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LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders

By Jeralyn, Section Huricanes Katrina and Rita
Posted on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 09:29:24 PM EST
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I've been hearing all day that the Republicans are going to try to deflect criticism from Bush by blaming Louisiana Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco. While I think Bush bears far more blame, it won't bother me a bit. She gave "shoot to kill" orders to the National Guard tonight.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned rioters and looters in New Orleans on Thursday that National Guard troops are under her orders to "shoot and kill" to end the rampant violence in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Announcing the arrival of 300 Arkansas National Guard troops in New Orleans fresh from service in Iraq, Blanco said, "these troops are battle-tested. They have M-16s and are locked and loaded." "These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will," she said.

[Via Raw Story.]

Australia News: "It was like a concentration camp in there."

One 13-year veteran of the New Orleans police force said he and many fellow officers who had been at the Superdome since Sunday were equally outraged at what they saw as a lack of preparation that allowed the situation in the covered stadium to deteriorate so badly and so quickly.

"This city knew something like this would happen a long time ago," said the officer who asked not to be identified. They did nothing to prepare for this. They just rolled the dice and hoped for the best."

"People were raped in there. People were killed in there. We had multiple riots," he said, adding there was no way to police the ad hoc community of up to 20,000 people suddenly thrown together in such a confined space and such horrific conditions. "You can't be trapped in there for so long without going crazy. People were locked in the dome like prisoners," he said.

"There was no ventilation. We had 80 to 90-year-old people who needed medication and couldn't get it." According to Mr Duncan, the nights inside the arena were the worst, with the pitch darkness and debilitating humidity accentuating the rank smell from backed up toilets. "The stench was unbearable. We were treated like animals," he said.

"There was shooting, our lives were in danger. A seven-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy got raped."

As far as I'm concerned, Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu can go out with her.

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    LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders | 34 comments (34 topical)
    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:01 PM EST
    well we all knew that was coming killing is the business of government. check out Globalsecurity.org and see chatles ostman may sound nuts but its a maybe?

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    "How noble the law in its majestic equality, that both the rich and poor are equally prohibited from peeing in the streets, sleeping under bridges, and stealing bread!" - Anatole France It seems that the raw sewage has not only entered the statehouse but it is now spewing forth from it as well. Frankly, I'm amazed that it took so long for those in power to revert to the old capitalist standard of placing the value of property over the value of human life. La plus ca change ...

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#3)
    by cpinva on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    i wouldn't be quite so quick to castigate the gov. for her orders. last time i checked, flat panel tv's and watches don't constitute necessities. bear in mind, these are the same jerkwads shooting at helicopters trying to save people. i have some sympathy for a mother or father trying to find water, formula, diapers, etc. for their children, i would most likely do the same. i have no sympathy at all for those looting jewelery & electronics stores, etc, and most especially not liquor stores. things are bad enough without having a bunch of drunks with guns running loose in the city. shoot them on sight, that's part of martial law.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    cpnv-Hope they get it right. Going by what has happened up to now I do not have too much faith in the judgements of the executioners.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#5)
    by cpinva on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    squeaky, as do i. with luck, the scumwads will be so brazen, they can't be missed. the reports i've seen and read seem to indicate a distinct difference in attitude between those looting for sustenence, vs those looting for fun and profit. those taking necessities seem to just get what they need and leave, not so those taking the tv's, etc., they stick around for the fun and games of destroying everything else before they depart. my suspicion is, these are the same people who try to jack the system in normal times, and are just going wild with no law to stop them. they'll not, i believe, be missed.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#6)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    Don't worry cp...it will all work out for the best since the wild animal negroes will all be dead of typhoid before the Guard units can rotate back from Baghdad to kill them.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#7)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    Summary executions are very, very frightening you guys... When someone is shot, it is very hard to prove it wasn't in cold blood. Let us hope that the citizens of nola realize that they are currently living in a police state and behave as such.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#8)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    Yeah if worse comes to worse we can declare all the refugees terrorists and drop napalm or depleted uranium on them. Or maybe a few of those "tactical" nuclear weapons we've heard PPJ advocate using. Problem solved.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    So, now they are going to throw triggerhappy soldiers from the Iraq war into the mess. Talk about Baghdad on the Mississippi.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    So, now they are going to throw triggerhappy soldiers from the Iraq war into the mess. Talk about Baghdad on the Mississippi.
    Some of the gentlest guys I know are combat vets. If troops have to be deployed then vets have better fire discipline, unit cohesion, situational awareness, the whole 9 yards. No disrespect to the stateside units but trigger happyness is much more likely a scared, untried troop who has never seen the bloody chaos capping off a few at shadows can lead to. Cut the men on the ground some slack please.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#11)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    Last night during an interview Mayor Ray Nagin said he is unsurprised by the looting, referring to reports of gangs of armed young men combing the dry neighborhoods. His chief of police said that they believe a significant amount of the resident criminals stayed for the opportunity, and a number of criminals came from surrounding areas after hearing of the mass evacuation. New Orleans had a very serious crime problem before its infrastructure was destroyed. A decade ago they were the so-called murder capital of the US. Today the murder rate is 10 times the national average. Lavocat-
    “I'm amazed that it took so long for those in power to revert to the old capitalist standard of placing the value of property over the value of human life”
    Cut the bull$hit. It is no more the capitalist standard than the killing fields are the communist or socialist standard. If anything, this disaster was constructed by collectivist federal programs. Ernesto- (from an older thread) It looks as if the photographer who labeled the photo of the white folks actually believed they found (in the colloquial sense) the groceries. He has said that there were several folks (black and white) in chest deep water walking among a multitude of items that had been washed out of a grocery store. If the same person captioned the photos I would be convinced, maybe even from the same news service. I think folks were waiting, expecting something like this; but just two photos? If there were wholesale bigotry in the media, or even a subtle bigotry, wouldn’t we be seeing more than a handful of these types of things? Anyway, the photos have been pulled everywhere but the left blogs, which shows how scared the news outlets are of this kind of thing.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#12)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    Looters of tv's and radios, in all honesty, deserve to be shot. I just don't trust police or national guard with the authority to "shoot to kill". Better to let the dregs steal tvs than for a person looking for food to be murdered by the authorities. That would be the real sin. The looting has been overhyped by our useless media; and the hunger, disease, and suffering not given the attention it deserves. I am of the opinion that FEMA is using the looting as an excuse to cover up their dismal relief effort.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    Cut the men on the ground some slack please.
    I would, if I hadn't seen the news coming out from Iraq for two and a half years now.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#14)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:04 PM EST
    A shoot to kill order will not stop the few criminal looters. The thousands of innocent scavengers will get caught in the crossfire. We all know what the orders are. This just inflames the situation. Stupid is as stupid does.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#15)
    by Patrick on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:05 PM EST
    Anything worth stealing has been stolen already. No one wants to shoot people at random, not even us cops.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#16)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:05 PM EST
    If there were wholesale bigotry in the media, or even a subtle bigotry, wouldn’t we be seeing more than a handful of these types of things?
    You can read basically the same thing on every news site. Where are the white looters? You know they are out there. I have been around pretty much all races and levels of social strata in my life and the most criminalistic people I have met yet were some of the middle/upper class white boys I knew in college. You don't see them on the news, though. Look, don't tell me that the media treats black and white equally in their coverage, ever. If they did, then this would indicate that blonde white girls are the only missing persons in the world, for instance. But this is a class issue even more than a race issue. It so happens that the underclass in New Orleans is largely black. And it is vast. And they were stuck there and left to pretty much sink or swim on their own. That's something that the "government off my back" crowd has been responsible for. The social safety net, the only thing separating the United States from any 3rd world country, has had huge holes ripped in it since Reagan. This is the legacy of a government of the money, by the money and for the money. And now everyone in the world can see it. Even you I hope.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#17)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:05 PM EST
    mar writes:
    I would, if I hadn't seen the news coming out from Iraq for two and a half years now.
    I hope you never need their protection. And if you do, I hope they give it to you.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#18)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:06 PM EST
    Ernesto-
    “Where are the white looters?”
    Where are any white folks? If the mass of video I’ve seen is representative there are almost no white folks stranded in New Orleans. In the footage of the refugees at the superdome, hospitals, and streets in general perhaps one in a hundred were white.
    “Look, don't tell me that the media treats black and white equally in their coverage, ever.”
    Perhaps not, but the tension over the racial makeup of the folks stranded in NO was obvious from the first posting on the first threads; folks were waiting to pounce on this. What I have seen so far is two pictures from two news agencies that were promptly pulled; the only evidence they even existed is at left blogs.
    “If they did, then this would indicate that blonde white girls are the only missing persons in the world, for instance. … But this is a class issue even more than a race issue.”
    You answered your own point. If the Holloway girl had been a well to do beautiful black girl it would have been as sensational. But I see others share your ‘frustration’.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#19)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:06 PM EST
    Ernesto-
    “And they were stuck there and left to pretty much sink or swim on their own. That's something that the "government off my back" crowd has been responsible for.”
    There was no secret about the eminent threat. I could just as easily blame this on the “let the government do it for me” crowd. Do you really expect the feds to do every goddamn thing for you? After Ivan missed the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology surveyed New Orleans. They estimated that around 120,000 had no immediate means to evacuate. Over 600,000 people left for Ivan; if 1 in 6 had taken someone without a car all of the folks without cars could leave. If the survey of New Orleans residents is representative of the demographic in the city today, 1 in 7 couldn’t leave, the other 6 chose not to. Sure, folks were stuck; but if the attitude of those with and without means were similar only 1 in 10 folks in New Orleans now wanted to leave. Perhaps 90% of the human tragedy was due to simple ignorance. What’s the more reasonable solution; the federal government extorts money from hardworking folks the nation over and filters it through a dozen bureaucracies so perhaps (and I’m being generous) half of it reaches an evacuation program, or 1 in 6 folks leaving New Orleans takes one of their unfortunate neighbors.
    “The social safety net, the only thing separating the United States from any 3rd world country, has had huge holes ripped in it since Reagan.”
    What separates developed countries from the (failing) developing world is rule of law, protection of rights, property rights, relatively corruption free representative government, all the things necessary for economic growth and investment. A social safety net is a luxury that comes of prosperity; it isn’t the force for prosperity.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:06 PM EST
    Pigwiggle: "There was no secret about the eminent threat." There IS no secret about the eminent threat. There was no secret about the imminent threat, either. What there was also was a failure to plan disaster around sleeping on the job. Posted by Snodgrass: "Some of the gentlest guys I know are combat vets." HILARIOUS. "If troops have to be deployed then vets have better fire discipline," Hey, that's funny -- your view is 180 degrees from that of ANY civilian authority in the world, including the US. It has long been recognized that combat vets, many of whom are ticking time bombs, are not appropriate police or disaster recovery workers. Soldiers are accustomed to giving orders, taking orders, and shooting. They know NOTHING about the local people, the rights of civilians, the need for people to feel like they are at least working toward a better future. Soldiers know how to destroy. They know BUPKIS about building, rebuilding, or caring for refugees and traumatized civilians. Offering a candy bar to a kid whose leg just got blown off by the same soldiers' bazooka. And then getting drunk and crying for forty years. That's these great combat vets you think are so gentle.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#21)
    by Patrick on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:06 PM EST
    Take this for what it's worth, but I recall seeing warnings for people to prepare themselves for 3-5 days without support. Seems whoever put that warning out hit it right on the head.
    What separates developed countries from the (failing) developing world is rule of law, protection of rights, property rights, relatively corruption free representative government, all the things necessary for economic growth and investment. A social safety net is a luxury that comes of prosperity; it isn’t the force for prosperity.
    So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Well said!

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#22)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:06 PM EST
    Pat-You are getting smart. Since you are pointing out that the USA is like a (failing) developing country, we can work together to make things right. First step is to figure out how to retool the Diebold machines so they register votes accurately and make sure that they produce a paper record of those votes. A start toward getting America back in line with your ideal.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:07 PM EST
    Patrick: "What separates developed countries from the (failing) developing world is rule of law." What a load of bull. What separates most so-called failing developing countries from the corporations that prey upon them is the World Bank and the IMF, both of which work for those corporations. Indebting countries in order to seize their resources at pennies on the dollar -- that's this noble basis for 'economic growth and investment.' The no-bid contracts come along with an UTTERLY corrupt non-representative government. Back in Truman's time, laws were passed which required ALL CONTRACTS to be on sealed bid basis. The Clown Bus is loaded with bloody cash-filled duffles going to dictators and pawns throughout the resource-rich developing country, and Bush's favorite corporations 'stateside.' What a liar, to claim it is otherwise.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#24)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:07 PM EST
    Squeaky- You lack perspective. Gripe about your conspiracy theories and Diebold while Zimbabweans are ‘instructed’ how to vote, and then polled by the same folks that proctored the brutal lesson. Your state is in charge of your polling for all elections, including national ones. If you don’t like the way it’s run, change it. It’s simple, albeit slightly less trivial than b!tching on a blog. PaulinLA- You also need perspective. An acquaintance of mine toured Africa before an MD exchange. He has film of a man being beaten to death by a mob in a market for shoplifting. Those folks have no law and order, no justice, and if you think the money you send to help those poor folks goes anywhere but the greased pockets of corrupt officials your rambling is spot on; you are delusional. My second cousin and his wife do charity work in Cambodia and Vietnam. He told me a story about a boatload of wheelchairs, literally tons, he tried to take into Cambodia only to be turned away because he refused to pay the necessary bribes for local and national government officials. And last, corporations aren’t preying upon these countries; they have shut out investment by corporations through a lack of stability and property protection.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:08 PM EST
    Pigwiggle: "Those folks have no law and order, no justice," Your single sample of a 'friend' who went to Africa is charming. Why don't you get a clue. Take Bolivia alone. The WB and IMF forced Bolivia to privatize its water supply -- in order to get loans and debt reconsolidation. Privatizing water nearly caused a civil war in that country. There are about a MILLION other examples. You turkey.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#26)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:08 PM EST
    "Your single sample of a 'friend' who went to Africa is charming. Why don't you get a clue."
    I mention it because the participants were cavalier and matter of fact; it was ordinary. Sadly it is representative not exceptional (I assume you trust the UN); can you imagine such a thing happening here? But what exactly is charming about a film of a man beaten to death in a casual and systematic way? Thanks, I should have known better than to reason with a babbling moron. Lesson learned.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#27)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:08 PM EST
    Where are any white folks? If the mass of video I’ve seen is representative there are almost no white folks stranded in New Orleans. In the footage of the refugees at the superdome, hospitals, and streets in general perhaps one in a hundred were white.
    Like I said, the vast majority of poor people in New Orleans are black. No surprise there. They did not have the means to leave. It's not like they can afford a limo ride out. But you can't tell me that only black people were taking stuff out of the stores. There was a photo of white people that "found" some food and beverages. I am sure they weren't the only ones. Of course, white people finding things doesn't have the same sensationalized impact on you as does black people looting things.
    If the Holloway girl had been a well to do beautiful black girl it would have been as sensational.
    This pre-supposes that there are no recent cases of well to do beautiful black girls missing in the world. Hmmmm....

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#28)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:08 PM EST
    A social safety net is a luxury that comes of prosperity; it isn’t the force for prosperity.
    The fact that Patrick gave you an atta boy should give you some pause for concern here. In your perfect world, everyone pays a living wage. Doesn't happen here. Most of those people stranded were working class taxpayers that didn't have the means to leave. Where could they have gone? Could they afford it? Did they have a car? I define a 3rd world country (and I have seen many of them first hand) as one in which an oligarchy is prosperous at the expense of everyone else. That's what the U.S. is increasingly becoming. Corruption is a problem. Ineptitude is a problem. But they are not reasons for getting rid of a government dedicated to the common good and taking care of the least of us. Perhaps one day you will be old and fragile and need assistance and there will be no one to depend on but the state. And at that point you could just go jump off the Superdome to remain true to your ideals.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#29)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:09 PM EST
    pigwiggle: "I mention it because the participants were cavalier and matter of fact;" You mention it because it is MOOT to the reality, which is that countries WEALTHY in resources are robbed of those resources by the corporations working with the IMF and the World Bank (mostly IMF). Bolivia has enough oil wealth to end poverty (and with it most of the crime) in La Paz and throughout the nation forever. Same with Nigeria. Same with Venezuela. Oh, wait...Venezuela is ignoring the IMF and the World Bank and actually resolving the massive unfairness in wealth distribution. Better find a BILLIONAIRE pseudo-christian minister to threaten to kill the President of Venezuela QUICK. Land redistribution and more equitable oil prices (such as Venezuela just gave Jamaica last week) -- that's Communism. Pigwiggle and Pat Robertson want to save the pobrecitos in the Third World cities. Won't you help?

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#30)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:11 PM EST
    “In your perfect world, everyone pays a living wage. Doesn't happen here.”
    I suppose yours as well.
    “Most of those people stranded were working class taxpayers that didn't have the means to leave. Where could they have gone? Could they afford it? Did they have a car?”
    Ernesto, I’m fairly sure we have been over this. Around 120,00 folks in New Orleans didn’t have the means to leave. Around 1,200,000 did, of which half left when Ivan threatened. If everyone left, and only 1 in 10 folks gave their unfortunate neighbors a ride the bulk of the human tragedy in New Orleans could have been avoided. Where could they have gone? I don’t know, perhaps your house, maybe mine. I think the more interesting question is what part subsidized insurance and tax incentives have played in massive development in a disaster prone coast. It seems to me all this ‘compassion’ constructed one of the largest disasters our country has seen.
    “an oligarchy is prosperous at the expense of everyone else. That's what the U.S. is increasingly becoming.”
    This is simply untrue. Income and demographic studies show (I’m looking for it now) that everyone in American is making more money than the previous generation. What is considered poor or lower middle class today would have been solidly middle class in my grandfather’s day. It’s a problem of perception.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#31)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:23 PM EST
    Ernesto, I’m fairly sure we have been over this. Around 120,00 folks in New Orleans didn’t have the means to leave. Around 1,200,000 did, of which half left when Ivan threatened. If everyone left, and only 1 in 10 folks gave their unfortunate neighbors a ride the bulk of the human tragedy in New Orleans could have been avoided. Where could they have gone? I don’t know, perhaps your house, maybe mine.
    I'm confused here. Let me get this straight, you're saying that if those rich white people who were fleeing the state offered rides to all the poor stranded black folk out there, more people would have been saved? And you're also saying that if people were left behind then they hadn't wanted to leave in the first place? Okay so maybe they didn't want to leave, maybe they thought they could ride out the hurricane. Fair enough, some of them didn't want to leave but if they didn't want to leave then there should have been qualified individuals down in NOLA educating these people who didn't know any better, wbout why they needed to leave. Most of those people probably didn't even have many possessions besides their rickety houses, warm bed, food and perhaps a few valuables that had been passed on to them. I can imagine it being difficult for people to want to leave especially since NOLA had such a horrible crime rate. They probably knew the looters would come. They were probably scared that everything they had would be taken away. I doubt most of these poor people even knew that the levees were in danger of breaking. I doubt most of them even thought that the situation would turn into such a disaster. They are poor. They are without resources, this might include tvs and radios (which explains why they're stealing them now doesn't it?). Many of them are UNEDUCATED. You expect these people to be able to figure out that they're in such a dangerous situation? Are we not missing the part in your little equation where you factor in the idea that the haves are probably terrified of the have-nots especially have-nots who are minorities? People are scared of black people (and with the reports of looting and shooting I'm sure the media's done all it can to modify the perception of blacks as dangerous savages/thugs/LOOTERS/degenerates). You think all those people who had the means to leave would have taken anyone but their families or the "nice" families that live in their "nice" neighborhoods with them? Those left in NOLA weren't given the aid they needed because they were poor and they aren't being given the aid they need now because the majority are black. People are scared to give aid because of ignorance and unecessary fear. It's because of the way blacks have been portrayed in the media not just right now but in general. You're ignorant if you honestly believe that those who fleed would have gladly offered up space in their caravans for poor "dangerous" black folk. Perhaps some might have but then again...120,000 were left behind there weren't they?

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#32)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:23 PM EST
    "rich white people" Sorry, I forgot to include: Rich white/black/hispanic/purple/orange people, of the middle-class (low/high), those well-off enough to get out of NOLA.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#33)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:23 PM EST
    Perhaps those abandoned should have stolen buses like this kid: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/19856/62219 And rescued random people in need. But then they might be accused of looting, just like this kid. If he were white, he'd have been declared a national hero (not by the people who he saved or by those who have heard his story or even the reporters who have spoken to him) and probably had a medal handed to him by now. It pains me to see such racism because I'm usually a person who tries hard not to see racism in everything but when it's so blatantly in my face I can't help but speak the truth. I'm not going to lie to myself.

    Re: LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders (none / 0) (#34)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:34 PM EST
    It’s a problem of perception.
    That's about the only statement I agree with you on: You fail to perceive the problem.

    LA. Governor Gives 'Shoot to Kill' Orders | 34 comments (34 topical)