Posted on 09/08/2005 11:35:48 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said in an obscenity-laced tirade on WWL radio last Thursday that the federal government should have sent “Greyhound buses” to evacuate his city. He said school buses were inadequate because they lack bathrooms.
There was an Evacuation Plan, written in 2000 and updated since. It states that New Orleans should be evacuated at the Mayor’s order. He should declare that “48 hours in advance.” It also states he should use “public buses” including transit and school buses.
One of the duties of any Mayor of New Orleans is to know his obligations under this Plan, based on state and federal law. Plus that, Mayor who can walk and chew gum HAD to be aware that massive hurricanes have previously hit New Orleans, and that another such strike was inevitable, sometime
No, I’m not going to give a cite for that Plan. You’re on the Internet as you read this. You’ll believe that fact better if you find an independent source. Look in the Houston Chronicle, a liberal newspaper. Or, in the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper. Or, dozens of other sources. I’ll wait.
Okay, you’re back. You now know the duties Mayor Nagin had as Hurricane Katrina crossed the Gulf of Mexico, growing in strength and eventually heading for New Orleans.
Also, he knew that New Orleans is built below sea level. If the water ever started coming in through a major breach in the levees or canals, the City was finished. Any Mayor too dumb to know that would have been too dumb to raise his hand and take the oath of office.
What did Mayor Nagin do, faced with these facts? First, he was 24 hours late in ordering the evacuation of New Orleans. Second, he did not order local officials to get the buses rolling from parking lots around the City. Third, he took off for Baton Rouge, to give angry press conferences blaming others after the City drowned.
What was the result of Mayor Nagin’s not following the laws and Plan he was obligated to obey as Mayor?
The buses were flooded in their lots. The closest buses were a mere 1.2 miles from the Superdome, as shown by aerial photographs. And all the way through this creeping disaster, one highway connection from the Superdome to the West Bank of the Mississippi, remained open. It was not until 24 hours AFTER Katrina had passed that the nearest buses to the Superdome were flooded and became useless.
What happened to the citizens of New Orleans from the failure to use the available transportation? Many of the bodies of the dead have not been recovered, but Mayor Nagin has said that he expects “about 10,000 dead.”
Of course, more people will die in the future of diseases acquired from the polluted waters. Some of these will be self-inflicted, people who refuse to recognize the continuing danger and stay in their homes. But some will be people who could and would have gotten out, if given a choice. But they didn’t have that choice because they were poor, and the buses didn’t roll.
What are the criteria for a charge of manslaughter?
Anyone who deliberately or through gross negligence causes the death of another human being can be charged with manslaughter. Normally, someone cannot be charged with manslaughter for the failure to do something. If you are driving down the highway and see a car on fire and people in it, you are not obligated to stop and try to get the people out before the gas tank explodes. I know most of you would do that, but you don't have to.)
But anyone who is a public official has assigned duties in a given situation. He/she can be responsible for failure to act. We are talking about Mayor Ray Nagin, who sought his position with certain duties attached. We are not talking about Ray Nagin, private citizen, who is responsible only for saving his own hide (though he certainly did to that).
In my opinion, Mayor Ray Nagin should be charged with 10,000 counts of manslaughter. Any New Orleans prosecutor who seeks justice in his City should bring the charges now for the known dead, and amend the charges later as the list of dead grows, and grows, and grows, and grows.
Is there an honest prosecutor left in New Orleans?
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Do not mess with the Congressman, HSNRP. You will wind up in that dark place. We got your name.
Has Nagin been drinking the water from the flooded areas? If memeory serves me, Rudy Guiliani didn't run away to Albany on 9/11 and scream like a woman for the Feds to save his city. But the "runaway Mayor" was safe and dry in Baton Rouge when he stated ranting for the Feds to take over his responsibilities!
Someone needs to take this clown up for a helicopter tour of the devastation, and then give him a nudge out the door.
Has Nagin been drinking the water from the flooded areas? If memeory serves me, Rudy Guiliani didn't run away to Albany on 9/11 and scream like a woman for the Feds to save his city. But the "runaway Mayor" was safe and dry in Baton Rouge when he stated ranting for the Feds to take over his responsibilities!
Someone needs to take this clown up for a helicopter tour of the devastation, and then give him a nudge out the door.
And you know that to be a fact?
We got a live one over here!
Ping the Kitties, please.
Stand down. Looks like it is already toasted.
"And you know that to be a fact?
Yes. They were told to evacuate, or go to the dome. They had to make a choice. They did, they chose to stay home, or go where they did. No one forced their hand.
Have they released any new figures of the bodies recovered in NO so far?
Those who were responsible for children and decided to stay, they should be charged with neglect.
One has to wonder exactly how many of the buses that in the end were used to evacuate the people of New Orleans actually did have bathrooms. Has Mayor Nagin never heard of a potty stop?
Well, they have been told this many times before. My position on this is let them stay if they choose. But, make it clear that, once again they are totally on their own
No. The parents of those children are the rightful and proper decision makers. If any of them chose to stay, it was their choice to make and I will never hold them to be negligent, or support any kind of arbitrary authoritarian rule over them.
This however, is a different topic than the thread which is about govm't action. In that case the duly elected officials made their decisions and I don't see anything unlawful about them. They certainly don't meet any legal definition for criminal action, including negligent.
I haven't heard anything lately. Official Katrina body counts are kind of like car wrecks...I don't go out of my way looking for them, but when I happen upon one, I can't help but look closely.
Apparently Nagin thought the horror of having to take a dump in a roadside ditch is worth the risk of dying in a toxic flood.
NO...wish the FEDS could go after him and the governor for dereliction of duty...both need to go to prison...IMHO, governor is JUST AS GUILITY AS NAGIN.
I've stayed away from FR on a self-imposed hiatus for quite some time, but this issue really needs to be discussed.
I am appalled by the utter ignorance exhibited by not only the general population--actually expected--but by our elected public servants, this "Mayor" included.
The Federal government cannot simply barge into States uninvited, this is as basic as basic can get when it comes to our system of government.
Now, as usual, we have people who were elected to uphold our laws, publicly flaunting their ignorance of the laws and statutes that define our Republic; blame others for not acting in order to deflect attention away from your own culpability.
You are right Congressman, Nagy and Blanco are guilty of manslaughter, and those within the DNC trying to deflect attention away from this fact by politicizing this issue, even as the dead bodies are being gathered, are doing it to detract attention away from the guilt of their own political cronies, and should be charged with obstruction of justice, and being accessories after the fact.
As far as him crying about there not being toilets on the buses, so what. He sent everyone to the sports facility where there were inadequate toilets for that number of people. They both need to be brought up on charges!!
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