Posted on 09/03/2005 4:37:08 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Join us as we rally around people whose lives and cities were demolished by Katrina. Tune in Saturday at 8 p.m. ET for a three-hour “Larry King Live” special, “How You Can Help.”
Following the devastation to the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, CNN plans to broadcast “How You Can Help,” a three-hour prime-time special designed to provide a forum and information clearinghouse for viewers to understand and join nationwide and global relief efforts.
During the three-hour special, King will talk to hurricane survivors as well as organizations and celebrities who are helping with relief efforts. King will take viewer calls during the program, which will provide phone numbers, Web sites and other contacts for relief organizations.
The special will air around the world, due to simulcasts on both CNN International and on CNNRadio. CNN.com will post special "How You Can Help" coverage on its front page. The "How You Can Help" special replays on CNN/U.S. from midnight-3 a.m. and again from 4-7 a.m. ET.
Guests include: Bill Cosby,Jesse Jackson,Al Sharpton,James Carville,Harry Conick Jr.,Harry Belafonte,Eric Clapton and More!
This is only going to drive any thinking person in the states away from CNN, if there are any left by now. I know we hate these reports, but if you look at it as CNS, Cable News Suicide, it's not all that bad.
The crass problem here is that this filth will be beamed all over Europe. CNN will be proud. Any read blooded U.S. Citizen should be furious.
Those of you so inclined should call the King program and bring up the question of the photo (see my post #8). If you get through to the screener, make up another question they think they will like and then bring up the photo of the buses. They don't have an answer. I will be trying also to get on.
Just by seeing the name "Harry Belafonte", you know they've loaded the dice.
Day-O
Screaming at others by the guilty is the classic attempt to avoid punishment for failures. It is childish.
Seeing as Harry Belafonte is one your guests, and having a pretty good idea of his tactics, please be sure and ask him if he's seen the picture of the 200 sunken busses that Nagin refused to activate pre-Katrina...thanks, Larry...I KNOW you'll follow through
'Rats like King still believe assembling a pack of idiot celebrities must have some kind of meaning, some kind of purpose.
The Scream
At the current pace, New Orleans will exceed 300 murders by the end of the year.
New Orleans, the city we were born to love, lay in a pool of blood -- again -- last week. Raped by hate. Beaten, stabbed, strangled and bludgeoned to death by violence. She screamed for help, over and over, just as she has always done, year after year. We all saw it happen, if not on the evening news then in the daily paper. Yet, we -- her own children -- failed to save her.
It is a nightmare from which we cannot awake. Cold statistics underscore the stark reality: The number of homicides in our city last week topped 200 for the fifth year in a row. At the current pace, we will exceed 300 murders by the end of this year, according to Peter Scharf, a criminologist at the University of New Orleans. If we had New York City's crime rate, New Orleans would finish the year with only 36 murders, Scharf says. If New Orleans had the same homicide rate as Cleveland, whose poverty rate is far higher than ours, our city would finish this year with 62 murders, he adds. Other cities are experiencing double-digit declines in their homicide rates -- as high as 30 percent. By contrast, our murder rate has been rising steadily since hitting a recent low of 162 in 1999.
Our national reputation was recently underscored in an Aug. 5 editorial in the Los Angeles Times, titled "The Cancer in Compton." Wrote the Times: "With 42 homicides so far in 2005, Compton is on a pace to displace New Orleans as the nation's murder capital." This is not how we want other cities to be talking about us. Vigorous self-promotion campaigns cannot obscure the statistics.
Why are we slipping? Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Chief Eddie Compass have offered various explanations as their own best crime-fighting efforts (improved police pay, security cameras in high-crime areas, and domestic violence training for cops) fail to stem the tide of bloodshed. For example, the mayor and the chief have tried to assure us that many of our murder victims are drug addicts and criminals. That may be a factual explanation, but it is not an excuse.
Other explanations for our homicides deserve consideration. Veteran civil rights attorney Mary Howell argues that there is a resurgence in police misconduct that is undercutting NOPD's crime fighting efforts. "You cannot fight crime with a corrupt and brutal police department," Howell says. "There is a correlation between crime and integrity, discipline and accountability in a police department."
We agree. We find it unsettling that the private Metropolitan Crime Commission, a staunch supporter of law enforcement, has clashed repeatedly with Compass and NOPD's Police Integrity Bureau over a recent string of police disciplinary cases. Among those cases were allegations of misconduct involving three valedictorians from Jefferson Parish high schools, including one who was allegedly roughed up by NOPD officers. PIB concluded there was no evidence to support the students' claims, despite the Crime Commission's objections. Moreover, Deputy Chief Warren Riley's recent shake-up of top police commanders, following a spate of homicides, appears to have done more to increase internal friction and public uncertainty than to reduce violence.
The police reforms that followed the 1990s crime wave showed New Orleans what it's like to live without constant fear. We loved it. We want to do it again. We know the effort requires constant vigilance and effort. Our city also requires a strong mayor and a strong police chief to keep crime under control. Former Mayor Marc Morial and Police Chief Richard Pennington learned how to lead the fight against crime -- after the public marched on City Hall. Nagin might need only a change of style. The people of New Orleans want to be led, not managed. The mayor cannot delegate responsibility for crime and police reform to a department head, especially not during a crisis. We need a goal. Pennington once promised to cut the murder rate in half. With the public's help, he did it. Nagin's administration should aim equally high.
We also suggest that NOPD should bring the city's many community service providers into its weekly COMSTAT crime strategy meetings. They have ideas that are worth hearing. Mental health professionals, public housing advocates, life-saving medical providers -- anyone who has positive contact with the criminal element --Êshould be sought out. The goal is not to "snitch" but to save lives.
Finally, we need an overarching public education project that reaches into the neighborhoods most affected by the increased violence. This goes beyond reforms in public schools. For example, the city's Web site should include "best practice" links on how our children can protect themselves from bullies, and how the public can avoid armed robbery, rape, murder and crime-related addictions. Most importantly, each of us needs to learn that we have a crucial part to play in helping our beloved New Orleans when we hear the cries for help. Those cries are our own. Any one of us could be next.
http://bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/current/commentary.php
I would rather watch Al Jazeera.
You have to call and hope to get on. The screen will not let you on if you are too confronational. Call and say your question is about the slow deployment of buses. Then, when on, ask why the buses were not deployed.
I'll bite.... how is Magic Johnson going to help?
...And I thought there was a stupidity shortage.
When will Hillary be "boots on the ground"? or is she still on vacation?
Wow, the 15 viewers are in for quite a treat. /sarcasm
John Goodman proved not so...
Good article. The mayor and police chief have demonstrated the problem lies with them. Yelling, screaming, crying, dereliction of duty, negligence, blaming others etc. in a huge crisis. They are out. Buh bye.
Those are tactics of democrat seminar callers. We don't behave that way, at least if we have any respect for ourselves.
He could auction off his oratory skills to the highest bidder and donate the cash?
Nah...
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