Claim: E-mail written by a paramedic details conditions in New Orleans.
Status: Multiple — see below.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2005]
Hey Pop, Just finishing another long night, and heading to bed. Email has been hit or miss for a while with Cox, so yes this is a better way to chat. Not sure how much of this you want to pass along. so feel free to edit. And I'm far from being any kind of hero. The real heroes are these crazy Glad to hear that you've passed the word along about some of the goings on here in Louisiana. obviously the major networks won't tell you what should be told, and Fox is doing a good job about getting the real word out, but there's so much more to the story that they just can't report about. It's not in the public's best interest to hear about the incredible number of murders that have been going on, or how the green berets are here on the roof tops at night with their night vision goggles. They've been taking out these looters and rapists one by one at night when they don't think they're being seen. The first couple of nights here they were capping about The rest of the city is pretty much cleared out now, except for the corpses floating in the water. The airport has been our main staging area for the sick and injured ones. (Can you walk? Great. go to So that's my news for now. I'll try to catch you up on other things in a few days. I'll just leave you with one more story that came out of Baton Rouge. Yesterday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up in Baton Rouge, I wished he would have showed up in Sheriff Harry Lee's office as we would have NEVER heard from him again. He said, "Bush has NOT appointed a Single Black to head up this Katrina Relief, the Black Caucus and Black Leaders all over America are upset with him putting the Black Folks on the side and it is OUR people who are sitting on their roof tops waiting for Rescue, OUR people who are standing in line at the Superdome waiting on Food, Water and a Ride to a safe place, OUR people who have been locked down in Poverty." and so on. George Sell, the Anchorman for TV 9 news, responded to Jesse, Hats off to George Sell for putting him in his place, Harry Lee would have put Jesse in his place and then some! This is a time to come together and work together, not the time to pull the race card! Brian |
Origins: Accounts that purport to be first-hand reports from people on the scene in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina continue to pop on to the Internet and go on to enjoy wide circulation as they are passed from inbox to inbox. This particular one, which presents itself as a letter from a paramedic serving in New Orleans to his father, first came to us on
Hey Pop, Just finishing another long night, and heading to bed. Email has been hit or miss for a while with Cox, so yes this is a better way to chat. Not sure how much of this you want to pass along &mdash... so feel free to edit. Yesterday the Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up in Baton Rouge, I wished he would have showed up in Sheriff Harry Lee's office as we would have NEVER heard from him again. He said, "Bush has NOT appointed a Single Black to head up this Katrina Relief, the Black Caucus and Black Leaders all over America are upset with him putting the Black Folks on the side and it is OUR people who are sitting on their roof tops waiting for Rescue, OUR people who are standing in line at the Superdome waiting on Food, Water and a Ride to a safe place, OUR people who have been locked down in Poverty..." and so on. George Sell the Anchorman for TV 9 news responded to Jesse, Hats off to George Sell for putting him in his place, Harry Lee would have put Jesse in his place and then some! This is a time to come together and work together, not the time to pull the race card! Brian
Subject: RE: glad to hear you're helping...
As to the claims made in the piece about Green Berets shooting looters and rapists when they come out into the darkness to transact their business, overweight patients being left to drown in hospitals because they were too large to make it up the stairs to dry floors, citizens with open wounds on their legs from exposure to the toxic soup of the flood waters, and a crack dealer who wouldn't be transferred to another hospital because he couldn't conduct his business there, at this point those have to live as unsubstantiated stories because they have yet to be
confirmed.
The one item in the e-mail that does lend itself to confirmation or denial is its closing anecdote about a newsman who supposedly answered Jesse Jackson's assertion that no African-Americans had been appointed by President Bush to head up relief efforts with a laundry list of the names of African-Americans directing various aspects of the struggle to reclaim the city and its people from the disaster. The
But that seems to be where the e-mailed anecdote and the truth part ways. George Sells asserts his response began and ended with mention of those two African-Americans, and that the rest of the lengthy list of blacks prominent in relief efforts and the suggestion that the one so quick with his charges of discrimination should go aid rescue workers as they were being shot at were added to the online-circulated account by an anonymous author.
Barbara "short sells" Mikkelson
Last updated: 14 October 2005