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Sunday, September 04, 2005

Ask Questions Later

Jesus H. Christ.

AP: Contractors shot by police
Police shot eight people carrying guns on a New Orleans bridge Sunday, killing five or six, The Associated Press reported.

A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers told AP that the people shot were some of its contractors on their way to repair a canal. The contractors were walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to fix the 17th Street Canal, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Corps.

Earlier Sunday, New Orleans Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley told the AP that police shot at eight people, killing five or six. The shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, which spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.

No other details were immediately available.


There's only one explanation, as far as I can tell -- the cops assumed they were "looters", and just started firing. I understand that it's martial law, but fuck. Do we even give people a second to explain themselves anymore, or is it just a fucking free-for-all?

This is just getting worse and worse.

[update, 3:39 PDT: The story has already been pulled from the linked article, and now they're saying that not only were no contractors killed, but the men who were killed had been shooting at the contractors. Weird, wild stuff. Strange that AP would have the story that cockeyed initially. Huge oversight on their part, letting that get onto CNN. Stay tuned.]

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