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Police shoot army engineers

mummymonkey

Did you spill my pint?
mummymonkey
Joined
Dec 3, 2002
Messages
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Location
Scotland
Reported on the BBC. Don't know if it's true or not. New Orleans Police have shot a number of army engineers on a bridge.
 
CBS News Story

Police shot eight people carrying guns on a New Orleans bridge Sunday, killing five or six, a deputy chief said. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were 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 said 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.
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I want more details before I decide if I'm going to have a cow.
 
I read this blog earlier. This bit is worrying:

Law enforcement have absolutely lost their minds. Some guy wearing khaki fatigues and black vests which say Police on them have their faces covered in black ski masks and are touting M4-A1s with front hand grips -- like they're some kind of Delta Force operators waiting to hit the tire house. They're guarding the four corners around the Bell South building for crying out loud. And what, they need secret identities? Come on. You can just tell some of these guys have never gotten out before. Now's their big chance to play Army
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mummymonkey said:
I read this blog earlier. This bit is worrying:
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One possible explaination is that they are undercover or SWAT team officers who don't want their identities to come to light if they are filmed doing "normal" street duties.

I also just heard that police shot at gunmen who were attacking Corp of Engineers contractors. Apparently, the police did not shoot the contractors, but rather their attackers.
 
The story I posted above from CBS News has now changed. LINK

(CBS/AP) Gunmen fired on eight Army Corps of Engineers Contractors. Police then fatally shot the gunmen who fired on the contractors. The contractors were not killed, the Army Corps said.

No other details were immediately available.
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mummymonkey said:
I read this blog earlier. This bit is worrying:
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What's worrying? The comment on a blog from someone that apparently doesn't actually have any law enforcement experience? Or a police force using weapons with "front hand grips"? Why is that worrysome? Normal for SWAT teams to have different weaponry from the rest of the police force. That's what the "W" in SWAT means: Weapons.

And as for the balaclava (the masks SWAT teams wear), they serve multiple functions. One of which is sometimes to protect their identity, to prevent retalation attacks. SWAT team members are asked to deal with the worst of the worst. The criminals that are so dangerous and violent that they are too much for the regular police to handle. As such, they must take extra steps to prevent retaliation attacks. It also serves some functional purposes at times, too.
 
Looking at Google News, a lot of small news services are still popping up with reports claiming the Engineers were killed. If this turns out not to be true, it's a good example of how a false story speads on the net, and how hard it can be to correct it.
 
The latest on this, though there is a contradiction between the first and last paragraphs:

(CBS/AP) Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.

Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.

Fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.

They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help plug the breech in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.

None of the contractors was killed, Hall said.

The bridge spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.

No other details, including whether any of the gunmen were killed, were immediately available.
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Freakshow said:
What's worrying? The comment on a blog from someone that apparently doesn't actually have any law enforcement experience? Or a police force using weapons with "front hand grips"? Why is that worrysome? Normal for SWAT teams to have different weaponry from the rest of the police force. That's what the "W" in SWAT means: Weapons.

And as for the balaclava (the masks SWAT teams wear), they serve multiple functions. One of which is sometimes to protect their identity, to prevent retalation attacks. SWAT team members are asked to deal with the worst of the worst. The criminals that are so dangerous and violent that they are too much for the regular police to handle. As such, they must take extra steps to prevent retaliation attacks. It also serves some functional purposes at times, too.
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I didn't know they were SWAT folks. I'd still find it worrying to have SWAT policemen on the street corners mind you. I am a pussy though.
 
No contradiction - they're being very precise, actually. A number of people were killed, but apparently there's no certainty that the dead were gunmen.
 
mummymonkey said:
I didn't know they were SWAT folks. I'd still find it worrying to have SWAT policemen on the street corners mind you. I am a pussy though.
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I don't know for sure that they are, but it is most likely. It would be very unusual for regular patrol officers to be carrying the weapons described, as they are not necessarily trained and qualified to use them.

Depending on the situation, I may or may not worry about SWAT officers on street corners. If they just started showing up, for no particular reason, I would be worried. If they are showing up in response to days of violence and looting, I'd be glad that they were there on a temporary basis. But I would not want them as a permanent addition to my neighborhood.
 
Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on contractors crossing a bridge to make levee repairs, The Associated Press reported.

Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley told AP that police shot at eight people who had guns, killing five or six.
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:clap: :clap: :clap:
 
The latest on this, though there is a contradiction between the first and last paragraphs:

It's not a contradiction--I think they were not able to verify independently how many were killed, so they reported what the police chief said about it. Usually, newspapers do not officially state something as a fact unless they can corroborate it from at least two sources, at least when it's an important issue.


So, apparently, the police were shooting at the gunmen who were shooting at the engineers, not at the engineers.

I have to ask: who the @#!! opens fire at engineers repairing a bridge?! This doesn't make sense even if you are a criminal or thug. What's the point?
 
The same people who shoot at rescue helecopters.

But I'm with you Skeptic, who is that stupid?

There is quite a bit of blame to go around, but in my Monday morning quarterback opinion, the two biggest mistakes at the local level were:

1) Not taking responsibility for the evacuation early enough

and,

2) Not imposing martial law early enough.

As for number 2, had more thugs been shot or scared into hiding things might have gone just a tiny bit better.
 
Skeptic said:

I have to ask: who the @#!! opens fire at engineers repairing a bridge?! This doesn't make sense even if you are a criminal or thug. What's the point?
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Don't you have some insane militia guys? Some Timothy Mcway wannabees who might seize an oportunity like that to "strike back" against the "tyranical" governement. That's the closest thing to an explanation I can think of.
 
Skeptic said:
I have to ask: who the @#!! opens fire at engineers repairing a bridge?! This doesn't make sense even if you are a criminal or thug. What's the point?
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Baffling isn't it? Even more so as it seems they had an armed escort.
 
Maybe the gunmen who were firing upon the contractors had swapped some pairs of looted Nikes and a plasma TV for the bridge and were simply defending their property...???

The reporting has been absolutely appalling on this whole event. I had the misfortune of catching a snippet of a FOX report featuring Al Sharpton. Everytime Al said something the least bit critical of the regime he was interrupted - at times rudely - and led down a different stream of questioning. The interview appeared to be cut short to spare any more embarassment to the Bush Administration.

I tentatively agree that this is not the time for finger-pointing, however if the media interviews someone known to be contrarian they should let him have his say - not appear to be censoring their opinion.
 
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