Gulf Watch: No indictment in post-Katrina Gretna Bridge blockade

Speaking of criminal justice in post-Katrina New Orleans, an Orleans Parish grand jury declined to indict Gretna Police Officer Lawrence Vaughn on a charge of illegal use of a weapon in connection with his firing a gun on the Crescent City Connection two days after Hurricane Katrina, the Times-Picayune reports. The charge was related to a controversial incident in which officers from Gretna and other jurisdictions forcibly prevented people from fleeing New Orleans in the wake of the disastrous flooding caused by levee failures. The blockade -- which has triggered five civil suits -- appears to have been a violation of the U.S.-endorsed United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which guarantee that "every internally displaced person has the right to liberty of movement" as well as the "right to move freely in and out of camps or other settlements."