Gretna Mayor: Racism Not Factor in Closing City to Evacuees
COSTELLO: In the days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the city descended into chaos, thousands were blocked from escape. One of the main arteries out of New Orleans lies across the bridge through Gretna, Louisiana. Gretna officials refused to let citizens of New Orleans enter the city. Gretna is mostly white. New Orleans is mostly African- American. And some say racism was behind Gretna's decision. Ronnie Harris is the mayor of Gretna, and he joins us now. Good morning, Mr. Mayor.</s>MAYOR RONNIE HARRIS, GRETNA, LOUISIANA: Good morning.</s>COSTELLO: How do you respond to these initial charges, first of all?</s>HARRIS: Well, I, along with millions of fellow Americans were shocked by the lawlessness that was ransacking New Orleans at the time. And I don't -- I will tell you that I bristle when I hear the word "racism." The city of Gretna is a low to moderate income with a large contingent of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians. My community represents America, being in a cosmopolitan city such as New Orleans. I would like to say the other side of the story, relative to the actions of the Gretna police department.</s>COSTELLO: Well, before we get to that, let's listen to what some of the Hurricane Katrina evacuees had to say as they were trying to get away from all of that chaos at the Superdome and the convention center, trying to get into Gretna. Let's listen.</s>LAURIE BETH SLONSKY, SURVIVOR: They were not going to allow another New Orleans and they weren't going to allow a Superdome to go into their side of the bridge, Gretna.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The chief is quoted as saying, "If we wet these people," quote/unquote, "in, our city will look like New Orleans, burned, looted and pillaged."</s>SLONSKY: So to us, that reeks of absolute racism, since our group that was trying to cross over was women, children, predominantly African-American.</s>COSTELLO: Those are pretty harsh charges. They say it was out and out racism as to why officials would not let them into Gretna. In fact, there were some people on board a bus that claim that police officers from Gretna actually shot at them to keep them from entering the city. How do you respond to that?</s>HARRIS: First of all, the decision to close the bridge was not made unilaterally by the city of Gretna. Three law enforcement agencies, decided to close the bridge. That actually occurred on day three after the storm. On day two, people were streaming across the bridge to our limits. Our borders had been closed since the storm. We had no food. We had no water. We had no power. We had no running water.</s>COSTELLO: But I understand that, but it was nothing like what the citizens of New Orleans were experiencing at that time. They were desperate to get out. People were being killed. They had no place to go. So why close down the borders in the first place?</s>HARRIS: The tragedy of the situation was that there was a way for safety and freedom on the east bank to go to a FEMA approved location like I-10 and causeway. We had approximately 5,000 to 6,000 people amass at our borders. Oak Ridge shopping center was burning. Lawlessness was occurring in a neighboring community, and we were not going to allow that to happen into the city of Gretna. Generally, most people were looking for...</s>COSTELLO: But you're assuming that the people coming in from New Orleans were people who were going to cause trouble then?</s>HARRIS: We also had a criminal element that was obvious to everyone. And that was not going to happen in the city of Gretna. We had...</s>COSTELLO: But what if the people on the buses were innocent citizens just trying to escape what had become an untenable situation?</s>HARRIS: The travesty of the situation was that New Orleans officials should have sent them to the FEMA approved evacuation site that actually was closer for safety than our community. Our community was hit by a hurricane 5 category hurricane. We had tremendous damage throughout our community. It was not a safe place to be. The dry dock had broken its moorings and affected the stability of the levee and the city of Gretna. And so our police department reacted to the environment that...</s>COSTELLO: I'm telling you, sir, if I'm on that bus and desperate to get out and get someplace safer and somebody pointed a gun at me and told me to go away, that would probably break my heart. I don't know how to deal with that.</s>HARRIS: The police department -- the police department in the city of Gretna, I supported the action of the chief of police reacting to the environment that we were presented with. And we acted accordingly to prevent the lawlessness from occurring in our community. The vast majority of these evacuees were people looking for safety, I grant you that. But we also had a criminal element where there were guns. There was gunfire. There was looting. They were burning our community -- next door to our community. We were not going to allow that to happen into our city of Gretna.</s>COSTELLO: In hindsight are you still glad you assumed the worst?</s>HARRIS: I supported my chief of police then and now.</s>COSTELLO: So it was true that guns were pointed at these people? They were fired?</s>HARRIS: I didn't say that and nor did my police department say that. In a time of lawlessness, the police department is there to protect and to serve. We did that by evacuating over 5,000 to 6,000 people who were amassed at our borders. We commandeered buses. We brought them to safety where there was food, water and evacuation. That part of the story was overlooked. The closing of the bridge, the misinformation by the city officials and also the city of -- New Orleans city officials had never contacted the city of Gretna nor have I received any phone call up to this point in time.</s>COSTELLO: Communications were pretty tough at the height of the storm. Mayor Ronnie Harris, thank you for joining us.</s>HARRIS: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: And coming to answer the charges this morning.</s>HARRIS: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: Back to you, miles.</s>O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Carol. Still to come on the program, a New Orleans cop explains why he went AWOL in the aftermath of Katrina.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm saying that I left them in a bad situation but I would have been leaving my wife in a worse situation.</s>O'BRIEN: He says he had some good reasons for deserting the force, but that may not be enough for his fellow officers. That story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.