Editing Gretna, Louisiana (section)

===Hurricane Katrina controversy===
[[Image:GretnaLevee.jpg|thumb|left|High water along the [[Mississippi River]] levee at Gretna, 2005]]
The city and its police received considerable press coverage when, in the aftermath of [[Hurricane Katrina]] on August 29, 2005, people who attempted to escape from New Orleans by walking over the [[Crescent City Connection]] bridge over the Mississippi River were turned back at gunpoint by City of Gretna Police, along with Crescent City Connection Police, and Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies, who set up a [[roadblock]] on the bridge in the days following the hurricane. According to eyewitnesses, some officers threatened to shoot those coming from New Orleans as they attempted to cross into Gretna on foot, shots were fired overhead, and downdraft from a police helicopter was used to help clear refugees from the bridge.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/national/nationalspecial/10emt.html?_r=1|title=Police in Suburbs Blocked Evacuees, Witnesses Report|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|access-date=2010-09-19|date=2005-09-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1107-05.htm|title=March to Gretna|access-date=2005-11-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051125225317/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1107-05.htm|archive-date=2005-11-25|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="60 Minutes">{{cite news |author1-first=Carol |author1-last=Kopp |date=2005-12-15 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-bridge-to-gretna/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051220075700/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/15/60minutes/main1129440.shtml |url-status=live |archive-date=2005-12-20 |title=The Bridge to Gretna |newspaper=[[60 Minutes]] |publisher=CBS}}</ref> New Orleans Police Department 911 operator Patryce Jenkins, having walked the city for two days after her dispatch center was flooded, tried to return to her unflooded Gretna apartment via the bridge. Though she had ID to prove her status as a resident, she said instead of checking it police ordered her to turn back, used racial slurs, and fired a warning shot over her head, leaving her crying in disbelief.<ref name="Witt">{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/chi-gretna_wittsep04-story.html |title=Katrina aftermath still roils Gretna |author=Howard Witt |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=September 4, 2008}}</ref>

Gretna mayor Ronnie Harris pointed out though the city had not flooded, Gretna had been severely damaged as well, losing power, water, and sewage services, claiming the city had no food, no water, no shelters, and no capacity to take refugees. Harris said that the city had commandeered buses and been transporting a crowd of about 6,000 refugees to a nearby FEMA facility. But he said the city enacted the blockade after a spate of door-to-door robberies began in Gretna and stores at the [[Oakwood Center|Oakwood Mall]] were looted and burned.<ref>{{cite news |date=September 21, 2005 |publisher=MSNBC |author=Brock N. Meeks |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9427111 |title=Gretna mayor defends bridge blockade}}</ref> Residents of Gretna were themselves required to evacuate after a few days.<ref name="Witt" /> Four federal civil lawsuits were filed against the city for violation of civil rights.<ref name="Witt" /> Two were dismissed, and in a third the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office settled with a family from Algiers for $10,000.<ref name="dispo">[https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_73ecedf2-17d8-5736-bf06-57bdaa067373.html Federal judge throws out constitutional claims in CCC bridge blockade suit after Katrina ]</ref> A fourth federal case, involving Regional Transit Authority workers, was scheduled to go to trial in April 2011.<ref>[https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_2f381e57-3c37-5fb9-8712-6b10ed7aeedd.html Federal trial on blocking of the Crescent City Connection after Hurricane Katrina delayed until next year]</ref>{{update inline|date=April 2024}} Several other cases were filed in New Orleans Civil District Court.<ref name="dispo" />