Depressing

[c9]

Black people 'loot,' but white people 'find.'

Comments

[putaindemerde.livejournal.com]

They were only showing pics of only the black folks last night/early this morning... and there were lots of pics of lots of black folks. I was even more amazed.

[c9.livejournal.com]

That's because the poor (read: black) were basically abandoned. The evacuation plans required private cars, money to buy gas, etc, and nobody did anything to help those who didn't have those things. Here's a question: why isn't there a line of helicopters from ________ to New Orleans delivering food and rescuing people yet?

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

Cam, you can't expect people to help people! That's what god is for! Those people obviously didn't pray hard enough for cars, money, and gas.

C'mon, get with the program.

[putaindemerde.livejournal.com]

Cam, I honestly don't have an answer for that... I know they were talking about rescuing about 2000 (?) folks yesterday via the helicopter method... I have no idea what's on tap for today. There's mention of the National Guard and some Coast Guard reserves going in there today to work on the looters and rescue some of the others that are trapped...

Of note, just because I live here doesn't mean I have answers for some of this craziness. This is a weird nation sometimes. Hopefully, GW is going to get off his fucking vacation and do something NOW. Last I heard, he wasn't going to go down there until Friday (!!) to check out some of the hardest hit areas.

[putaindemerde.livejournal.com]

*ouch*

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

He is just being sarcastic, so you are allowed to laugh... ;-)

[c9.livejournal.com]

Oh absolutely, I wasn't interrogating you so much as raising the question of what's happening to all those people who couldn't get out. I do hope that there are helicopters already on it, that's a start for sure.

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

I don't know Cam. Evacuating a city of 500,000 on a few days notice--I don't think there's any other way they could have done it. Short of a forced redistribution of vehicles (highly unlikely) or forcing every vehicle to take more passengers ... actually that might have worked.

And I don't think you can question the sincerity or force of the rescue efforts now. They sent in the National Guard and the navy--that leads me to believe that they're putting every feasible rescue plan in place. I can't really think of a way they could do it better, and with the top minds in the country working on it, I'm sure if there were a way they'd do it. I definitely think you'd be crossing a line to say they were making less of an effort because the victims are poor and black (presuming those things to be true.)

A better question is, why wasn't something done to prevent this earlier? New Orleans has been sinking for a long time. I think I mentioned that when we were there, our tour guide said everyone knew the next big disaster could wipe them out. There have been studies and plans in place for a while, but no funding to implement them. That's where I think the government let New Orleans down.

[putaindemerde.livejournal.com]

I was watching footage of the helicopter thing from yesterday... that was supposed to continue today with the National Guard and Coast Guard reserves folk.

I can't get over the fact that he's waiting until Friday... what does he actually have scheduled that couldn't be put off until later? More war-mongering games? A golf tourney? and I'm sure he's not even going to see the "hardest hit" places (Mississippi coast and SE Louisiana). That would probably be far too damaging to his "fragile little mind." :-P

[c9.livejournal.com]

Agreed, absolutely. Prevention would be better, but we are all very short-sighted unfortunately.

It's very hard to keep up with the rapid changes, I merely brought that up since there were questions at first (not now it appears) about the approach to rescue for many of the (coincidentally) poorer stranded citizens.

I hereby retract my phrasing, as new details are clearly less depressing. Well, differently depressing.

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

The Bush administration has carefully been studying How NOT to Prepare for a Hurricane.

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

Oh OK, fair enough. I didn't actually see those earlier reports.

[iambic-cub.livejournal.com]

That link is rather disheartening, but for me it's not definitive proof of racial bias. The captions come from two different news organization, and every news organization's editorial board has differing opinions on what words to use (like the CBC and "terrorist".) If you could find a single news organization using "loot" and "find" this way, then the bias could be claimed.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Just depressing to think about, that's all.

[miket61.livejournal.com]

All the looters I saw on television were black.

I did read a story about the police being assisted by the staff of the Ritz-Carlton in removing medical supplies from a Walgreen's across the street from the hotel.

Taking perishable items from a building that's probably going to have to be condemned, when people are starving, is "finding." Taking two dozen pairs of jeans and a case of jewelry is "looting."

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

This is a freaky story of someone trying to save their stuff before their house flooded:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1174992&forum_id=26