No Charges Filed In Standoff On Bridge

This revelation come as no surprise. Where is the public outrage?

An Orleans Parish grand jury refused to indict a Gretna police officer Wednesday for firing a shotgun into the air as evacuees fleeing the post-Katrina chaos tried to cross the Crescent City Connection. The decision essentially closes the criminal case in New Orleans.

Officer Lawrence Vaughn, who could have faced a charge of illegal use of a firearm, was cleared of wrongdoing in the Sept. 1, 2005, incident spawned when authorities from Gretna, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and the Crescent City Connection decided to shut down the bridge to pedestrians.

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson said the decision also exonerates his department, which has been lambasted as racist for its part in the decision to shut down the bridge and keep desperate New Orleanians, most of them black, from leaving the city. Lawson and others have said police were forced to block the bridge to evacuees because no help was available on the West Bank. In addition, authorities were battling a fire at Oakwood Center mall in Terrytown, set by looters earlier on the day Vaughn fired the shotgun.

Jena 6 Teen Bail Was Denied

Bail was denied Friday for a black teenager whose arrest in the beating of a white classmate led to this week's huge civil rights demonstration in the central Louisiana town of Jena, according to the father of one of his co-defendants. |Read more|

Thousands To Rally For "Jena 6"

"What has become known as the "Jena Six" case began last September, when a black high school student sat under a tree traditionally, although not officially, reserved for whites. The next day, three nooses were hanging from the tree. Three white students were briefly suspended.

Then, in December, a white student was beaten up by six black schoolmates outside the school gymnasium. The black students were charged with attempted murder.

Eventually, those charges were reduced to offenses such as aggravated battery. In June, Bell was found guilty of second-degree battery charges. On Friday, the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal threw out his conviction, saying he had been improperly tried as an adult. Bell, now 17, remains in custody while prosecutors decide whether to file new charges against him in juvenile court." |Read more|