The Aftermath & Untold Stories: Katrina

Nature started the devastation, but human error (and some straight-up negligence) finished it. We’re breaking down the timeline of the Katrina aftermath—the broken levees, the communication blackouts, and the stories that the mainstream news cycles missed. Grab a drink and settle in; it’s a heavy one, but these stories need to be told.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

When disaster strikes and the flood comes, what do you do when the place marked as a sanctuary becomes a living hell, and the government sworn to protect you becomes the warden to keep you there? This is the underbelly of the storm we know as Katrina and the aftermath that survivors dealt with.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

This is your boy Eddie, and this is another episode of True Crime and Other Shit. So this week we're gonna do things a little bit differently. Usually we have like a case or somebody that we're observing. So the other week when we did the Tiffany Woods case, we kind of started looking deeper into Katrina and the things that happened during Katrina, after and around Katrina. So we know Tiffany Woods and we know everything that happened around that time. And but also so much spiraled out of control because of Katrina. So we're gonna be looking at that today, including one of the most, I think, interesting cases is um as here as of late, um, Gypsy Rose, her getting out of prison, and everything. The whole reason all of that started is because of Katrina. So we're just gonna take a little bit deeper look inside the actual storm and the things that were happening around it. And I'm gonna kind of let Eddie take the lead. I'm gonna play the background um just because I've had family that was involved in it, and so I have a little bit of background knowledge of New Orleans and Katrina and things like that due to Creole, you know, groups.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

But I'm gonna take the lead right here. Yeah. So this one right here, we're gonna switch it up. The vibe of the conversation, you know, usually, like she said, very uh informative and everything. With me, we're just gonna kind of ride the wave. I'm gonna give y'all some topics um and some spark notes on what I've picked up from different interviews, um, different documentaries that I've watched, and then from there, we're just gonna conversate about it. And then, yeah, like with that, like that, we're just gonna ride the wave. Um, so in New Orleans, the city was hit with a major storm. We all know about it, Katrina. Um, what we don't know is the actual what happened. We're we were fed during that time, a lot of misinformation.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Um, you know, that we didn't we weren't really paying attention. We were like, I'm trying to ride my bike after school, I don't have time for this.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

You know, exactly. And then um what we do realize as we got older, um, I think if social media was in a whole lot more uproar, uh, would have been in a whole lot more uproar about their situation, about how the news was broadcasting it, because um, even in the documentary, you're watching the newscasters talk about the Katrina, the survivors of Katrina, because that's what they are. They're survivors. They are people who were fighting tooth and nail just to survive the storm and the aftermath of the storm. And um just how the storm wasn't the only pretty much it was also a race riot. It wasn't just the storm and the natural disasters, like how they made it seem over the newscastings and um media during that time frame. It was also just part of like, oh, you know what, the they were improperly prepared and everything like that. So I'm gonna go in over it with you, and just right now, we're just gonna talk about how it was before before the storm came. Um Katrina came and said, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Everything that was wrong with New Orleans and all the issues and problems that they had just seemed to be gasoline was poured on it and they were lit on fire. So all the underlying things, you know, everybody has like issues in their city. Like we we live in Charlotte, North Carolina, currently, and Charlotte has their underlying issues, and we all know that they're issues and they need to be dealt with. But you will be surprised how much a natural disaster will bring the absolute worst out of everyone.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Exactly. And the thing was, um, during Katrina hit in August 29th, and before August 29th, um, they were leading up to all these natural disasters because the main point was the so you can see the catastrophes start to um come in when the natural um the natural resources, the natural protections, the barriers, um, the trees, the the trees, pretty much all the aquatic life there was were designated pretty much to slow this storm down. Uh the gas and oil company, Exxon um exponentially, which I really hate that Exxon was really one of the big companies that really destroyed uh Katrina's natural life because what I um what I do know about Exxon is that they've always been, I don't know if you know this, Cas, but during the time where uh segregation, black people couldn't use like certain gas stations. Exxon was really the only gas station that black people could use during that time when traveling, this, that, and the third.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

So interesting fact, like fun fact about my uh family. So on Battysford Road in Charlotte, North Carolina, my grandparents actually owned a gas station, and the gas station that they owned was an Exxon because a lot of other companies weren't allowing franchisees to, you know, do that type of thing. So shout out to Exxon for real. Like they changed the entire course of my my family.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

So yeah, and that's what I say. So like it's it's sad to find out this news, but it's important that we do bring actual news and the actual facts behind it. Um so leading up to the storm, the the news, of course, they broke out, they told everybody, hey, you need to leave. Um, but what they didn't take into account of was that New Orleans is pretty much a state or a city that is majority, majority of the population is below the poverty line. So it's easy to say, oh yeah, pick up and leave because you gotta make it to safety. But what you're not taking to account is people don't have cars, people don't have places to go, people can't go and just are like, let's say your whole family lives in New Orleans. You can't just pick up and just leave there and go to somewhere else for a week because oh yeah, you know, let's think about how much hotels cost. And you don't need just one room, you need multiple rooms.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

And not only just that, like, let's take into consideration the the part of New Orleans that was affected the worst, which was the ninth ward. The ninth ward is extremely poor. And like that is a problem that they told everybody to pick up because it's like what are y'all like you said, like what are you supposed to do? You ain't you know, you're supposed to go get a hotel, like be displaced for a week. Like those people can't afford that. Like it was absolutely wild. And and the the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana offered absolutely zero solution for this. They said, ride it out.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

So, and when it comes to like, okay, you know what? Well, the city's gonna pick up buses, and the city is going to do this, and the city's going to do that. Um, they didn't, though. And it makes it a whole lot easier to be like, oh, you know, it uh we we should and and we can prepare, but in their minds, they're thinking, okay, we know the storm is coming, but we've been through storms before, and we have a levy that's gonna stop it. We have all these different uh barricades and factors that we know is gonna stop it. And they're and even for the people that live there, they're like we can we can we can ride it out until they actually go through the experience.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

It's like you ride it out. Like anytime, like I have a couple of cousins who are down there still, and anytime I'm like, yo, there's a hurricane coming up that way, she's like, Oh, I'm gonna ride it out. I'm like, What did you learn nothing? But I mean, it's kind of like the Floridians, right? The Floridians, they gonna ride out anything, they're gonna ride out a hurricane. But I think that like also they underprojected maybe a little bit. Do you think that that they said like oh it's gonna be bad?

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Not only did they not um predict that, but even the the FEMA, which you're gonna hear a lot about. I really have a problem with FEMA, and all like I said, you can go and learn more about this through the if you got Disney Plus or you got Hulu subscription, they have a documentary called the um Katrina, the untold stories. Um that's where I got a lot of my information from. You can go ahead and watch that, and what you will find is that FEMA had uh federal emergency management agency. They were ill they were ill-prepared um for the gravity of what actually occurred. The the mayor uh they asked him, oh yeah, can you make a list of what is needed? Um what is needed, and they asked that on August 30th. Remember, Katrina hit, I believe, on August 29th, if I'm not mistaken. So this is after Katrina hit. Um, now they're sitting they're seeing that, oh, you know what, we're we're not prepared for all of this to happen. Uh what can we do? Like, you know, and as much as they're supposed to be the first, they're in their minds for FEMA, they're not supposed to be the first line of defense. Every state is supposed to, or every city is supposed to take care of themselves and they come in and kind of help out last bit. So FEMA was ill-prepared themselves by how much the flood actually, not the flood, the storm actually affected New Orleans and what they seen. So one of the one of the um hello helicopter operators or pilots, he pretty much went into because he needed to see for himself what was actually going on so he could report back to the FEMA officials and the uh director of FEMA and tell them what was going on. He said when he hit the air and he saw that 60 to 80 percent of the city was underwater, he said this is way worse than what we officially.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Did you see the video?

SPEAKER_02 10:45

I did.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Insane. There are people just on their roofs, just like chilling.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Because nowhere else. The newscasters, and how CNN, I do have a problem with CNN, and usually I love CNN, don't get me wrong, because I grew up watching them. My grandparents loved watching CNN. So from CNN's point of view, they only broadcasted the French quarters, which was like if you ever been in Charlotte and you got this much. Hey, maybe at your ankle deep. So America is thinking, and from America's point of view, remind you, we don't have social media, so we don't know what the actual people that are going through the ninth ward and the other wards that are actually being affected are going through. And they're um CNN's only saying, oh yeah, it's only uh knee deep. They can recover from this. This is something that's probably gonna take a week or two, and we'll be back to normal. Everything's going to be straight.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Eddie, have you been to New Orleans?

SPEAKER_02 11:43

I haven't. I really do want to see New Orleans after everything that I learned, but not on like a uh insensitive, like, oh yeah, I just want to see it for myself, but more so from a how is it now? Were we able to actually recover?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

So there's these poles in the ninth ward right before you enter the ninth ward, and it shows the progression of like the levels of the water rising. And the last time I actually went down to the ninth ward, I might have been like in college, maybe those holes were taller than most buildings. Just gonna put it that way. And it's a memorial to show how you know how high the water rose, but it it it's really it really puts it in perspective. So anybody who gets a chance, I definitely recommend you going to the ninth ward, but please be careful. Um, the ninth ward, they're still very sensitive about everything that happened, and they don't really like a lot of publicity and hoopla and stuff like that. I don't even think that tours are allowed to go through the ninth ward still, correct me if I'm wrong, New Orleans. But um, they're very they're very prideful over there. But if you do get a chance, just go out there and you'll see, and you'll just be like, this is absolutely unreal and also just unacceptable for those people who have endured.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Yeah, and when we we're gonna go talk about it, but like what the because it pretty much just was like a trail of tears that they had to go through and endure. But how we talked about FEMA and how they were supposed to come out and they were supposed to help, they were supposed to send buses, they were supposed to bring food, so many things that FEMA could have did that they did not do. It took them five, it took them four days to actually start to like, oh, okay, we need to actually do something. So you've been told to help prepare, then you didn't prepare. Then when the storm actually came to take you an additional four days, um, the National Guard, shout out to the National Guard, and there's gonna be a person that I also um is going to shout out Holly just because uh he went about the operations of trying to help recover and trying to help people get through it. Um, so for the National Guard was able to come out pretty much immediately, and when they came out, they were able to put boots on the ground, really help out, get helicopters, fly them through the air, get people in boats, get them through the um waters. But what we don't really talk about, or what's really not talked about enough, is that even though, yes, we did try to help, there wasn't too many effects that were actually happening. There's only so much that so people can do. Because remind you, the people that are in the National Guard, the people are still being affected themselves. A lot of those people that were first responders were people that also lived in New Orleans. So imagine your house is flooded, and then you have to say, you know what, okay, I know I'm going through it, but there's also my neighbors. There's also people that are deeper in other parts that have gone through it worse, and I have to go ahead and swallow everything and still go through it. Survivors talked about when they were in a boat, and I remember this one lady, she was crying on the um on the interview because she said as she was go as she was driving through and swimming through, she watched as a baby was submerged. You could tell that the baby was already dead, the baby was just floating across the water. And she told the National Guard, like, hey, can I can I go ahead and at least pick the baby up? She said, I know in her mind, she said, I know that I can't help this baby. This baby's lost, but at least I can either bury this baby, I can at least find the mothers, the parents, the family, and just be able to be like, hey, look, I want to give them their baby so they can at least have some type of like there, you know, it's different when you don't know versus when you do know. You can have some console me rather than your mind wondering. And when they were in that boat, the National Guardman just pushed the baby further into the water so she couldn't reach it and grab it and put it inside the boat. That's that's it's it's stories like that that that were not told about about with Katrina. And that's that's those are the stories. And unfortunately, those that is probably the lesser of the problem. There is recorded that 11 cop, there was 11 people that were either shot or killed by police officers during the time of Katrina. And this is where I say it was a race war. It wasn't just um, it wasn't just a strictly, oh yeah, you know, they came picked them up, they have uh just it was just horrendous to even think about, to listen to. It really made me emotional just hearing about it.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Um so um I don't know if they mentioned this, but the the lake that took the brunt of the storm and the surge in the high water was Lake Pontchatrain. So Lake Pontchatrain was the one that flooded, and like I just remember, and this I don't know why this just popped up in my head, but I vividly remember my mom being on the phone with somebody, and I don't know who it was, but they were talking about how there were just bodies floating around Lake Pontchatrain, and how the bodies were just floating up to people's front doors and stuff like that. And I'm just like what's you know, I can't even comprehend that, but that's how out of hand the situation was, and and and the city had lost all control of how they were dealing with the deceased, and like you said, like people were just pushing bodies away, and I think that it created a numbness inside of the um inside of the the National Guard because they've just seen too much, too much, and like you know, like paramedics, they just kind of get this like veil almost in front of their face where they just are like whatever, like on to the next task, they become robotic.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

So I don't know if you yeah, like I don't know if you ever heard about first responders, but they're taught to uh um whenever they get on the scene, and this is outside of just like what happened in New Orleans, but whenever first responders get on the scene, help the people that you know you can actually help. Like if somebody's too far gone, it is what it is. And for them, they're like, oh, okay, you know what? This is like another day on the job, cool, cool, cool. But for somebody who has not actually gone through that, so somebody doesn't have that training, somebody who's desensitized, like they're not desensitized, they're fully, they're still a severe. They're like, what the heck is going on? They're watching it, and and the worst part also is that not only were the people when the first when National Guard came in, um, they did tell them, okay, like, oh, we got people out the houses, but the people that were also in their houses and were not as affected, because um, in certain parts of New Orleans, their houses are built to where they're it could be like let's say uh I think maybe four four or five feet off the ground. So then they're kind of like, okay, like it's not really affecting me. I might have some water, but it's not even coming inside my house. The National Guard was knocking on their doors and telling them, hey, you have to leave. Evacuate. Yeah, like even though they're telling them, like, hey, no, no, I'm perfectly fine here. People with guns were coming into the house telling them, no, you're going to leave right now.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

And the and I don't know if some what I would do if somebody with a gun came to my house and told me I had to leave right now.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

And it's your army, it's the people that you're paying your taxpayers, and they're telling you that you have to evacuate. And to make matters worse, is that now you have to walk through the water. And it's in and I know people are like, oh, okay, well, you're just walking through the water, you're not walking through just regular water. This is debris water. The water was so murky you couldn't see the bottom of it, even and it was you're walking deeper. Everybody was exactly everybody was told to go to the superdome. And I remember as a kid, they painted the superdome as this place that was just not affected, a place that was a sanctuary, a safe haven. Like, oh, once you get there, all your troubles will be worry free. Everything's gonna be worry free. And unfortunately it was where hell was, and we're gonna talk about that too, where it's like, okay, cool, you told me to evacuate the safety of my home to go to somewhere that's even worse. And to put a whole city, imagine you put a whole city inside of a football stadium, a football stadium, to put a whole stadium. Pretty much, if they told everybody in Charlotte, okay, we all need to evacuate, we need to go to the to the uh to the Carolina Panthers Stadium. This is not Bank of America Stadium, it's not gonna be a wonderful face because as much as I love to say it, somebody might have one type of cleanliness, another person is not gonna have that same type of cleanliness. And then on top of it, no matter how clean you are, go ahead. They promised a sanctuary, but in reality, they hand them hell. A prison. Because once you made it to the Superdome, you were not allowed to leave. You were not allowed to go anywhere. You were forced to stay inside.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

But that's neither here nor there.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

To be honest, it was it was amazing how much because people that would try to leave would have guns forced into their face. They were literally people um handcuffed, told to get back and pushed back into the superdome. Do you want to know what was inside the superdome? There was shit everywhere, and when I say shit, I mean literal shit. There was shit everywhere because the bathrooms stopped working. The bathrooms stopped working. There were elderly, remind you, elderly people are there. People that are um still going. Going through, like, let's say post-surgery, they were still going to the superdom. Even people that were just like still in a hospital being pushed inside the superdom. So you have the sick, the elderly, and people that are just like, hey, look, I'm just trying to survive and find my loved ones all inside the superdom. Can't even go outside to see if hey, is my family outside there? No. And when it comes to like, okay, well, there was surely communication that was being transferred city to city. The other cities of Louisiana were probably like, oh yeah, let me help out. How can we help? We're all one city, we're all one nation. No. They were. And then the mayor, to make matters worse, was going in and calling people thugs and calling people all types of non-human. You can hear on the newscast where people were calling people that were just trying to buy to stay alive animals.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Oh yeah, especially because those some people were looting to stay alive.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Oh, I'm gonna get into that. I'm gonna get into that because remind you, remind you how FEMA, I told you FEMA wasn't prepared. They didn't have food. They didn't have food at the Superdome for the first, I think, day or the first couple hours there. Because they didn't expect so many people to come, but you also forced everybody to come. So you not being prepared, food ran out, water ran out, film formula ran out. Remember how we talked about they didn't have enough baby formula, they didn't have the baby formula for the people that were there, so they that was already running out. Now we have people using the bathroom all over the place, and it's just it's havoc, it's chaos moving on, and then now we're getting to General. I think Honore, I don't want to misconcept his name because he did a whole lot for Louisiana. And truthfully, if you're watching this, General, hats off to you. I really appreciate you and the efforts that you gave during that time frame. He came in there and he was listening in within his first hour of being there. He walked around the super dorm. He checked and seen how people was living in the living situations, and then he went inside a meeting with the mayor. Is it the mayor? Yes, it's the mayor of the city. I think his name is uh don't give me the line. I got it here. Mayor uh Nagan. Mayor Nagan. Um I'm very neutral on him. I really don't know how I feel about him in the situation because truthfully, I don't know how I would even react with everything that was going on, but in reality.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Yeah, I can't speak on him because like if you if it depends on kind of like I don't know, like I feel like watching videos on him, and I like to also see what people think and the reactions of people. If you're from New Orleans and you lived during that time uh in Katrina, definitely comment on the video and tell us how you feel about the mayor and how the way the mayor handled the situation. And I will read those comments aloud on next episode, regardless of what we're covering. I like I really need to know like what do y'all think? Because I'm hearing two different stories from two different sides, but there's so much to consider there. We gotta consider um you know, economic status, like where you lived in this city, things like that. So I really want to know from all of y'all, like, what is your honest take on this man? And and to make that like they didn't they couldn't have any communication because all the telephones, even the radios were down, or better yet, you could email us at info at true crime and othershit.com, and we would love to know, and I would love to read your email aloud. So please let us know.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Correct. And then we want to talk about um the communications were down, so it's it's not just a factor of like, oh, they're ill-prepared, but even when they were trying to become like, okay, you know what, let's get a better grasp of the situation, let's try to get a handle on it. The communications were down, they were not able to contact anybody outside of the city, all the towers were down. Um and and what the what General Hunra did is, like I said, you remember how I talked about the National Guard coming in and he put people straight to work. He did, and not only that, he said, okay, don't treat these people as if they're just like being corralled into the pen. You have to understand they're looking for their families. So he set up meeting areas, he set up different things for people that were able to reconcile with their families. And what I want to also make spotlight too is the people inside of it, the teenagers, because usually, you know, teenagers, they're gonna cause havoc. And then in a society where it's already havoc being caused, the teenagers stepped up and they said, Okay, what can we do to help? You started seeing little small things, and it brings light to how do you defeat darkness? The only way you can defeat darkness is with light. So one of I can't they didn't tell his name, I would have given him a shout out, but they talked about how they uh one kid would he put a chair inside one of the uh hotels. You know how like the hotel uh bag carts? He put a he put a uh what's called a chair inside and he picked up the um the sick people that were dying because you people are literally dying inside the superdome and they don't even move them, they're not moving them. He's picking people that are are sick up and he's taking them over to the medic, and then he's going over to talking to the army man. He said, Hey, um, is this okay if I do this? And they're like, Yes, please continue doing it. And he did that over and over. The other teenagers that just started picking up trash inside the superdom, and to make matters worse, is like they're not broadcasting the positivity that's going on. The only thing that they're broadcasting is showing.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

I only saw negative on the news of like, oh, there's people fighting inside the superdome, and there's people doing this and that, and of course, like they put like such a negative smack on it, but it's like people are at their lowest point, they're starting to revert back to like their animalistic behaviors because they're not gonna say animalistic behaviors because that's the same word that they were using.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

I want to say they were kicking in into survival mode.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Yeah, like when I say animalistic, I I that did have a negative connotation to it, but I meant like you are in survival mode, and when you get to that point, especially like if you have a family, there is nothing that you won't do to make sure that your family is safe and taken care of.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

Man, and then one of the generals at some point, because we all know Louisiana is a big spiritual place. So what he did was he said he gathered as many people around and he just prayed. And he just prayed with them, with the city, and they cried. They they cried, they brought the family together, but it also brought up their spirits a little bit, and that's that's really like what you can do in times like this is you can bring people together and just kind of like, okay, you know what? Find some type of joy, find some type of alright, find something that makes it out. Find something that makes some type of light out of me. I didn't mean to cut you off.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

No, no, no, you're good. I was just adding on to what you said at the end is like finding a way to make people feel connected is extremely important in times of distress. And like getting people to get, like you said, like it's a very spiritual place, not only in terms of voodoo, but the people down there are super religious and they believe in a higher power, they believe in a God. So just taking the time to bring people together to speak about God and how God will pull us through, that probably was one of the things that helped all the people in there. If they're sick, they're fighting. If they're, you know, they're struggling, your spirits are down, like mental you know, instability at the time, that's probably what pushed them to the next level, is because they were reminded that there is a higher power that they serve.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

And even though General Honre was doing so much good, here comes the FEMA director, Michael Brown, and they he called him up, they said, Hey, look, we want you to come sit down with us, um, X, Y, Z. So he gets in the helicopter. He's thinking, okay, you know what? FEMA's finally gonna kick in. Because I ain't gonna lie, when General Hanre got there after he did his initial survey and he helped out this, that, and the third, he went down and he sat down with the FEMA uh with uh one of the FEMA representatives. It was the FEMA uh representative, it was the mayor, it was uh the marketing uh I don't know, the director of communications or something like that for the city, and then it was General Hanry. He sat down, he listened for 15 minutes because the mayor was like, Okay, um, so here's what we need. What can you actually do? And he was listening to the female. This is what he asked the female director. Female director said, This is what we can do, this is what we can't do, we can't do that. It's gonna take us about four days to do that, this, that, and the third. And then after a while, General Henry said, Shut up, don't say another word. Don't say another word. We're gonna go ahead and we're gonna do this right here. Until you show me some success, you have no more say. After that, they called General Henry up, told him to get on this plane, XYZ, and they told him, Alright, cool. Um, he walked inside this big, nice cube. You know, those like the ones that we used to go to in middle school are like, uh, you know, for you it might be might have been elementary because you're a little bit older. You know what I'm saying? So it might be like that.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Why would you, why would you okay?

SPEAKER_02 31:37

Oh, my bad, okay, my best.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Um but trying to show shape. You act you act like I'm fucking ancient, bro. You're not ancient, you're not ancient.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

You're not ancient. You know what I'm saying? You only get finer. You only get finer with wine, man. You only get finer with wine. But listen, listen, man, listen. So he goes inside and he talks about.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

What's the thing that we used to go into?

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Uh like the trailers, like one of those trailers, like the classroom trailers.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

They're not called trailers anymore. Okay, they are called learning cottages.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

We learn something new every day. What the fuck is that?

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Anyways, it's a trailer. You know, but I didn't have learning cottages in my elementary school, but in middle school, like I spent my whole sixth grade year in learning cottages. The whole sixth grade year. Yeah, like I had to a couple of classes inside the building, but like I remember like my English class, my math class, I think my his yeah, my history class. That's like three periods out of the four periods I had, anyways. Like I all out on the trailers. My electives were in the building. I froze my ass off.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

I bet I was walking through that in it, because you know, good weather. Charlie kind of got some drastic weather. We done seen it. Uh sunshine rain.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

It was freezing cold. This is why I think I hate the cold to this day. Like, this is why I be having a heated blanket at work because I cannot stand the cold, and it's probably CMS's fault. Thank you, CMS.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

So, going back to the story, he pretty much called the director in. Director calls him in, and director's like, oh, you know what? Hey, look, I think that it's best if you sit right beside me and we kind of just kind of coordinate from here. He looked them dead in his eyes and said, No. I can, I can have somebody, I can have somebody fill that chair for you and come sit down from the National Guard and that way y'all can communicate, but I will not be sitting here. There's too many people out there that's going through hell for me to just be sitting here with you inside this nice comfy ass trailer. So shout out to you for saying, fuck that, I'm going out there. Um and oh now we're gonna get to the story of Kevin Thomas because at this point in the story, um, and not even in the story, but at this point um during historical events, um, they were kept telling the people inside, oh yeah, you know what? The buses are coming. The buses are coming. There's gonna be some buses that's gonna come and they're gonna pick y'all up and they're gonna take y'all. We do not have any, we don't have the resources to actually take care of you guys here. So we got some buses that's gonna come, they're gonna pick you up. So on the Friday of them telling them that, people are becoming restless. They're like, okay, where are these buses? Like, we've been here from I think it was either Monday or Tuesday, now it's Friday. Where are the buses? Nobody's coming to get us. Um, so a car drives by. Um, Kevin Brown, um, I'm sorry, Kevin Thomas, my apologies. He pretty much is sitting there and waiting on them to kind of pull up and wait, and he sees lights. He's thinking, oh, this is the bus. It turns out to be a cop car. And he walks up to it and he pretty much goes and knocks on the door, like, hey, hey, hey, where's the yes, he does. He goes up, so he said, Where's the buses? When are they coming to get us? And they never even rolled the window down. And he's he pretty much shoes them off. He's like, you know what, forget it. It's XYZ. He walks off. And as he's walking off, the police officer rolls the window down and pulls out a shotgun and shoots him in the back.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

I heard about that. Yeah. That is a thought.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

In front of his sister. In front of his sister. Um, I looked up and I tried to like try to see, okay, you know what? Now that this is public knowledge, did he even go and try to like, you know, did was there justice served? Do you know how many years this man spent in jail? Because they found out who it was. They found out who killed him. Um so it turns out that when they actually did go ahead and find the man who did kill Kevin Thomas, he only got 20 months. He only served 20 months in jail. And he served 20 months in jail for perjury. He served 20 months in jail for perjury.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

The reason why they said, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, backtrack. We're talking about the police officer.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Right. In the back.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

So which means that the threat was leaving. And he still shot him in the back. Murdered him. Cold lead. Only had 20 months.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

So the reason for killing him? There's so much, and I try to look up, and even to this day, you can try to look up as much as you want to, there's no information about it. There's no there's no information that the reason why he even got 20 months was not for the killing. It was for perjury. It was for perjury because he sat there and they said that what he told on the police report versus what happened was inaccurate. So he went to jail for perjury. Didn't go to jail for the killing. And this was in 2011. He's pretty much already did his time. He can't go. So even if let's say if this this right here, we were to listen to this and say, oh yeah, there needs to be justice. He can't.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

Oh wait, wait, wait. I'm gonna say this.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

I'm listening.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Louisiana's criminal justice system is absolutely motherfucking garbage. Um, what you guys do in the prisons down there is absolutely nothing. We've all heard about it, we all know. And I just want y'all to know it's not really a secret, even though y'all think y'all would be a secret. So it doesn't really come as a shock to me that they are protecting the largest gang in the world. I have nothing against most police officers that do their job correctly, the ones that don't.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

This is not the worst.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

But y'all have always had a bad reputation of your criminal justice system being absolutely garbage, and I think it's about time y'all do something. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Like I said, there was recordings of multiple other another documentary I watched on YouTube. Um, you can type in what I type in to find it was Katrina Killing of Black People. Um, what I'm gonna what I'm also gonna do on the um on our Instagram page, and we might even do like a YouTube short, we're gonna find the clipping where it was, and this is what made me even pick up Katrina and wholeheartedly because I said, What kind of race riot was going on down here? was because I watched a video, it was a home footage. Because you remember back in the day, 2001, you didn't have camera phones really recording, you didn't have, but you had the big ones, you know? They were literally recording themselves. Um, and there was a uh white man who said, Yeah, nah, nah, we're killing them. Any anybody who we see out here, we're just shooting them. And they asked him, they said, Well, how many do you think you killed? He said, A lot, like it who cares? Who cares? was his response to, and and that's the if you already know that the police are killing people, imagine a race riots that was going on during the time. Because all that you're publishing is these black people are looting, these black people are acting like savages, and they're coming to your town next. So, what people in their mind, I'm literally watching this documentary. There was firefighters, first responders, because now we also have, oh, this was the most embarrassing thing. The most embarrassing part was when the female director, Michael Brown, he was asked to like he pretty much was on um live, and they were talking to him, and they said, Oh, okay, so I know that you guys are uh are helping in the superdome, but what about the convention center? He said, Yeah, we just found out about this. This is five days in. How are you just finding out that the superdome and the convention center are two different places? They say, Yeah, yeah, we made sure because they said most they are.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

You know? With your football stadium and your convention center, they're usually two separate places because one is meant for football and soccer and things of that nature, and the other one is for actual business. The business that pertains to the football field is done at the convention center. Y'all don't have a third grade education. I'm almost positive. He's a director.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

He's the director to remind you, he's the director of the whole big federal emergency, uh, what's called what it what's the what's the acronym? I want to make sure I get this right. Yeah, I'm pulling out the paper. Federal Emergency Management Agency. You're the director, but yet you don't know what the damn convention center is. Versus, you didn't know that these were two separate entities, but you got every you pushed everybody to go to the superdome and the convention center. Then at this point, people at the convention center, they never got food. They never got water.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

The people at the superdome that ran out of water, they went to go get water. He was shot. A man was shot at the water center where you pick up water because they thought he was looting it. So because they thought he was looting that area, they shot him on the bridge where they were dispensing out the water and giving the people the water at. Do you see how crazy all this sounds? Do you see why it's important that when media talks, that we need to make sure it's accurate information, that we need to be that it's not a nuance about oh, what words we use when we're describing certain situations? And I want to bring light to that. That's what this whole podcast right here, will like this segment right here on this podcast is about. It's about let's cover and give the correct information, let's give accurate information, let's not go ahead and talk about just oh, you know, oh, we got the most quickest information. Let's let's oh yeah, we we're giving it out quickest. You don't have accurate information. So now that you don't have accurate information, you're telling everybody, oh, it's it's a it's a flood that it just barely covered the knees. When people are up to their necks walking through it, trying to make it to a safe spot that actually turns out to be hell, then when they get there, they you're telling them now, oh yeah, to walk again. The mayor called and told the people at the convention center, y'all need to leave because we can't we can't pretty much bring any aid to you guys. Do you know that at this point?

SPEAKER_00 43:29

That's embarrassing.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

It's embarrassing, and you were bringing out troops, and instead of and George W. Bush, you bastard. You W. That boy W boy, let me tell you. You know what's crazy? And the crazy part is right now, America actually is doing what would do a whole lot better with George W. Bush. I remember when we used to say George W. Bush was the worst president ever. And boy, boy, did we not know what we could get. We didn't know how bad we could get.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

I was thinking the other day, and I don't really like to get political on the show. You know, this show is meant to be enjoyed by anybody. But anybody with common sense, that is. But I was thinking the other day. I was just chilling. I was actually laying in bed scrolling on my phone. And I was like, damn, I miss W. Remember when George Bush was the worst thing in the world? Can we get back to that? I just miss that. I miss W. Okay. Like, I'm I like his. I don't want mediocrity.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

No, I don't want mediocracy. I'm tired of mediocrity.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

I mean, of course, because we're all tired of mediocrity, but anything is better. My the pet ro what is Rocco that um on Sesame Street who Elmo be hating so bad. I'll take Rocco at this point.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

We got Rocco.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Rocco will do a fine job.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

So George W. Bush is hearing about this situation. And instead of sending aid, he sends out troops. He sends multiple, multiple, multiple troops. And the worst part about it is, and this is why I said the mayor is very conflicting. As much as it's like, alright, he's there with the situation, he's seeing what's going on, um really just cute Kanye West.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

George Bush doesn't care about black people.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

I might have to actually agree with you on this. But the the cop getting shot in the head, so during this time, um, August 30th, a cop gets shot in his head. Boom. He gets shot, he gets shot in the head. Uh, I think he survived. So congratulations to him, he did survive. But what happened was he had found a group of looters that were going through. He tried to stop them though, and there were four people. The first three guys he stopped. The fourth guy, um, when he was detaining him, um they got into a fight and then he got shot in the head. So then the the police chief is pretty much like, no, I'm I I can't. There needs to be more. This is what prompted more troops coming out. But now there's a conflicting story because the mayor then goes and says, We need martial law. So he tells everybody that he's had that we're going into martial law. However, he doesn't have the power to say we're going into martial law. He doesn't have that power, that's not given to him. So police is are hearing, oh yeah, like we may be in martial law or it's coming, but they don't actually have martial law. And you'll find that when you look up, mm-hmm. You can look it up right now. There was two conflicting stories where it's like, okay, we're in martial law, we're not in martial law, we're in martial law, we're not. And because of it, it just sends a state of havoc where troops that are just coming from Afghanistan, PTSD is real. They are in a situation where they feel like they're back in a war zone again. They're hearing all these bad things about the residents of New Orleans.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

Okay, so I just looked up because I was like, when was the last time martial law was actually declared? Because I think that in recent times also we've heard, well, this person, like, you know, this president or whoever is going to declare martial law, they want to declare martial law. First of all, I don't think that people understand like the amount of resources that it takes to declare martial law. That's first and foremost, but that's neither here nor there. Secondly, the last time federal martial law was declared in the United States was in Hawaii during December 7th attack of Pearl Harbor, which lasted from 1941, December 7th, 1941, until October 24th, 1944. Um, so that was the last time it was actually declared, even though there were misconceptions um of the insurrection act, while often confused with the 1992, um, what was it, April 25th, 1992, was the LA riots. And then also during Katrina.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

So then they also tried to call off the law during Mike Brown.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Huh?

SPEAKER_02 48:28

In Ferguson. In Ferguson?

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Yes, that was during the civil rights era, apparently during the 1950s and 60s, it was.

SPEAKER_02 48:44

Yeah, so they also tried to call martial law then. I don't know if it was actually called as it sounds like it was.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

It wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Yeah. So um it's just like instead of sending aid that you possibly could have, instead of sending that that people like to use.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

Yes, but it's it's it takes so many, um, it takes so much resources to declare martial law. It's a big deal. So I don't think that people understand that it's not just easily enacted, but whatever.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

It's it the the time frame was really bad, and and there were so many just misconceptions of things. I remember one story spoke about uh let me see it here, trying to find it. My notes are all over the place. Please bear with me, everybody. I've had five pages of notes.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Here he goes again.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

We're gonna talk about the story with Sarah Faulkner. Okay, shout out to Sarah Faulkner, she tried her best. Um, she was a U.S. Coast Guard. They even though they were not prepared um for this, because they're trained to go in certain situations. However, natural disasters like this inside of concrete jungles, that's not their that's not what they're that's not what they're trained for. They're trained for like forest areas, different things like that. So the helicopters and and they did their best. Um one time while she was out in the middle of everything and she's picking up people, um, they literally called in and said, and they were in the middle of picking up everybody. Then all of a sudden this thing they called her, they called um her and they were like, Oh yeah, look, we need everybody come back to the station because one of the choppers just got shot down. So they're in her mind, she's thinking, oh my gosh, like they like they're shooting back at us, like what the heck is going on? The report that was given was that um one of the convoys, one of the military convoys was taken over by the citizens, and that they were um taking the guns and then they were shooting the um shooting the helicopters down. When she gets back to base, and she asks, oh my goodness, okay. So she looks around, she sees all everybody's kind of back. She's like, Okay, which helicopter got shut down? They said, Yours? We we thought y'all were gone. We thought y'all got shot down. So you stopped the rescue search that she was already enacting, already doing, and you stopped it because the story was because they couldn't get in contact with her, so they thought that her her plane was shot down. She said, Do you like, do you know that there were so many other people that she could have saved that day? And she started crying because she said, I wish I could have stayed out there more, but I couldn't because I got called back. And they were all sitting around waiting on pretty much the next steps to do, but they were told, No, you can't go back out, it's unsafe. Unsafe from what? You've seen that she's back, you seen that there's no bullet holes there. What are we stopping? It felt like now it feels like like when people talk about oh Katrina was a uh conspiracy theory of like, oh Katrina was just a we gotta control our like a purge um to take out people. I I after watching this documentary, I I almost have to believe them because how you responded to these people, how you responded to to people just trying to survive, it was unnecessary. And it just got worse and worse. So then finally you tell these people to move, they're moving again across a bridge during 90 degree weather and a what? Because you gotta think, it's not dry heat. It's um what's it called? When it's not dry heat, it's it's we got it here in Carolinas. The humid being humid, it's humid, so it's humid, and then on top of it, you're telling these people the elderly people to stick.

SPEAKER_00 52:46

You've never been to New Orleans.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

You said what?

SPEAKER_00 52:49

You said you've never been to New Orleans. I haven't heat boy. I remember, and anybody in New Orleans heat. I I made the mistake of wearing a maxi dress and it had just rained, and my maxi dress was trapping heat in it because it like it gets that hot. I had to take my maxi dress and pull it up to my thighs and tie it around at my thighs because it was just so hot. And New Orleans after it rains is literally like walking in a bowl of fucking soup. It's it's bad.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

It's bad. Newscasters have the audacity to talk about as um as people as they're running through stores. Well, why why are you looting? You don't have any food.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Jimmy, why am I looting?

SPEAKER_02 53:44

Are you serious right now? So you and then you would think, okay, the next city over, the next city over is gonna help. They're gonna try, they're gonna do something. They blocked off the city. They blocked off the city. Like when they were coming at the end of the bridge, people were telling them you're not allowed in the city. They're telling them, so one city, I think one of them was called, I think it's Gancer. Don't get me lying. Oh, and I do have to correct myself. The name that I gave earlier about the whole incident with the cop um shooting him in the back, his name was actually uh Danny Brumfield. Danny Brumfield is the um person who was killed outside of the convention center as um waiting for um that went to knock on the police door and say, okay, so when are the buses coming and then got shot in the back by the police with a shotgun. Um Ronald Mitchell is the police officer who actually shot him in the back. And that's where the whole um that's where the whole uh incident happened in December 9, 2011, he was sentenced to 20 months. Saturday, the mayor tells everybody at the convention center to walk across the bridge and maybe they can find help. First responders in other cities in the two adjacent cities, um, pretty much just talking shit. Um, one pretty much saying how he has no quarrel with shooting them because they're lawless. And and and and you would think, okay. Exactly. And you would think that uh they're pretty much like, oh, okay, you know what? Let's pack up some some food for them. They even go on to say, yeah, these people haven't drinked or eaten in three days, they're gonna be aggravated, they're gonna be pissed. You would think, okay, at least let me have some water for them, some food to meet them and greet them like with some loving arms. What the fuck is the southern hospitality, right? They're packing shotguns into the fucking back of a fire. And when I say first responders, I'm not talking about like oh. These are the fire responders.

SPEAKER_00 55:54

I'm not a nice person if I haven't eaten eight hours. I couldn't imagine not eating for three days, and you expect me to remain calm. No, that's that is insane.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

Yeah, the the city of Gretna, and then the um this is when the emergence of like vigilantes. Remember how I talked about the um the white guy who pretty much said, like, yeah, no, I I was killing him left and right. Uh as soon as I see him. That's where that started the emergence of vigilantes in the cities surrounding New Orleans. So imagine you just survived a natural disaster, you're thinking everything's about to finally be okay because I finally got out of this hellhole for the second fucking time, and then all of a sudden now I got to deal with freaking vigilantes of quote unquote, and then pretty much sundown towns because they started invoking rules to where if you come in, if you come in past dusk or dawn and you're outside, there's a curfew. They're shooting you. There was no questions about it, nothing. It was an unspoken rule. There was no investigation afterwards. Um, people, uh, witnesses and everything would talk about there would be people in pickup trucks four deep in the back, and it would just be driving around looking for you. Looking for black people. And this is not just and this becomes dangerous because it's not just the the black people that are coming into the city, but also for the people that live there.

SPEAKER_00 57:33

Yeah, because they they don't know the difference. They don't know the difference, and truthfully, out here killing anybody who is dark.

SPEAKER_02 57:42

And I'm gonna save, um, I'm gonna I'm gonna let that be the end for today. Um, I do have an actual another story. His name, and this is like one of the big ones that I kind of researched because his story was just tremendously, it just took a whole lot out of me. His name was um, let me see here. Henry Glover. And that's gonna be my uh story for like whenever I do the next case. It's gonna be Henry Glover. We're gonna talk about him and pretty much what happened. Um, that's the one where he was shot by the police and then they burned the car when they took him, because they didn't know who killed him. And then they took him to the police station thinking, like, oh, we're gonna get help. And then they burned the car with him inside. But I'm gonna talk about that in detail next episode. So I'm gonna end it here. This is gruesome, this was crazy, but I think it's important that we bring the accuracy of what people were actually dealing with during Katrina to actually bring light to why I said her spending already 20 years is very excessive when you have all this lawlessness going on from the people that are supposed to protect you. That's why.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

Does she have problems? Absolutely, absolutely. But she was trying. She didn't know any better, but she tried.

SPEAKER_02 59:25

To know that people went through this, truthfully, I couldn't trust anything. I wouldn't be you tell me the people that that I've been told to protect, and that that's oh yeah, the governors, the the the mayors, all these people are supposed to help me. The governor went out her way on a newscast when the when they dispersed out the um military force to come out and try to help with the looting. She said, I want you all to know, I want to quote this actually. Let me make sure I get the quote correct. Cause she said, and I said, let me write this down. She Governor Blinko. Governor Blanco, I got a message for you, you asshole. Um, but she says, I have one message for this is quoted. I have one message for these hoodlums. These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are willing if necessary. I expect they will.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

So to be hearing this while also trying to just survive from your own governor of Louisiana. How much more could you expect these people to like really withstand? Um to be honest with you, I'm surprised Louisiana or like New Orleans wasn't burned to the down. I would have burned the whole French quarter down. Make your money now, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:04

Like, I there's there's you know that's the heartbeat right there. The French quarters, all the tourists out and they spend their money, burn that bitch to the ground, and New Orleans has absolutely nothing left.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:17

So, to be honest with you, when talking about New Orleans, talk about the citizens, to talk about the people that endured Hurricane Katrina has some respect.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:27

They are resilient people. I know that much. They are resilient people, they have withstand withstood a lot, they deal with a lot, they still deal with a lot. Like, it's incredible. Like, those are some of the strongest people that I've met because they can handle anything and they're not afraid of anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

My ass off too. And on that, I'm just gonna end on on that note right there. But that's just a little bit of what Katrina was dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

It was way more than a flood. And actually, I think that's gonna be the title of this episode, Way More Than a Flood.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:05

Got it. I'll go ahead and notate that, and I'll also put uh that in. Um, did we ever find a petition for Tiffany? I can't remember off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

Let me go ahead and look and send that over to you. I'm pretty sure I can.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:17

Yeah, because I definitely want to put that in the show notes so we can have that out for Friday. Um well, thank you guys for listening to another episode of True Crime and Other Shit. Um next week we're gonna um finish off. We're gonna do um Eddie. He has a couple of things that he wants to say left on this case. And then I noticed that like a lot of people have been asking me to call cover Charlotte's serial killer. Um that one is also a little close to home as well, um, as he killed one of my aunt's friends. So um there's also a um a person that lost their daughter to the serial killer, and they have an organization that I also want to call some attention to. So if you're in the Charlotte area and you can donate, please do, because it is an ongoing uh process. So uh definitely want to do that. Uh, I think I'm gonna touch on that. I'm gonna see if I can get my aunt in for a quick little interview. Um, I don't know if she'll come on the show as she is very shy, but she will uh give me some pointers and some things to talk about during that time as well. So um again, follow us on Instagram at true crime underscore os. TikTok, the same true crime underscore os. Please email us. Like I said, if you're from New Orleans and you have things to say about the mayor, things like that, definitely let us know because I want to read that aloud as well. And our email address again is infoin f as in Frank, O as in Oscar at TrueCrime and Other Shit.com. Uh send us a DM, anything, whatever. I check all of that shit like daily, so definitely let me know. Anything else that you want to say, Eddie?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

It always gets better. It always gets better.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:13

Amen. Getting better all the time. Thank you guys, and we will talk to you next week. Aye.