September 5, 2010
In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, an order circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters. “We have authority by martial law to shoot looters,” Capt. James Scott told a few dozen officers. Warren Riley, then the department’s second-in-command, said to “take the city back and shoot looters.”
November 23, 2008
This story, dictated by Malik Rahim to the Bay View two days after Katrina, was the call heard round the world that Black and poor New Orleanians were being abandoned in nothing less than attempted genocide and volunteers were needed. Now Malik is in a winnable race for Congress Dec. 6. Go Malik!
October 24, 2008
Tears dripped down her face as she searched for her missing suitcase in the busy New Orleans bus station. “It had my ID, my children’s birth certificates, my money and my credit cards,” she softly cried. It was one week after she was bused out of New Orleans to a military base in Arkansas. She was supposed to be at work.