It is indeed absolutely horrible, and I don’t mean to trivialize the tragedy of it. But don’t forget that even under ordinary circumstances, New Orleans would have on average nearly one murder per day, and probably one or more rapes. It’s appalling and tragic that catastrophe makes lawlessness and violence worse, but it’s not as though the lawlessness and violence weren’t there already. All big cities have a hell of a lot of trauma and conflict going on in them at the best of times, and New Orleans ranks fairly high in that regard.
It’s still absolutely horrible, though.
I didn’t hear anybody talking about “taking away someone’s second amendment right”.* What Spectre identified as the problem—correctly, IMHO—was what he described as our “love affair with guns”, what I called our “unhealthy gun culture”. The problem is not that people own guns, the problem is that so many people seem to have such twisted expectations about what wielding a gun can do for you.
*Personally, as long as the question’s come up, I actually am in favor of repealing the Second Amendment, but not because I want to ban guns or stop people from owning them. I don’t think there’s a problem with gun ownership per se; the problem is this distorted cultural perception of guns as something that magically guarantee you liberty and power, because it’s in the Constitution and all. No. Guns are dangerous, and most of the time they make things worse, not better. You should still be able to have them if you want them (if you’re responsible and law-abiding), just as you can drink alcohol if you want to, but let’s get rid of this perverted idolatrous mystique that they’re somehow automatically good for us, because it’s in the Constitution and all.
Any chance at all that the gun debate could be ignored. This tragedy has a lot to do with the lack of Nat’l Guardsman on the scene. What is taking so long to get a large force in place. How many additional lives are being lost because of the delays. Why is it so disorganized.
I believe NYC had over 3000 Nat’l Guardsmen with 24 hour. As of noon today there were only 2800 in NO. How many days into this are we now, I can’t even keep it straight anymore.
Even after 9/11, NYC had an infrastructure on place. From what I’ve heard, NO has nothing. When you add in the flooding and the lack of civilization taking place, you have a logistical nightmare on your hands. And you can’t forget that Katrina hit a much wider chunk of land than the terrorists did.
I’m confident that the authorities are doing whatever they can do to help, and I can understand how they would be unsure of where to start. This is a clusterfuck kids. Hard core fubar.
I know of multiple crews from neighboring city fire departments that took rescue boats to NO only to pack back up and go home after being shot at while trying to rescue people. Can’t say as I blame them. Short of taking these animals out in a fire fight, I’m not sure how the city will ever regain control. I’d like to think this situation and reaction is unique to New Orleans, but the same may happen at any other large city. Or has NO’s past lax enforcement of violent crimes created this whole mess?
A co-worker of mine who used to live in NO was basically telling me today: “What you see happening on TV right now? That is the kind of crap that has been lurking in NO for a long long time.” My gut reaction was that perhaps my friend had some racist tendancies that I hadn’t picked up on previously, but this situation is such a clusterfuck I don’t know up from down. My ethical compass that normally guides me through life relatively well, cannot seem to digest what the hell is going on.
There are people a few hours down the road from NO who are still living a relatively “normal” life. There are people within the city of NO who are acting constructively and altruistically, whether they came with the external relief effort or were washed out of their lives and homes by Katrina and the flooding.
I cannot comprehend the proverbial line in the sand that determines who (apart from the legitimately incapacitated victims) is part of the problem and who is part of the solution.
I remember reading a column in the Boston Globe (Nov 2004) and I believe the title was something like “Has America Lost Its Mind?” The columnist wrote about several incidents that occurred within that month such as:
the brawl between nutty Detroit Piston fans and equally insane Indiana Pacers players;
Dick Cheney in the Senate chamber telling one of the Senators to “go fuck yourself”.
There were other incidents he cited (wish I could think of those). Anyway, the anarchy that has arisen in New Orleans seems to be indicative of how fucked up the mentality of some Americans has become.
My Brother-In-Law called 3am last night. The happiest I’ve ever been to be awakened at 3am.
They and the rest of Charity Hospital were apparently air evac’d to a Lafayette Hospital.
They said the staff were all okay but they lost 2 critical patients.
Early news reports are saying there might finally be enough police/nat’l guard members to police the city.
Personally, I hope it makes some people think really, really hard about this country’s love affair with criminals…violent criminals, abnormally numerous criminals, absurdly psychotic criminals, all people who. should. not. be. on. the. streets.
The influx of new fresh troops and State authorized police from other states is bringing the chaos under control finally. Thankfully the police/Nat’l guard are smart enough to minimize the use of deadly force.
The only dark news was I saw reports that dozens of the NO police have deserted. Thus they are maintaining the proud heritage as worst major police dept. in USA.
Hopefully, the influx of more troops and police can do something. Because things are really, really bad. I posted this in another thread but is germain to this one as well. From here:
88 police officers were not enough to even approach the convention center, let alone establish some sort of order. That’s some major fucked up.
Thanks for that link. I have to stop reading it now, it’s making me cry at work. The number of offers for help, people opening up their homes, helps balance out some of the terrible news.
We left these people to be killed in a hurricane. All of those shopowners left. They got in their cars and left. But we never sent out busses for the rest. We in fact, shut down the few ways the poor had to get out of the city. The poor and the elderly were left to die.
Then, we never came for them. It’s been days without food, without water, without sanitation, surrounded by the dead and destruction. And still people don’t have a place to go. People are still stuck in the rising water not knowing if the rescuers will ever come for them.
ANd when they start getting a little crazy, when they lose hope and start figureing that civilization is not going to help them now, we watch them on television and reassure ourselves that they were bad people to begin with.
How would you conduct yourself if your city left you to die?