also told Army Times that they have been shot at by armed civilians in New Orleans....
Bob Hennelley, who has reported extensively on the legacy of the Newark riots for WNYC public radio, says: "The 1967 phantom 'negro snipers' that was used to justify dozens of civilian homicides by law enforcement 40 years ago appears to have been the rhetorical equivalent of our 'weapons of mass destruction.'" Back in 2005, the Army Times conjured that same phantom, actually referring to the chaos in New Orleans—the supposed rebellion among people who have been abandoned by the thousands to suffer and die—as "the insurgency."
James Ridgeway is the Washington Correspondent for Mother Jones.
Comments:
I was there deep in the mess of the superdome and n.o. arena. I was working with NO Health Dept. at the time sheltering the medically needy. The staff of the State and City Health Dept. were escorted out of the Arena to make way for the "combat troops". They escorted us to the east club house exit of the arena. We were they told an Army truck would take us to busses. We watched as troops entered the n.o. arena. We stayed there in the water about seven hours before two guys that were with us hot wired a cargo truck. The people of NO were forced to do what we could save ourselves from the failure of federal levees (not Katrina). Blaming the victim is an American Tradition that will be very difficult to end. God Bless the people of the Gulf Coast.
Posted by:Clint BallJuly 17, 2007 10:34:22 AMRespond ^
I am amazed your article is dealing with an issue that never happened...i was there too in N.O. for the hurricane...the issue was never black snipers...i was a rumor that convicts had escaped the Orleans Parish Prison had broken into some local pawn shops near the jail. You know the type of businesses usually found near a jail, i.e. bail bondsmen etc. Your staff should deal with a bigger issue instead of racial injustice on N.O. and focus on a bigger issue affecting all of N.O. such as the massive funding dumped into Iraq and the federal shortfall of helping to provide aid to rebuilding our city. I'm sure the feds helped provide funding when the S.F. earthquake happened. Get your facts straight...and look at the picture. I know I was in Iraq and I saw the waste there too. Bush promised to help us in N.O. and I hear from most people around the country - The people of N.O. should basically rebuild ourselves...great...help Iraq a foreign country and leave Americans to help themselves. I'm sure every black and white in New Orleans have the same sentiments...Your facts are skewed about the rumors of black snipers...I guess the story sounds good to make a comparison with the Newark riots...We didn't have riots after Rodney King like Atlanta and L.A. Yes, there is poverty
but here in N.O. we all try to consider our brothers.
Posted by:steveJuly 17, 2007 9:01:26 PMRespond ^
Mr. Ridgeway, what you missed in all of this is that there was, historically, a very real New Orleans sniper.
Not long after the Newark riots, a man connected with the black nationalist movement picked off several police officers from the roof of a downtown hotel before being killed.
This figure likely still looms large in the minds of New Orleans police -- and might even have been a factor in their fear during the Katrina aftermath.
I would offer that an article exploring "the myth of the black sniper" in New Orleans is incomplete without some mention of the episode, detailed in Peter Hernon's gripping book "A Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper" -- http://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Thun der-Story-Orleans-Sniper/dp/1891053485
Posted by:Todd R. BrownJuly 17, 2007 10:52:32 PMRespond ^
We in New Jersey sent several trucks of things for our fellow counry-men in New Orleans. We had to, these are some fine folks, no matter what their color.
Someone had to care for them, our government was too busy worrying about Iraq.
54 cents of every tax dollar to the Middle East. Sorry New Orleans, despite your charm among your countrymen you elected officials turned a blind eye.
What an abomination.
Posted by:Douglas MaliszewskiJuly 19, 2007 10:22:50 AMRespond ^
i'd evacuated to gramercy (1/2 way between NO and baton rouge) we were staying with the woman who ran the st. james parish hospital - the "1st line of defense" hospital
no one would deliver supplies to the hospital - her son and i had to drive about 30 miles north of baton rouge to get the supplies for the hospital (delivery people were told to not get anywhere close to NO b/c they'd be shot)
now it wasn't a problem for us to drive that distance (we were happy to have something to do) and i honestly have no idea if anyone died for lack of medicine - i just know that that should not have happened
Posted by:jJuly 20, 2007 2:12:11 PMRespond ^
This is a very unnecessary and ill-judged story. We liberals cannot in our revisionism have it both ways: Either it WAS a "rebellion," in which soldiers from one side fired on soldiers fro the other, or it WASN'T, it was just, as you suggest, a police riot conducted against innocent people. We don't need to say that no black people fired weapons at cops in order to say that the police were at the saem time out of the control or that the city had a long history of racism and injustice toward blacks. This is silly stuff and makes "our side" sound kneejerk-irresponsible. Fuel for the Ashcrofts.
Posted by:John RomanoJuly 22, 2007 1:50:01 PMRespond ^
It's easy to dismiss this story of N.O. as hogwash. That way it makes it easier for us to cope w/ the lack of response to a major city in our country. A city that we left blowing in the wind (no pun intended) when they really needed our help. Let's blame the people of N.O., they caused themselves to be trapped because they wouldn't let people in to help them. This is the mindset of both the right and left. This story tells the truth. And Kanye was right!
Posted by:NateJuly 23, 2007 1:28:55 PMRespond ^
Ok so folks in both Newark and N.O. were mistaken. At least in the case of Newark the fear of a black sniper was at least reasonable given that blacks were the ones rioting. However, in the case of NO is is interesting that the that the author seems to place the blame on "white fear" and then he ascribes some actions to Chocolate Ray. In other instances the writer mentions confusing situtaions in N.O. that were not attributed to blacks at all but just confusion and hysteria. The reality of any disaster is that there is going to be fear, rumors and uncertainty. But instead of realizing that reality I guess that in the writer's mind it is cause for more white liberal guilt.
Posted by:JamesAugust 1, 2007 1:18:10 PMRespond ^
I live in N.O. and was in the city in the early days and I am sorry to tell you that I was shot at randomly by hoodlums. and a frind of our had serious bone break when a US soldier fell on her after they took fire loading a helicopter. a business associate killed people in his neighborhood. you are all fools to think that we are all human and no matter what color we are we are all capable of horrible things. you are naive to think the NY Times (yankees) could come here ang 'get the real story" we lie to other about what we know. how much worse would it bew for us if we told you the truth? And how much worse would it be when you realize it is a truth about yourselves, and that what happened to us can happen to you.
Posted by:lower garden districtAugust 10, 2007 8:15:19 AMRespond ^
I recall hearing repeated news reports about "Black Snipers On Buildings" shooting any of us white people in the post-Rodney King riots in LA and even SF, though much less so in SF. Granted, there were horrendous racial hate crimes committed in those riots, like the trucker with a brick to his head, but I wonder just how many black men were really perched on rooftops with 30-06's (spelling? sorry, haven't been to an NRA meeting recently) shooting anything lighter than an Octoroon [yeah, I actually had to look up how to spell that. Just how white am I after all? Can I start feeling black rage too now? probably not, since I sunburn in about 15 seconds. I'm just a damn ignunt white guy who WISHES I could be a black sniper with a cause. But if for no other reason I shouldn't ever try cause I'd shoot my own finger off like that kid did at camp (ah, proof I'm white! I went to summer camp where they had guns we, other than aforementioned kid, shot at paper circles, rather than staying home in the hood and shooting guns all summer vacation at each other. I had to leave the guns at the end of the two weeks, along with the horses, and that sucked! Of course at least we HAD horses at camp... no horses in the hood at all. Or so Hollywood informs me. For all I know black people all ride horses everywhere and don't really have to pay for $8 gallons of gas like us whities, though I kinda think they'd have a problem grazing them on concrete, so that must be more white FUD on my part. Did I forget to close a parenthesis? ) There, just in case. Really, I'm enlightened. Some of my best friends are, well, I guess I don't have any friends, but I DO have imagenary black fiends. I even, get this, have an imaginary Black Muslim friend, though they have NOTHING to do with Your Black Muslim Bakery in Berkeley where the dead founder had children with his own barely-teen foster kids and two of his sons are now up for murder raps, though I hear they had great vegi-burgers. I was just too scared to ever go there cause it said "Your Black Muslim Bakery" and I'm neither Black, Muslim nor a Baker, so I don't think I was one of them "Your"s they were referring to. Dear God, let me be reincarnated as a zebra so I don't have to ever worry about this stuff anymore!
Posted by:Fearful White DudeAugust 13, 2007 10:47:11 PMRespond ^
terrific article thanks so much. Jeannie
Posted by:jeannie OttAugust 14, 2007 6:01:58 PMRespond ^
For a historical analysis of the larger context of the riots, see, Kevin Mumford, NEWARK; A HISTORY OF RACE, RIGHTS, AND RIOTS IN AMERICA, (New York University Press, 2007). Hint: by looking only at the riots --or the so-called revolution-- one overlooks the political struggles that presaged conflict, but more importantly, you miss the seismic shifts in the political landscape afterwards.
Posted by:Kevin MumfordAugust 17, 2007 6:25:26 AMRespond ^
I lived just outside New Orleans. I am a Nurse. I was in the city for the storm. There was an incredible amount of violence. I saw and heard first hand assault, rape, and shooting victims. There were alot of people with addictions, desperate for drugs and were dangerous because of that.
They were horrible times, with both misery and mercy. Many people helped, but far too many made it much worse. That people can do such horrible things amazes me to this day.
Wearing rose colored glasses, ignoring reality and not taking an honest look at society, because what you see is upsetting is a guaruntee that no solutions will be found.
This is why New Orleans is and was a cesspool of violence, before, during and after Katrina.
Posted by:Javelina mikeAugust 18, 2007 1:03:15 AMRespond ^