OT: Lootings, Carjackings, and shootings in New Orleans

[Leebo33]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewall/38725768/

LOL. That's a good read. Some of those posts are funny as hell. It seems like a coincidence to me. I'm sure you could find instances of the opposite. Did the same person write both captions?

[sportdan30]

Shooting at a medical aid helicopter, stealing a generator, and tipping over an ambulance????? Starting trash bin fires? Do these people want to help or hinder the recovery and rescue process???????

F'n pathetic! This pisses me off to no end.

[XXXIV]

We have insurgents in New Orleans???

[sportdan30]

We have insurgents in New Orleans???

It's out of hand in New Orleans. I don't even know what to call these people who are hindering the rescue efforts. It's absolutely despicable. I understand they're scared and hungry but there's no reason to be shooting at rescue workers who are trying to evacuate hospital patients.

I honestly felt guilty being able to drive my car yesterday and walk in to a grocery store.

[blueduke]

As for having a gun in NO, I would have gotten the f*** out of Dodge in the first place. Unless I was too infirm to leave, I would have been gone after the first warning, at the very least to a shelter. I can understand why people stuck it out but that wouldn't have been me.

I wouldn't have hung around either. I heard that about 6% of the city population didn't own cars. Most of those people have to be the unfortunate ones still stuck there.

[NoJoke]

I'm just gonna cut and paste this from Bill Harris' Dubious Quality site because I think he does an excellent job of setting up what is contained in the links. For the second link scroll back a few days to the beginning of the storm, August 28. My brother in law works in the exact building this guy is broadcasting from, but thankfully he is here safe (and furious) in Lafayette




From DQ reader Eric Dost, a link to satellite before-and-after imagery of New Orleans. The page specifically asks people not to hot link to it, but since the Drudge Report already has, I'm not too concerned about doing it myself:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... magery.htm.

Here's a link that is both compelling and disturbing: five geeks on the eleventh floor of a high-rise on Poydras Ave. (which is downtown New Orleans). They are supporting Directnic.com's data center, and they've been blogging about the hurricane since Sunday. They have a unique view of what's happening from their vantage point, as well as information that isn't coming out via the media channels. Like I said, very compelling but disturbing as well. Here's the link (to the most recent page--you'll need to backtrack to find the first storm entries):
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/.

[wco81]

Interesting. Cops and looters fighting over turf to loot.

New Orleans is 67% black and 27% are below the poverty line.

http://www.slate.com/id/2124688/nav/tap2/

The sad reality is that this scene could repeat in other big cities in the absence of order. Or even just power.

[JackB1]

Shooting at a medical aid helicopter, stealing a generator, and tipping over an ambulance????? Starting trash bin fires? Do these people want to help or hinder the recovery and rescue process???????

F'n pathetic! This pisses me off to no end.

there are also reports of rapings going on at the convention center.
it's dispicable what's going on there. Why does it take over 3 days
for enough Nat'l Guard to get there to restore order? It's only 1 city
for crissakes. It's a sad situatiom when we can't protect our own citizens
in our own country like we should.

[laurenskye]

WTF!!!!!!!!!

That's all I can say.

I don't know what to feel...sad, pissed, I mean WTF!!!!

And the whole world is watching. I imagine this justifies the way a lot of them feel about us.

[mobiggins]

On NPR today, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security coordinator in Bush's cabinet, got uppity with the NPR interviewer when NPR told him that there was a worse situation at the convention center than at the Superdome. Chertoff actually changed the subject and kept on talking about the superdome, and when NPR pressed him about it, he said he had no reports. NPR then told him that the had a reporter there who was on the scene and saying that people were out of food and water and were dying in front of him, to which Chertoff replied that he hadn't received any reports about it.
His office then called an hour later to inform NPR that they had indeed gotten a report and were sending aid there.

[TheMightyPuck]

What kills me is that this scenario was totally predicted and authorities were totally unprepared. They saw this thing coming long enough in advance to marshall some troops and supplies and get them ready to drop in and take control if necessary. It seems the disaster recovery plan for a scenario that experts had been saying for years was going to happen sooner or later was to hope it didn't happen.

[dbdynsty25]

What kills me is that this scenario was totally predicted and authorities were totally unprepared. They saw this thing coming long enough in advance to marshall some troops and supplies and get them ready to drop in and take control if necessary. It seems the disaster recovery plan for a scenario that experts had been saying for years was going to happen sooner or later was to hope it didn't happen.

Yeah no kidding. If the eye had hit NO directly, this s*** would be even worse and that is what they were expecting. How could they not have troops, national guard, fema, red cross, whatever, ready to roll as soon as the storm passed. It should not take a week to get people and support in place. Like some people have said on the news...how can we get our aid to remote countries like Indonesia, Afghanastan, Iraq or wherever, but we can't efficiently get people to southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Makes no sense to me.

[Inuyasha]

I think it's just that they never knew it would be this bad. We're use to seeing stuff like this in other countries when they get hit with hurricanes since their in the third world, but no one would have imagined it would happen like this here.

I think the authorities are still in a state of shock and now are finally getting people down there to help. But the whole thing has been mismanaged.

[pk500]

On NPR today, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security coordinator in Bush's cabinet, got uppity with the NPR interviewer when NPR told him that there was a worse situation at the convention center than at the Superdome. Chertoff actually changed the subject and kept on talking about the superdome, and when NPR pressed him about it, he said he had no reports. NPR then told him that the had a reporter there who was on the scene and saying that people were out of food and water and were dying in front of him, to which Chertoff replied that he hadn't received any reports about it.
His office then called an hour later to inform NPR that they had indeed gotten a report and were sending aid there.

Typical of a bureaucratic Federal government agency, which couldn't pick its head from its ass without signing off on a mountain of paperwork beforehand.

Sad, really sad.

Take care,
PK

[blueduke]

Typical of a bureaucratic Federal government agency, which couldn't pick its head from its ass without signing off on a mountain of paperwork beforehand.

Can't argue with that. It's not just the feds though. Let's not let the local and state gov't off the hook either.

Interesting read:

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles ... le_id=4784

Why were there not sound trucks cruising the streets warning those detached from the media to run for their lives? Why weren’t there places designated where folks heading out of town could fill up their cars with refugees lacking transportation? Why wasn’t every bus, truck, and railroad freight car pressed into service to haul people away?

[pk500]

You can't blame New Orleans, Gulfport or Biloxi government. How the hell can they function? They can't. They don't have the utilities or supplies to deal with this. Everything is destroyed or underwater.

An interesting read -- take it for what it's worth:

http://www.slate.com/id/2125494/nav/tap2/

I'm not sure what to think other than my heart bleeds for those people on the Gulf Coast. This truly is the movie "Escape From New York" in reality in New Orleans, something I never thought I'd see in the U.S.

So sad.

Take care,
PK

[pk500]

This is a striking assessment of the situation on the ground from someone who is in the middle of it:

>>>>>>>

As he watched a line snaking for blocks through ankle-deep waters, New Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert blamed the inadequate response on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy," he said. He added: "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."

<<<<<<<

I think it's pretty harsh, as FEMA was all over the place when refugees were herded into the Superdome Sunday night. I doubt they've left.

But Homeland Security Director Chertoff is a boob. He's proud that 1,200 National Guard troops are in NO. Seems we should have more than that by there now. Seems like we should have had 1,200 there Sunday night BEFORE the damn storm arrived. Every knew this was going to be a big one. Maybe not this bad, but it's not like a Cat 2 storm was heading up the Gulf.

Plus an NPR reporter alerted Chernoff to the deaths and chaos at the New Orleans Convention Center. A f*cking reporter had to give him a status report that caused him to kick relief efforts for the Convention Center into action.

Pretty discouraging.

Take care,
PK

[Jayhawker]

I'm just gonna cut and paste this from Bill Harris' Dubious Quality site because I think he does an excellent job of setting up what is contained in the links. For the second link scroll back a few days to the beginning of the storm, August 28.

The blog linked to by Bill Harris had one regrettable quote from early on in the tragedy:

When you look at the damage New Orleans sustained vs what we were told to expect, you're left with the impression that they will never be able to talk anyone into evacuating again....

[Wrekcut1]

Not trying to defend anyone here, but just something to keep in mind is the amount of area that we are talking about here that needs help. I think they said something like 70,000 sq miles has been declared a disaster area. I think that there is alot that is being done, but not being reported about, because it doesn't compare to the horrible things that are happening in NO especially around the Convention Center. I don't think what happened in the Convention Center can be ignored though....people were told to go there, but no one was there to welome or help them.

[blueduke]

You can't blame New Orleans, Gulfport or Biloxi government. How the hell can they function? They can't. They don't have the utilities or supplies to deal with this. Everything is destroyed or underwater.

I'm talking pre flood here. Not surprised to see "It's Bush's fault!" babbled at Slate (though some of it is). It's his fault New Orleans has ignored warnings about such a very thing happening? No. Certainly can't blame him the the lawlessness and anarchy. While I'm sure the criminal element in Mississippi is busy as a beaver too haven't saw the complete lack of humanity that seems to be going on in N.O. While I think Slate's article was in poor taste given the circumstances, I agree with most of it though. There's a time and place for that discourse but now certainly isn't the time.

'm not sure what to think other than my heart bleeds for those people on the Gulf Coast. This truly is the movie "Escape From New York" in reality in New Orleans, something I never thought I'd see in the U.S.

I second that.

[XXXIV]

I imagine this justifies the way a lot of them feel about us.

It does sorta justify the way I feel about the assholes who cater to this scum...

and that incl;udes the human filth at ABC,NBC and CBS...at what point do you pretend to be humans????

Huh???? MOTHER f***ers!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

[Wrekcut1]

I think the FEMA director just got his nuts nailed to the wall on CNN. I'm not sure of her name, but she pressed him on the Convention Center and he looked like he was just giving excuses. The sad thing is, he probably didn't know about the convention center until it was too late. Now he is trying to fix it. Hopefully this will make him get his hands deeper into the issue and make sure things are happening that are supposed to be.

[pk500]

While I think Slate's article was in poor taste given the circumstances, I agree with most of it though. There's a time and place for that discourse but now certainly isn't the time.

I agree. Slate makes some interesting points and some ridiculous points due to its leftist bent, but it never has much tact.

Slate's story does make some good points. But now is the time for help, not partisan muckraking.

Take care,
PK

[XXXIV]

TOO many d***** bags too interested in teir own political bullshit to actually care....

Too bad we cant exchange their deaths...

[XXXIV]

So as I keep watching TV I rememeber why I dont...

Do we report or try to suck cock?

This is the lowest point the scum at the networks has reached...at least in My eyes...but yeah...MINE are OPEN...