Man Trying to Prevent Rape at Superdome Shot by National Guard

I wasn't sure if I should post this, but I figured in the spirit of ATS, we should deny ignorance regardless of how unpleasant it is. I'm not posting this as an attack on the national guard, but more as an example of how the US media covers up- or at least fails to report- on certain aspects of reality. I have not seen this reported anywhere in the US press, despite it having occured several days ago.

Fear ratcheted up the tension, with disturbing reports of mistaken identity emerging from the chaos. Police and national guardsmen were accused of killing innocent people.

"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told the Reuters news agency before he left on Sunday.

"A young lady was being raped and stabbed.

"And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them.

"He jumped up on the truck's windscreen and they shot him dead," Mr Banka said.

Another man died in mysterious circumstances on Friday as a police car passed the New Orleans Convention Center, where equally squalid conditions forced many to sleep outside among streets full of rubbish.

Source: Survivors Reveal Superdome Horror, BBC News

I understand many things were happening during this time, but the US media did find plenty of time to report on alleged looters being killed by the National Guard, so why not this instance? I find the selectivity very disturbing.

Before anyone beats me to it, I know the National Guard is doing a lot of good for the victims of Katrina. Again, this is not intended to demonize these brave men and women.

-koji K.

[edit on 5-9-2005 by koji_K]

Jumping on their vehicle? That most likely sent up a red flag to them and they were quick to respond. God knows, they could of thought he was one of 'them' with a gun or a knife..

What he should of done ( i know it's hard to think when your adrenaline levels are soaring) is wave them done with his hands or maybe even jumped on the guy who was raping the woman and stabbing her... Maybe not jump on him, but hit him over the head with something then kick the crap out of him.

That man would of done more good that way then the path he chose.

Terrible news nonetheless, and perhaps some extra training in 'people freaking out in the midst of a castrophe' is in order.

Good post on a touchy subject.

This underlines why Millitary Troops should not be used in this sort of situation. They don't have the training to police civilian populations!!
ESPECIALLY their own.

This problem extends to Iraq, of cource. Those troops are trained to fight battles... to pull the trigger and in wars, NOT to deal with chaos and tramatic urban situations.

It might be a good idea to take a note from your buddies to the north...
Our main police force, the RCMP, are actually classified as millitary personel. Thus, we are able to deploy them anywhere at any time and they can act as overseers for millitary opperations.

It's an idea worth noting. It's working very well for us in Afganistan (where we've actually managed to do a large scale opp WITHOUT shooting anyone) and it would work well in this case if we were allowed to send 'em.

Otherwise, the national guard needs to be trained differently. Homeland defence should not be about Shock and Awe. It needs to be about humanity.

Originally posted by BitRaiser
Otherwise, the national guard needs to be trained differently. Homeland defence should not be about Shock and Awe. It needs to be about humanity.

Tell that to the man who's already labelled himself a wartime president.

I agree, btw, what op was done in afganistan without harming anyone?
Are we talking about terrorists or civilians?

Originally posted by TrueLies
I agree, btw, what op was done in afganistan without harming anyone?
Are we talking about terrorists or civilians?

I'm talking about the reconstruction efforts in Kandihar. Since deplyment, there's been no reports of civilian OR terrorist deaths. This is likely due to the fact that our troops don't cause conficts and the special personel have been trained to deal with these situations (lord knows we've been in them enough!).

Here's a link to current deployments.
www.forces.gc.ca...
Still looking for some info on the lack of violence... hard to find since it's not sensational enough for the mass media to call "news".