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Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Convention Center

By Jeralyn, Section Huricanes Katrina and Rita
Posted on Sat Sep 03, 2005 at 02:03:16 PM EST
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Simply Chilling.

"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told Reuters. "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them, and he jumped up on the truck's windscreen and they shot him dead."

There's more:

We found a young girl raped and killed in the bathroom," one National Guard soldier told Reuters. "Then the crowd got the man and they beat him to death."

"Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," Batiste said.

The young man's body lay in the street by the Convention Center's entrance on Saturday morning, covered in a black blanket, a stream of congealed blood staining the street around him. Nearby his family sat in shock. A member of that family, Africa Brumfield, 32, confirmed the incident but declined to be quoted about it, saying her family did not wish to discuss it. But she spoke of general conditions here.

"There is rapes going on here. Women cannot go to the bathroom without men. They are raping them and slitting their throats. They keep telling us the buses are coming but they never leave," she said through tears.

And go figure this out:

People trying to walk out are forced back at gunpoint - something troops said was for their own safety. "It's sad, but how far do you think they would get," one soldier said.

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    Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Convention Center | 17 comments (17 topical)
    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:09 PM EST
    This is precisely what compassionate conservatives so desperately want to see: the summary execution, by the police and the military, of "the enemy"--I mean, innocent people--seeking help. One of these conservative mental giants wrote gleefully about how the Red Cross would be shot if they dared enter the city.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#2)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:09 PM EST
    One of these conservative mental giants wrote gleefully about how the Red Cross would be shot if they dared enter the city. 'Nuff said.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:09 PM EST
    Time to send in the mercs. These refugizers must be stopped before the liberal media covers them as victims. Everything's under control -- Trent Lott's balcony WILL be rebuilt. If you have insurance, don't worry. If you don't -- Homeland Security can show you how to fashion a hangman's noose out of duct tape.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:09 PM EST
    This farrago has the very real potential to create a sizeable group of people with extremely large axes to grind. If everything you own has gone down the tubes, you have no insurance, there is no work, you have watched you family subjected to violence and death in front of your eyes and for over a week your government has not given a visible sh*t there is a damn good chance you will be justifiably pi$$ed off. Anybody have any thoughts on the potential for domestic terrorism as a direct result of this ? And can we perhaps go easy on the, “their own fault, they should have left, should have bought insurance, should have got a better education so their job was relocatable, should have practiced birth control so their was no family to lose” cr*p. It’s getting real old real fast (you know who you are !).

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:09 PM EST
    I’m not judging anyone, I’m not advocating anything, I’m making an observation and presenting a projection based on the available facts for discussion. More interested in people with points to make than with points to score.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#6)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:09 PM EST
    Snodgrass writes:
    This farrago has the very real potential to create a sizeable group of people with extremely large axes to grind.
    I can't help but wonder why this sizeable group of people with axes to grind didn't sharpen them on the rapists and murderers.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:09 PM EST
    Entirely predictable as usual Jimbolya, figured you'd be along directly.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:10 PM EST
    More interested in people with points to make than with points to score
    Hoist by my own petard !

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:10 PM EST
    I can't help but wonder why this sizeable group of people with axes to grind didn't sharpen them on the rapists and murderers.
    You can't help wondering even after reading the second quote at the beginning of the post?
    We found a young girl raped and killed in the bathroom," one National Guard soldier told Reuters. "Then the crowd got the man and they beat him to death."
    But you're still compelled to wonder as if that didn't happen. Interesting!

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#10)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:10 PM EST
    To Snodgrass: more please.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#11)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:10 PM EST
    To MacLane: More please also.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#12)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:10 PM EST
    That these people maintained order in spite of these incidents is a testament to their courage and wisdom. I simply cannot believe that they held it together as well as they did under those circimstances. What an incredible will they showed in the face of such neglect. We owe them free medical care, homes to relocate in and job training and placement.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#13)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:10 PM EST
    aw-careful, or you will incite a mob lynching

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#14)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:10 PM EST
    So, they killed him after the fact? According to all reports people are standing on top of each other? BTW - Where are the police that the Mayor didn't assign to the dome?

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#15)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:10 PM EST
    Where are the police that the Mayor didn't assign to the dome?
    Don't know but apparently the National Guard were outside killing an innocent guy. Doesn't that get your rocks off, PPJ? Someone was shot dead...by the National Guard. So you must feel a little better, huh?

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:11 PM EST
    One National Guard soldier who asked not to be named for fear of punishment from his commanding officer said of the lack of medical attention at the center, "They (the Bush administration) care more about Iraq and Afghanistan than here."
    Well of course they do, thats where the money is after all. Whats happening in NO is just a microcosm of Africa; a continent left to suffer needlessly with no real assistance in sight simply because they haven't got anything that rich rightwingers want.

    Re: Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Con (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:11 PM EST
    I suspected my post might be a “head in the sand” topic. Perhaps too soon, inappropriate, wrong thread ? I find it equally sad and alarming that everything seems to have a terrorism angle now, it reminds me so much of the days of “Reds under the bed”. And here I am joining in. Prompted by a piece I just read on the 7/7 London bombings which were by UK citizens who felt their government had no interest in or respect for their issues. A lot more levees than those of concrete and earth are being tested here and if they fail? I hope it will not become a case of “Ask, naught that your country can do for you. Ask what you can do to your country”. “No one expected them to fly planes into buildings” “No one expected the levees to break” “No one expected……….” Time will tell.

    Survivors Detail Rapes and Killings Inside Convention Center | 17 comments (17 topical)