Man who comandeered bus after Katrina indicted....
I will remember the Hero
, When a Government didn't give a shit
By Michael Perlstein
Staff writer
The hero-to-villain odyssey of Jabar Gibson took another nose-dive Thursday when the 21-year-old was indicted on federal drug and gun charges, less than eight months after he gained national acclaim for driving a group of Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans to Houston in a commandeered school bus.
Gibson faces from 5 to 25 years behind bars if convicted on charges of cocaine trafficking, heroin trafficking and possessing a gun while dealing drugs. Authorities said Gibson was carrying 1.7 grams of cocaine, an undisclosed amount of heroin and a .357-caliber revolver when he was caught by New Orleans narcotics detectives and federal agents on Jan. 7.
At the time of his arrest, Gibson was facing heroin charges in an unrelated case from November in which police said he tried to ditch the drugs while being pursued by officers in the Fischer public housing complex, the place where Gibson's 15 minutes of fame was launched in Katrina's aftermath.
It has been a steep slide for Gibson since he was applauded as a renegade hero.
He corralled a movie deal and coast-to-coast media attention after he stole a yellow Orleans Parish school bus and ferried 60 Fischer residents from Algiers to the Astrodome in Houston. After a wild 12-hour ride filled with breakdowns, mishaps and close calls with the law, Gibson arrived in Houston well ahead of the caravan of FEMA-sanctioned buses carrying evacuees from the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center.
With a rap sheet that already included jail time for car theft and pending cocaine charge, Gibson's hometown reputation as a thug was quickly discovered. But with his cargo of poor, bedraggled New Orleans evacuees - ranging from grandmothers to a week-old-infant - he became a media darling, with several feel-good stories casting him as a hustler-turned-Good Samaritan.
"Everybody does wrong things. But right now I feel like I done something right," Gibson said after his arrival in Houston. While he was never charged for commandeering the bus from a school bus yard, he didn't waste much time reverting to his earlier troubled ways, police said.
Gibson's heroin arrest on Nov. 25 arrest came shortly after he returned to the city from his temporary home in a Houston hotel. He was out on bond when he returned to Fischer and, according to police, resumed his drug-dealing lifestyle.
Gibson freely acknowledged his past mistakes while basking in the media floodlights after his Katrina bus escapade, but he always added the disclaimer that those days were gone.
"All that's behind me now," he said in one interview. "I'm trying to be a new me...I feel like the Lord, all the problems I was going through, he just turned it around for me."
Michael Perlstein can be reached at mperlstein@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3316.
Link Here
, When a Government didn't give a shitBy Michael Perlstein
Staff writer
The hero-to-villain odyssey of Jabar Gibson took another nose-dive Thursday when the 21-year-old was indicted on federal drug and gun charges, less than eight months after he gained national acclaim for driving a group of Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans to Houston in a commandeered school bus.
Gibson faces from 5 to 25 years behind bars if convicted on charges of cocaine trafficking, heroin trafficking and possessing a gun while dealing drugs. Authorities said Gibson was carrying 1.7 grams of cocaine, an undisclosed amount of heroin and a .357-caliber revolver when he was caught by New Orleans narcotics detectives and federal agents on Jan. 7.
At the time of his arrest, Gibson was facing heroin charges in an unrelated case from November in which police said he tried to ditch the drugs while being pursued by officers in the Fischer public housing complex, the place where Gibson's 15 minutes of fame was launched in Katrina's aftermath.
It has been a steep slide for Gibson since he was applauded as a renegade hero.
He corralled a movie deal and coast-to-coast media attention after he stole a yellow Orleans Parish school bus and ferried 60 Fischer residents from Algiers to the Astrodome in Houston. After a wild 12-hour ride filled with breakdowns, mishaps and close calls with the law, Gibson arrived in Houston well ahead of the caravan of FEMA-sanctioned buses carrying evacuees from the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center.
With a rap sheet that already included jail time for car theft and pending cocaine charge, Gibson's hometown reputation as a thug was quickly discovered. But with his cargo of poor, bedraggled New Orleans evacuees - ranging from grandmothers to a week-old-infant - he became a media darling, with several feel-good stories casting him as a hustler-turned-Good Samaritan.
"Everybody does wrong things. But right now I feel like I done something right," Gibson said after his arrival in Houston. While he was never charged for commandeering the bus from a school bus yard, he didn't waste much time reverting to his earlier troubled ways, police said.
Gibson's heroin arrest on Nov. 25 arrest came shortly after he returned to the city from his temporary home in a Houston hotel. He was out on bond when he returned to Fischer and, according to police, resumed his drug-dealing lifestyle.
Gibson freely acknowledged his past mistakes while basking in the media floodlights after his Katrina bus escapade, but he always added the disclaimer that those days were gone.
"All that's behind me now," he said in one interview. "I'm trying to be a new me...I feel like the Lord, all the problems I was going through, he just turned it around for me."
Michael Perlstein can be reached at mperlstein@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3316.
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 8:10 AM
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