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
Don't reveal the ending!
It says:
D. Regional Transit Authority
* Supply transportation as needed in accordance with the current Standard Operating Procedures.
* Place special vehicles on alert to be utilized if needed.
* Position supervisors and dispatch evacuation buses.
Sounds like it was the Governor's agency that was supposed to do it.
Grant Nagin immunity if he testifies against Blanco. She is the real killer here.
Hi there fedscum TROLL
BTW
(My message to you didn't post, last time.)
John / Billybob
Silly Army National Guard, they left their Chefs and Wait staff back at the armory mess hall.
Blanco needs to be party to these counts as well - she does NOT get a pass here.
"10,000 counts of manslaughter"
Ridiculous. Those folks chose to stay on their own.
In an interview with Fox News last night, the LA Gov accepted full blame for not evacuating NO before the hurricane.
She said that while the NO Mayor had given a mandatory evacuation order as of Sunday, which had not been rescinded, only she had the power and resources to actually implement the evacuation. She said she was still trying to decide if she would enforce a mandatory evacuation.
It is her belief that only she could have ordered a mandatory evacuation of NO, and she did not.
Is manslaughter the same as negligent homicide? I woulda thunk n.h. would be the charge.
OK. I see your point but I don't expect them to look it up themselves. We already know they are beyond lazy.
As floodwaters caused by Hurricane Katrina began to slowly recede with the ruined city's first pumps returning to operation, Nagin late Tuesday authorized law enforcement officers to force the evacuation of the estimated 10,000 residents who refuse to heed orders to leave.
But in a Wednesday interview with FOX News, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she had not signed off on the decision.
"The mayor certainly has ordered that but the governor, and that would be me, would have to enforce it or implement it. We are trying to determine whether there is an absolute justification for that," she told FOX News.
Off LaHwy 30, is the small town of St. Gabrial. It has little post office there. The town hardware store is one of the best I have ever seen. As of Tuesday, the town has a new morgue capable of handling 8000 bodies. The forensic team stationed there includes many of the same people brought in after 9/11. Six miles up Hwy 30 is the LSU campus.
"Let me be the first to take the blame," Landrieu said, before chiding President Bush for saying soon after the storm that no one anticipated the levies that protect New Orleans from flood waters would have broken. "Everybody anticipated a breach," she said.
Let's see... a Cat 4/5 storm heading for your cat 3 max levees, and nobody used the public (mass transit/school) buses to transport the thousands who she knew had no means of other transportation, and on top of that, everybody anticipated a breach. How again is that Bush's fault?
con't....
The Saturday football home game has been moved to Tempe, AZ, becuase the P-Mac (basketball stadium) across the street is being used as a hospital. Tickets will be honored in Tempe.
Armed army troops are stationed at the Box (baseball stadium). There are vehicles of every kind everywhere: military trucks, 18 wheelers, rescue trucks (saw one from Lake Zurich, IL),busses, dump trucks, and New Orleans cars (easily identified by all of the dents).
The entire interview is worth reading, but the bombshell is that the Red Cross had people and supplies in place in New Orleans, and that FEMA, who is charged with working with the Red Cross and other private entities, could not authorize them to begin work.
Read on . . .
Sep 8th, 2005: 14:29:14
According to Garrett:
The Red Cross was ready. I got off the phone with one of their officials. They had a vanguard, Brit, of trucks with water, food, hygiene equipment, all sorts of things ready to go where? To the Superdome and convention center. Why weren't they there? The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security told them they could not go.
Why not? Garrett again:
The Red Cross tells me that state agency in Louisiana said, look, we do not want to create a magnet for more people to come to the Superdome or convention center, we want to get them out. So at the same time local officials were screaming where is the food, where is the water? The Red Cross was standing by ready, the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security said you can't go.
Garrett was later interviewed by radio talker Hugh Hewitt [transcript, very much worth reading, from Radio Blogger].
Garrett to Hewitt:
I think they are. I mean, and look. Every agency that is in the private sector, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Feed The Children, all the ones we typically see are aggrieved by all the crap that's being thrown around about the response to this hurricane, because they work hand and glove with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. When FEMA is tarred and feathered, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are tarred and feathered, because they work on a cooperative basis. They feel they are being sullied by this reaction.
Hewitt later asked:
I also have to conclude from what you're telling me, Major Garrett, is that had they been allowed to deliver when they wanted to deliver, which is at least a little bit prior to the levee, or at least prior to the waters rising, the supplies would have been pre-positioned, and the relief...you know, the people in the Superdome, and possibly at the convention center, I want to come back to that, would have been spared the worst of their misery.
Garrett replied:
They would have been spared the lack of food, water and hygiene. I don't think there's any doubt that they would not have been spared the indignity of having nor workable bathrooms in short order.
http://www.redstate.org/story/2005/9/8/142914/9010
I don't understand..the Jambalaya MRE is a South Louisiana favorite and it makes good farts.
As usual nail meet hammer. Well said. Ray is trying to lay it off on the weepy Governorette, who is trying to lay it off on the President.
It is obvious as the usual suspects blather on, they are erecting their own gallows. The volume of spin and lies vs the FACTS is going to be pretty amazing.
Is there any legal maneuver that would allow a private citizen of Louisiana to file charges, should the Prosecutors lack a pair?
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