Democracy Now! | Orleans Parish DA Eddie Jordan on Racial Stereotyping, Police Looting and Private Military Contractors
Democracy Now! | Orleans Parish DA Eddie Jordan on Racial Stereotyping, Police Looting and Private Military Contractors: "EDDIE JORDAN: Well, I was saddened to learn that the allegations of massive bloodshed in the Superdome were exaggerated by media outlets. I'm -- actually, I'm pleased that there was very little bloodshed, but it seems to me that the national media outlets had an obligation to verify the charges being made by some of the evacuees and some of the public officials.
AMY GOODMAN: How did this happen? I mean, it had such a tremendous effect: The Red Cross not going in, saying they're afraid; the reports in the Superdome and the Convention Center. When did you start to get a sense that this was urban myth or on a national scale perhaps just your traditional racist stereotyping?
EDDIE JORDAN: Well, I didn't get a sense that there was a large element of exaggeration until I visited the morgue's office. And I was fully expecting that there would be many, many bodies associated with violence and also many children who would have died as a result of violence. And I expected there to be a number of killings both at the Convention Center and the Superdome.
And I asked the coroner and some of his employees about those allegations and the information that they had received in connection with their receipt of the bodies from New Orleans in the days immediately after the storm, and I was shocked to learn that there were only two bodies that were associated with the Convention Center and the Superdome, and actually that was one apiece. And then there were only two other bodies associated with violence in the days immediately after the storm. So, that was a total of four, and that was clearly inconsistent with the reports that I had seen on television."
AMY GOODMAN: How did this happen? I mean, it had such a tremendous effect: The Red Cross not going in, saying they're afraid; the reports in the Superdome and the Convention Center. When did you start to get a sense that this was urban myth or on a national scale perhaps just your traditional racist stereotyping?
EDDIE JORDAN: Well, I didn't get a sense that there was a large element of exaggeration until I visited the morgue's office. And I was fully expecting that there would be many, many bodies associated with violence and also many children who would have died as a result of violence. And I expected there to be a number of killings both at the Convention Center and the Superdome.
And I asked the coroner and some of his employees about those allegations and the information that they had received in connection with their receipt of the bodies from New Orleans in the days immediately after the storm, and I was shocked to learn that there were only two bodies that were associated with the Convention Center and the Superdome, and actually that was one apiece. And then there were only two other bodies associated with violence in the days immediately after the storm. So, that was a total of four, and that was clearly inconsistent with the reports that I had seen on television."
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