Posted on 09/02/2005 2:54:29 AM PDT by jimbo123
As buses finally started arriving to pluck refugees from the Louisiana Superdome yesterday, a horrifying picture emerged of the squalor, violence and mayhem that they faced during the days spent huddled in the stadium.
Twenty-five thousand miserable people — many of whom lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina — hunkered down with little food and little water, overflowing toilets, stifling heat and the unbearable stench of human waste.
Children slept in pools of urine. Crack vials littered the bathrooms. Bloodstains smeared the walls near vending machines that had been pried open. Gunfire has ricocheted down the corridors.
There were two reports of rape, one involving a child. Three people died — one a distraught man who jumped to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for.
"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," Taffany Smith, 25, told the Los Angeles Times, while she gripped her 3-week-old son in her arms.
-snip-
Supplies were dangerously low, with one mother saying officials told her to reuse diapers by scraping them out when they got dirty.
-snip-
"There is feces on the walls," said Bryan Hebert, 43. "There is feces all over the place."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Sounds like inmate antics to me, feces on the wall. Maybe a new form of artwork with a twist.
NSNR
Those that were keeping an eye on the weather and had any sense left BEFORE the order to evacuate!
Don't forget the obligation to protect the lives of your innocent family and neighbors with weapons and ammunition. If the police, National Guard, and local citizens will not shoot robbers, car jackers, rapists, and murderers, then that type of behavior, among whatever socio economic group that learns to practice it, will continue.
If the alQaeda launched a terrorist attack on the city of New Orleans, is the defense of the citizens only a local matter ?
When local authorities are not up to the task, the federal authorities step in. Otherwise, what is the point of a Commander In Chief ?
I like the bit that crack vials littered the bathrooms-- that REALLY explains it ALL to me. We are dealing with a population with too many pathologies to mention. It's unthinkable that any white-run, majority white city would descend into this chaos.
When the Japanese suffer an earthquake or tsunami, we don't witness this kind societal breakdown. Even the most impoverished Japanese will behave himself. The Japanese, who have, since the end world war II, taken the inventions of others, and improved upon them, seem to have done as well with self-government as cars, tvs, and the vcr. Too many of our people, especially at the lower end of the spectrum, seem not to know what self-government is, witness conditions in this place. It is "lord of the flies" for grownups. I agree with other posters that since the '60s the constant drumbeat of you're a victim, society owes you, is responsible for this.
"His Honor" Kwame Kilpatrick has invited the homeless New Orleans refugees to come to Detroit. Bring your loot with you, there is nothing left to loot here.
Detroit: It's just like New Orleans, but without the Mardi Gras, the jazz, the French Quarter, and the great food.
Yep, I agree, well said.
Do you really believe what your a purporting? Your comment saying the President is incompetent??. The governor/mayor of La. are the weak links in this debacle.
Some people want instant gratification. Well, when you have domestic terrorist sniping at rescue workers this will not happen.
The fault is where it belongs with the local government state,and local. The (Governor of La.) runs????? that state, not President Bush. So a sane and prudent person can understand the power structure.
Maybe with Shrillary Klintoon in office you would feel more secure? Also, are you in reality a democratic liberal trying to bait people our here on the FR?(Troll)
If you do not love America and appreciate a President who cares, please move to Dafur or the mecca. Those places will surely embrace you intellect and lifestyle.
Consider Yourself Freeped,
NSNR-POA
"When local authorities are not up to the task, the federal authorities step in. Otherwise, what is the point of a Commander In Chief?"
The Commander in Chief will respond in a military matter. In this case, a civil disaster, the President will finally step in (a couple of days late in my opinion) and take control of the relief and rescue operations. But it is clear that it is initially up to the Mayor and then the Governor to take control.
If this was a terrorist strike, the mayor and governor wouldn't have had a chance to pee their pants before the Commander-in-Chief stepped in.
Part of the problem is that we don't have anyone at whom to be angry. Hence the popularity of the blame game.
If a nuke went off, though, we wouldn't have a hard time at all finding someone to stomp into the dust.
I think that the group, who didn't heed warnings, looting, shooting, etc. are missing a few brain cells, or more than a few.
The tag line was meant to be humorous. Lighten up.
The liberals have done a good job of convincing poor folk - especially blacks - that they are helpless and Uncle Sam will take care of everything.
I expect that even now, Hitlery is thinking of ways to exploit this tragedy for her political ends.
Your comment annoys me because these things are the function of city and state officials, the very people who ordered flood victims into the Superdome. Now the Mayor is trying to put all the blame on Bush, of course.
I visited N.O. last summer and became instantly conscious of the barbarism lurking just below the surface. As a Louisianan we befriended on a riverboat trip told us: "Be sure to look around all the corners in Naw'lins." It was there, just waiting for an excuse to reveal itself.
Where were the Mayor and city/state officials when it came to enforcing order and safety at the Superdome? Where were the portable toilets, the armed police, the emergency rations and water, the buses to get flood victims to safe and dry areas that should have been part of any disaster plan? There was no secret about what would happen if a Cat. 4 or 5 hurricane hit the city. It's been spelled out in tragic detail for years, available for anyone interested in the safety of the city to see. But there was no plan, no nothing. Now these incompetents are blaming the federal government for municipal and state government failures.
It's not just N.O. I'm seeing the same potential for disaster in every major American city where political correctness, multiculturalism and racial spoils politics have taken priority over common sense and self-discipline. We can't save N.O. But the same people who caused the disaster at the Superdome and those roaming the flooded streets armed with stolen firearms will have to go somewhere. What will you do when they come to your town?
I'm not sure why you're annoyed by my comment. I never stated that it is, or should be, the responsibility of the federal government to provide for sewage and police in every town.
However, when local and state systems disintegrate, as these have, it is the feds responsibility, even under the old dead Constitution, to ensure order. George should take charge and get this thing under control.
Good point. Areas of Mississippi and Alabama were even more demolished than New Orleans. People are pulling together in those areas like they did in New York City after 9/11.
As for Bush taking charge, look at the chronology of this mess. As late as Monday and most of Tuesday the media were saying N.O. had "dodged the bullet," and attention was focused on AL and MS. Then the levees broke, something everyone had been saying might happen and something that calls for direct municipal and state planning and action. It was Tuesday night that N.O. started to fill up with water. Bush officials had already dispatched whatever military resources that could be of help in a city without electricity, communications and a self-reliant disaster plan.
It's now a bit over 2 days later and I'm watching federal troops pouring into the city with choppers overhead. That's pretty fast action IMO. Just how do city, state and federal responsibilities mesh? And remember, there's devastation and death over an entire 3-state area with many areas needing help. Within hours of the hurricane I saw MS governor Haley Barbour on TV saying in no uncertain terms looters in his state would be dealt with very harshly. What were "Mayor" Nagin and "Governor" Blanco saying Tuesday? The Guv finally got around to talking tough Thursday night, after the genie was already out of the bottle. Apparently she only called in the National Guard Thursday.
As our Brit friends would say, this has been a total "balls-up" from the city and state levels. It's a monument to corrupt racial spoils system patronage politics and liberal inability to see the world in realistic, responsible terms. Yet the media and liberals everywhere are trying to blame the President. This morning, right on cue, the Congressional Black Cauc$&*$ers issued a "blame/hate Bush" statement, guaranteeing this tragedy will be turned into just more racist partisan political agitprop. Hillary is quietly assessing how she can play the wonderful cards she's just been dealt. Same old same old.
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