# Katrina person one year later-have I missed the spoof, or is this guy for real?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [June 6, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580 "2006-06-06T05:10:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/81 "2006-06-06T20:08:13Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> Um, well, I think one of the first few posts was rather incendiary. Actually, I don’t see the purpose of the OP, linking to a big black fellow sprawled on a bed. What were people expected to do? Skirt around the colour issue? Pontificate about welfarism? Compare the Holiday Inn with Travelodge? Comment on the picture on the wall? His shirt on the lamp?
“Color” is only an “issue” if you want to argue that his behavior is emblematic or inevitable from someone of his “color”.
At this point, nothing you had to say on racial issues would surprise me, **roger** (except maybe “Okay, I admit that ‘negro’ was still the most commonly-used word to describe African-Americans in the early 1960s”) - but do you really think this involves the “color issue”?
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> We prefer “Khoi-khoi”.
Dude, you’re Khoikhoi??
I don’t suppose you speak a Khoisan language, though . . . because that would be too sweet for words.
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### Author:  [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/82 "2006-06-06T20:20:35Z")
> [@DEFIANT 1](#):
>
> i don’t need youto put words in my mouth
No, but a dictionary, shift key, and spell-check might help.
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/83 "2006-06-06T20:26:45Z")
OK, after reading the article I have a question about New York law. Can I get a hotel room, pay my bills for the first 30 days, and then just sit back and live there as a squatter for free until they get a judge to kick me out? Or, better yet, until they pay me $1200 to move? I wouldn’t even have to beg for pocket change like this guy does; so none of the inconvenience of going hungry.
I have to be seriously misunderstanding this law, 'cause it sounds like it practically invites people to do what this guy is doing.
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### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/84 "2006-06-06T20:28:22Z")
> [@DanBlather](#):
>
> No, but a dictionary, shift key, and spell-check might help.
don’t forget the space key/bar.
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### Author:  [@Carnacki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnacki)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/85 "2006-06-06T21:11:30Z")
> [@Skammer](#):
>
> OK, after reading the article I have a question about New York law. Can I get a hotel room, pay my bills for the first 30 days, and then just sit back and live there as a squatter for free until they get a judge to kick me out? Or, better yet, until they pay me $1200 to move? I wouldn’t even have to beg for pocket change like this guy does; so none of the inconvenience of going hungry.
>
> I have to be seriously misunderstanding this law, 'cause it sounds like it practically invites people to do what this guy is doing.
IANAL and I’m not extremely familiar with New York law, but the “squatter’s rights” laws referred to in the link wouldn’t absolve you of liability for the back-rent, nor prevent the hotel from going to court to get you removed. It simply prevents them from using various forms of self-help, such as forcible eviction, changing your locks, etc.
The benefit for Mr. Johnson, I think, is that the hotel won’t sue him for back-rent since it would cost more to sue him than they would recover. Also, the link did mention that the hotel is trying to get a court-order to have him removed, but that takes time.
And again, don’t rely on the above - go talk to a NY attorney before taking up residence in a hotel.
And make sure it’s a nice one.
–KidScruffy
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/86 "2006-06-06T21:14:43Z")
> [@Skammer](#):
>
> OK, after reading the article I have a question about New York law. Can I get a hotel room, pay my bills for the first 30 days, and then just sit back and live there as a squatter for free until they get a judge to kick me out?
What he could do is something that you, by virtue of your name, couldn’t.
Daniel
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/87 "2006-06-06T21:23:45Z")
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> While I agree with all of y’all and stuff like that, I’d just like to point out that the bolded word is as bad as your “nigger” where I’m from. Please don’t use it except in historical context or similar.
You know, I am so fucking tired of dudes coming here and saying “hey, that word is offensive to _me_- so \*you \* can’t use it”. This is the fucking SDMB, not the **PC** MB. If \*you \* don’t like a word- then how about \*you \* don’t use it?
---
### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/88 "2006-06-06T23:30:25Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> I agree with most of your post, but I have an issue with this. The hopeless of society serve us by being our cannon fodder? That’s pretty dehumanizing. Suppose we were to somehow eliminate the predators. Would you then be OK with executing the unproductive?
It’s supposed to be dehumanizing. My description was meant to be lacking sentiment and showing the practical benefits of helping the poor, skilless and for wont of a better word, “lazy.”
I figured most people responding to **Weirddave** would take the compassionate and humanitarian route and argue society owes it to lend aid, shelter, clothing and food to even the most hopeless among us and encourage and help all citizens – well, all people, at least, even the illegal aliens among us. So I tried answering the question in a way that might appeal to the most cynical, self-intrested and people way I could imagine. Yeah – so-called parasites are annoying. My point, breaking down society in the producer/parasite/predator model, is to show that there’s even worse kinds of people out there.
**tdn** , of course, we as individuals and as a society do provide for those with little or nothing, and its really the most isolated and anti-social of so-called parasites who tend to be at risk, the ones who refuse social services of shelters and civic programs designed to help them be productive again, the ones who stay out in the streets, the ones so old and hopeless they have no family or friends for support. They stray from the herd, they get picked off. That’s nature’s way of culling the weak and protecting the productive members of the herd.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/89 "2006-06-06T23:34:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> You know, I am so fucking tired of dudes coming here and saying “hey, that word is offensive to _me_- so \*you \* can’t use it”. This is the fucking SDMB, not the **PC** MB. If \*you \* don’t like a word- then how about \*you \* don’t use it?
Perhaps because, as an enlightened website, we might like to know a word isn’t as harmless as it appears, is in fact a racial slur, in which case we might appreciate how our ignorance is politely fought with a few facts and a request not to use the word. Yeesh. Quit actin’ like a damn hottentot, foo.
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/90 "2006-06-06T23:50:19Z")
> [@Askia](#):
>
> I have a completely different take on this story.
>
> Y’all are calling this dude, “lazy.” This dude is anything but lazy. Crazy and shameless, sure. This dude is working hard to milk this free ride for all its worth until he’s physically evicted by court order.
>
> This dude (and at least three others) managed to find and exploit a loophole in the law that gets him to live, completely free, in a hotel in NEW YORK CITY, with cable service, running water, air conditioning, maid service (I guarantee he didn’t make up that bed himself.)
>
> He might be entitled to a room by state law, but why is he entitled to a continuance of the free hotel services, too? The free electricity, phone, TV in the room? Why doesn’t the Holiday Inn just go in while he’s out begging for food and shut down the electricity to his room, jack the TV, remove all the linen, pillows, disable the running water and make it much less comfortable while he’s there, and restore services when he’s gone for good?
>
> Or, y’know – change the locks.
You know, this does beg the question. How different are the morals of this man as compared to the morals of our nation (US)? I was listening to NPR this morning and they were talking about corruption with the Iraq funds. One dude in charge of these funds sent an email to another who was giving him kick backs “I just love giving you money”. How are these individuals (in regards to their values) any different from this parasitic piece of shit.
The rich do it, the poor do it, it is a not a sub-culture, IT IS A CULTURE.
My husband was in leadership class this week and he said one of the instructors asked an interesting question. Are ethics a meal or a buffet? In other words, do you have to eat the whole thing, or can you pick and choose? How many of you have said, “I would not do (a, b, c) for that, but man if they offered me 10 million, I would.” How many of our principles are “up for sale”.
A thousand examples exist and I assure you they are not racially or sexually bound. In fact, this individual only cost us 10k, how much did Kenneth Lay cost us? This man hurt a hotel’s revenue, they lost probably a couple thousand, how many people did Michael Milken hurt?
Parasites? We are a society filled of them.
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### Author:  [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/91 "2006-06-07T01:20:59Z")
I read the article and was going to throw in a few comments from a New Orleans point of view till I read where this thread is going. Yikes!
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/92 "2006-06-07T02:39:33Z")
> [@Excalibre](#):
>
> “Color” is only an “issue” if you want to argue that his behavior is emblematic or inevitable from someone of his “color”…do you really think this involves the “color issue”?
Give us a break. Katrina = New Orleans = black people. That’s the perception. This rather hideous article plays on stereotypes, and gets much of its power by confirming them. The article is underpinned by the notion that “his behavior is emblematic and inevitable from someone of his colour”. You don’t see that?
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/93 "2006-06-07T02:42:36Z")
> [@The Long Road](#):
>
> I read the article and was going to throw in a few comments from a New Orleans point of view till I read where this thread is going. Yikes!
Please do. Let the voice of sanity and reason, and first-hand experience, prevail!
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/94 "2006-06-07T03:33:48Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> The article is underpinned by the notion that “his behavior is emblematic and inevitable from someone of his colour”. You don’t see that?
Frankly, no. Would you be so kind as to point out where you see this in the article?
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/95 "2006-06-07T03:54:06Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> Give us a break. Katrina = New Orleans = black people. That’s the perception. This rather hideous article plays on stereotypes, and gets much of its power by confirming them. The article is underpinned by the notion that “his behavior is emblematic and inevitable from someone of his colour”. You don’t see that?
I sure as heck don’t. Where are you getting that from?
---
### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/96 "2006-06-07T04:06:25Z")
> [@jakeline](#):
>
> Among other things, potential. If the guy in question was to be **properly motivated** , do we know that he would always be worthless?
Bolding mine
Dunno about you **jakeline** , but having one’s ass tossed out on the street should be sufficient motivation, dontcha think? The subject of my OP has had a significant space of time to get his matters in order and move forward, taking responsibility for his life. Rather than doing so, he’s been a lazy sack of shit, and deserves nothing more on the public dime.
Here’s the flaw in all of the feel-good-warm-and-fuzzy horseshit: it’s empty.
I can’t _give_ you self-esteem. It has to come from within.
I can’t _give_ you motivation. It has to come from within.
So long as you give a man a fish, he will lie on his ass in a boat, waiting for the next fish, because he knows you’ll bring it to him. He has no incentive to learn how to fish. Kick his sorry ass out of the boat and refuse to give him a fish, and he’ll either starve or learn to fish.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/97 "2006-06-07T04:10:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> You know, I am so fucking tired of dudes coming here and saying “hey, that word is offensive to _me_- so \*you \* can’t use it”. This is the fucking SDMB, not the **PC** MB. If \*you \* don’t like a word- then how about \*you \* don’t use it?
Next time I see a guy call someone else a nigger, I’ll ignore it and remember that my contribution to society is not allowed to extend further than not calling people niggers myself. :rolleyes:
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> This rather hideous article plays on stereotypes, and gets much of its power by confirming them. The article is underpinned by the notion that “his behavior is emblematic and inevitable from someone of his colour”. You don’t see that?
I don’t see it either.
---
### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/98 "2006-06-07T04:17:21Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> Frankly, no. Would you be so kind as to point out where you see this in the article?
Well, an underpinning is something that is by definition _behind_ the article, part of the context and the shared background of readers. So, it won’t be something that you expect to find in the article.
But now that Miller, Marley and your good self have joined Excalibre in asserting that my assertion is without grounds, then I suppose I must logically conclude that I am wrong and you are right!
QED!
---
### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/99 "2006-06-07T04:19:41Z")
You took an extra stupid pill this morning, I guess. Or maybe it’s something about this fucking thread. Can you explain how anything in the article is supposed to make us think it’s inevitable from a person of his race or color? Any notion about the inevitability is kind of undercut by the fact that at most, four people are doing what he’s doing.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/katrina-person-one-year-later-have-i-missed-the-spoof-or-is-this-guy-for-real/359580/100 "2006-06-07T04:35:10Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> Frankly, no. Would you be so kind as to point out where you see this in the article?
I think while the racial biases aren’t all that damning, some are definitely there, playing to the stereotype of blacks being lazy, lustful, childish and poor money managers.
We have a photo of a middle-aged graying black man sitting on the edge of a tidy bed room we know from the helpful subheadlines he hasn’t paid for. He looks healthy and able-bodied, and that alone is enough for some people to get pissed at him for not working.
The reporter editorializes Johnson “isn’t that motivated to leave,” has “lazy lust” for Halle Berry, offers that “when he has to, he’ll go outside and beg for change” but that “he doesn’t like to do that,” leaving the impression it’s because of more laziness, and perhaps a sense of entitlement and not, say, humiliation or possible mental or physical problems. The reporter claims Johnson spent the all of $9,000 in housing aid FEMA sent him to buy “booze,” \<---- note the perjorative word – cigarettes, new clothes and food – summing THAT up as “partying.” Yet who’s he partying with? Larry the diabetic? There’s no corroboration from the hotel, no mention of illegal drug use. Just some depressed guy away from home sleeping and watching TV in a hotel room. Also what’s not mentioned is that $9,000 in “housing aid” does NOT equal 9K in cash, which means he’s not just frittering away money – I’m betting most of it went to pay the hotel until it ran out – and is yet another misleading part of the article. The reporter claims Johnson would take the last $1,200 of a (presumably cash) buyout to stay “a few more days” and "have some fun’ – but this extraordinary claim isn’t in Johnson’s own direct quotes, which leaves open the ugly possiblity these might not be things he’s actually said.
Sharon the caseworker isn’t identified by age, job occupation, last name, ethnicity or agency, so we don’t even know 100% if he’s being dealt with by the city’s social services or a FEMA rep or even a hotel steward. This not fully identified source is quoted as saying Johnson was offered a ticket home to New Orleans which he turned down – no reason given. I wonder why, as no reason being known seems unlikely. There is mention of a “little house” in NOLA’s Third Ward, but it might even be there anymore in habitable condition. We don’t know about his job skills, his possible losses, his support network (or lack thereof).
The article ends with a description of Johnson in bed moaning after Halle Berry.
It’s an unflattering one-sided portrayal, and the few likely racial digs are hard to ignore. More reasoned people would see this as just four people out of 300 taking advantage, but it’s enough to make a bigot or racist say, “See? See what these laxy-ass people are like?”
So \*\*roger thornhill \*\* isn’t the only one who smells a whiff of racial bias in this largely uninformative blurb.
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