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
And remember as always that just one juror who buys what you're selling (as a lawyer) and you client gets to skate. I do not play that game, and never have. But I've seen a lot of it, so I understand it.
John
Interesting read; and I'm in full agreement.
Blanco Refused to Act
At the Washington Post, in a story with a headline that gives no indication of the important information it contains, we discover that federal officials have been desperately trying to get Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to do something about the disaster in New Orleans—but she refused to act: Thousands Remain To Be Evacuated -- 9/3/2005. (Hat tip: efuseakay.)
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. “Quite frankly, if they’d been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals,” said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
“The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana,” White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. “The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana.”
Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state’s victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.
These comments are real gems!
"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."
"people were refusing the mres because they weren't prepared for them."
These illustrate just how absolutely sick and hallucinatory the left and their ilk really are. Good Lord! To seriously put forth such drivel as legitimate, within the literal life or death context of a monstrous hurricane, is tantamount to refusing an available lifeboat seat on the Titanic, because the boat had no food and no crapper. (Did they also expect the emergency workers to spoon the food into their mouthes)? If reality weren't an overwhleming tragedy, with accompanying death and misery on a mass scale, this is the stuff of which a lousy B-grade comedy movie is made.
NOTHING these people do, say or think is astounding anymore.
Shows you what I know. I thought it was because school buses aren't equiped with wet bars! New Orleans IS a party town, dontcha know.
I'm with you on the manslaughter charges 100% BillyBob.
Nam Vet
http://mumblesmenino.us/Mayor%20Ray%20Nagin.htm
Listen to Nagin 'splain what's happening...all in his own voice.
Blanco is toast. There's too much money coming into the state to keep her there and too many people with the real power who want their hands on that money.
All this dirt that is coming out now - it's from Senator Landreau (sp) and that group. Blanco is history.
"Listen to Nagin 'splain what's happening...all in his own voice."
Great link!
Looooocy; I theen he still has lot of 'splainin' to do;
If he could only talk right. LOL!
Sheesh! This guy is THE poster-boy, THE stellar end- product, in the flesh, for all to see, of decades of liberal education, affirmative action quotas, leftist social policies and Democrats running amok with impunity. What an embarassment. I'll be expecting no future career in brain surgery from this joke.
Anyone know when, or if, Blanco activated the La Guard? It should have been Friday before the storm.
I won't hold my breath.....though I certainly agree with the concept. :)
"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."
Gee, why doesn't he just ask the Federal Government to beam them out of the city next time?
I do (agree).
...nice piece, John.
Well said, good congressman!!
Who could have imagined a scenario where nurses left nursing home patients to drown or an emergency shelter for thousands was not equiped with generators and emergency communications equipment?
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