The rumor mill

[mmcirvin]

Matt Welch suspects that reports of violence in New Orleans are wildly exaggerated, and that the exaggeration has hampered relief efforts. There aren't, for instance, any first-hand confirmations of people shooting at helicopters.

Comments

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

I'd always suspected that any gunfire would be to get helicopters' attention, not to shoot them down.

[manfire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I heard last week, that some guy standing on his roof was ticked off that the helicopters kept flying past him so he shot to get their attention. Of course that could be rumor too I guess.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Or of that child rape at the Superdome that you've heard about.

Scattered accounts

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

I have read a first hand report of some of the crackheads who got into the dome firing wildly in the air when the choppers were coming. This was someone who was in the dome. As it was a friends only post and they havn't yet responded to offers to repost it, perhaps with personal info removed, I can't say more on that particular account.

A musician friend who stayed behind was able to talk by phone to his galfriend in Florida, giving an account of the armed gangs, and how he kept them out of his small working class home only by his presence with a big gun. However he says things have gotten better in the last two days, with no more groups banging on his door and hardly any gunfire heard.

Of course there's the irony that the National Guard have to stay in Iraq because folks there keep shooting at them, but the can't do the rescue operations in New Orleans because folks have shot at them.

Re: Scattered accounts

[tongodeon.livejournal.com]

I have no doubt that some reports are exaggerated or completely fabricated. I also have no doubt that some incidents have occurred and been unreported.