Baton Rouge Police receive Red Cross Money

After going over the types of disaster assistance and the eligibility it appears that no one living in Baton Rouge should be eligible for FEMA as well as Red Cross assistance. Baton Rouge was never declared a disaster area by the President. The question still begs: how did ineligible people in Baton Rouge receive disaster relief assistance? For example, police officers in East Baton Rouge Parish.

The District Attorney, Baton Rouge Police and the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office have launched a joint investigation to look for any wrongdoing -- and a memo from the Baton Rouge Union of Police might have something to do with it.

The memo, dated Sept. 19, tells union members they can get a Red Cross "gift card," even without having sustained any storm damage to their property, just because they are members. Naturally, it has stirred emotion in the Baton Rouge area.

Union attorney Charles Dirks said the whole thing is just one big misunderstanding.

"This particular person who generated the memorandum, he just did a poor job of taking down information and relaying the information," Dirks said.

Um, how does that happen? The Baton Rouge Union of Police had a meeting with the Red Cross people, and some how this employee left the meeting under the assumption that Baton Rouge police could get free gift cards i.e. free money? Shady business is going to be one of the main topics following post-Katrina clean-up.

A follow up article states that:

The Sept. 19 notice sent via Police Department e-mail referred to the charity's financial assistance debit cards for Hurricane Katrina victims as "gift cards," and insists they were a special benefit for union members.

"If you live in one of the attached Zip Codes you need to go by the Electrical Workers local Hall and get your Red Cross gift card, by Saturday 9/24/05," says the memo, which The Advocate obtained through a Louisiana public records request.

"You get the gift card whether you sustained a loss, or not, do (sic) to the storm, as a result of you being in B.R.U.P. Local 237."

The memo adds that immediate family "also qualifies for the gift card if they live in a separate residence from you in one of the listed Zip Codes (father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle)."