Katrina Coverage

On Friday Sep. 2 at 2:24AM ET, Yahoo posted the AFP story "Police fire warning shots at tourists trying to escape New Orleans". The same or similar is here in "Police fired warning shots, New Orleans tourists tell" with a timestamp of Friday, September 2, 2005. 3:39pm (AEST). It's reposted here, and a shorter version is here.
- discusses the attempt to charter buses. Doesn't give details on who was involved or when that happened.
- 200 tourists were thrown out of their hotel on Thursday Sep. 1 in the morning
- among that group were Japanese, Europeans, and Americans
- the police (?) told them to go to the Superdome or Convention Center
- then, they were told to go to the bridge, and they walked through a "notoriously dangerous inner city neighborhood, got drenched in a thunderstorm"
When they got to the bridge:
"All of a sudden, police cruisers rushed in with sirens blaring," said Patty Murphy, a 57-year-old saleswoman from Massachussetts. "They were shooting over our heads telling us to go back."
- then, they went to the "Canal Street ferry terminal which faces the police command centre".
- the report says that the "tourists spent the night under the concrete pavilion". The report does not tell us what night that was, or which pavilion they're referring to. Hey, thanks for your help.
- the report has the word "mum" being spoken by someone who's apparently an American
Now, a special question for the race-baiters:
1. If the "racist" cops at the bridge stopped black people from leaving, does this report also mean that those cops are racist against Japanese and Europeans?
2. How do you explain this quote:
"We are lost," said Ryo Gotanda from Chiba, Japan as she ate a military ration pack handed out by police.
"We are tourists we don't know how to get around how to protect ourselves, it is like being in a jungle," said Gotanda, who studies in New York.
The worst part, she said, was walking through the tough inner-city neighborhood. "People were staring at us, waving clubs. I was scared, for the first time in my life I thought I would die," said Gotanda.
I have so far seen no report that attempts to find out what really happened at the CCC. While weaving a nice tale - or, in the case of the NYT regurgitating propaganda - is interesting, I'd really like to see someone lay out a timeline and get some incontrovertible details.