And adjust my last post accordingly…
I find it interesting that you are now only arguing whether “riot” is the correct word to use. Are you no longer defending the position that the innocent people in need should be denied aid due to a small porportion of criminals who can and will be arrested?
Oh stephie, if you were relying on **Larry Mudd’s ** cite you are SOL. Looks like you will have to fall back upon your own resources.
Yeah, I wouldn’t like it if I were you, either.
Although it is an unfortunate situation for most people to be denied shelter for another 5-10 hours, I can fully understand that these people are being denied access to the Astrodome so as to keep the crowd at a controllable level. Sick and elderly aside, whats an extra 5-10 hours of misery appended to an already experienced 72 hours if it means a good chance of preventing dozens of murders and rapes?
WIth you so far.
Can you provide any evidence that it would? Or that there is any likelihood that they would in fact occur?
Stephe you do realise this is your country don’t you?
This is an example of why I think American Capitalism is just as bad as Soviet Communism. Poor, rich, Western or 3rd world, when people need help they need help.
These are your countrymen! Yes there are evil fucks who will make the most of every bad situation BUT THEY ARE THE MINORITY! The looting wankers are always the minority but hellish situations always bring out either the best or worst in people. The fucking govt should be a) HELPING! and b) asking for help from the world. This is America! People should not still be dying!
Fuck this is hard to watch on the news, it must be 10x times harder for Americans. est wishes.
Heavens to Betsy, you cram thousands of people into a sweltering cesspool for four days, no food or water, no working toilets, and you’re surprised that it brought out the worst in a few dozen of them? And with no toilets, just where are they supposed to defecate? They did what any of us would, they plopped it anywhere. These are not wild animals, these are human beings that have been let down by the most incompetent crisis management in history. There is no reason to believe that being in an air conditioned shelter with working toilets, showers, and food that they won’t calm down. I dare say few of us would be civil after going through those days in the Superdome.
EXACTLY! Why the hell is it taking the govt soooo long to get in there?
How many elderly people and children will die during the extra "5-10 hours of misery "? Perhaps the question whould be “How many American citizens will be afraid, ill or die in the next 5-10 hours?” and should we let them suffer due to those unruly scum OR should we be there helping!
Gee, I dunno. Let’s see, the choices are:
-
Remain in a stinking, fetid, ruined stadium with no power, no lights, no air conditioning, no running water or food, and sleeping amidst corpses and piles of human shit, hoping the gunfire doesn’t get closer… or…
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Sitting for another 8 hours on a bus that’s dry, probably air conditioned, which lacks feces piles and armed thugs robbing and raping.
I’ll take number 2, please. Sure, I’d be pissed/upset about the whole fucked up situation. CLEARLY no one SERIOUSLY considered the possibility that New Orleans would essentially be destroyed, but I’d rather be riding around Texas on a bus than sitting in the Superdome. Or the Convention Center. Or on a rooftop or trapped in an attic.
That’s the kind of crowd ANY group of 20,000 people trapped in a stadium for the better part of a week with limited food and water and no sanitation would become.
Even in normal times, rapes do happen in stadiums and other public places. No one did criminal background checks prior to admitting people, did they? People kill themselves even in good times - I’m surprised we haven’t heard about more suicides. Exhausted toddlers will sleep anywhere, whether they should or not. Junkies are going to use wherever they are. Hungry people are going to bust into vending machines if they think they can get at the food.
Toilets stop working, but no one stops shitting. Of course there is shit everywhere, and piss. There are corpses piling up because there is no way to bury them.
Every one of us would ALSO “degenerate” into “those people” if we were in the same situation.
It’s obvious to me that those who were in charge of planning didn’t take the worst case scenarios seriously enough. They clearly thought everyone would be able to go home after the ran stopped.
They should have started pulling people out the night the levee broke. But the authorities sat on their asses.
When this is sorted out, I say we lock those responsible in the Superdome for a week for a brutal object lesson.
I think that Stephe96 has a point, though not the one he thinks he has.
You have a very large number of refugees that have been confined in uncomfortably close quarters for a couple of days and they are beginning to show signs of aggressive behavior. I wouldn’t think it a good idea to go cramming them back into another stadium.
Calm Kiwi, I don’t know how much you’ve heard about what’s going on in New Orleans. The place is practically lawless. The hurricane did a lot of damage to a larger chunk of land than the Big Easy. The authorities are doing what they can, but it’s a bit hard to figure out where to start. Do you look for survivors? Evacuate the hospitals? Go after the people shooting at the rescuers? Body removal? Shoring up the levees? Taking refugees to other shelters? Now there are reports of explosions in NO (no cite. reporter is talking about it on the tv news).
You have to sit and think about what a complete clusterfuck this is. I’m sure that they are doing everything that they can. There is just a lot to do.
When the toilets are three feet deep in shit, I’d suppose.
Tell me, goat-felcher, if you’re locked in a box for four days with nowhere to go and no working bathroom where do YOU shit? You do realize that you will continue to produce shit and piss regardless of what bathroom facilities you do or don’t have?
Let’s see…
All but one major road is destroyed. Not just impassible with debris, but with significant chunks of the roadbed and underlying structure destroyed. The one usable highway no longer runs all the way to the main congregation points. They’ve pulled thousands out of the city, but more and more people keep showing up from outlying areas. So they take out 5,000 and 10,000 show up to replace them.
The city is underwater, for the most part. Many places it’s too deep for trucks of any sort. It’s also too shallow for many types of boats. There are debris in ALL the streets - cars, tress, powerlines (some still deadly - there have been at least two accidental electrocutions that I’ve heard about), collapsed buildings, corpses, and wildlife like crocodiles (nature’s little clean up crew is also hard at work, dontchya know?)
There are only so many helicopters, and even they are finding it hard to find landing places.
Basically, the place is a complete wreck
I TOTALY understand everthing you said. I also don’t understand ANYTHING Stephe96 said.
On to what you said though, the prioritys should be; Look for, rescue and evacuate survivors! Finding and recovering bodies pales in importance to that. Arresting looters also is also secondary UNTIL they are shooting at rescuers (would they have shot on day 2?). The Levees have failed…fix them AFTER people are safe.
Shit, just make the Fed Govt ACT!
Because there are certain situations in which ‘the govt’ is not the answer. There comes a point where people, these “Americans” you’re talking about, have to rely on themselves for a while. Pretend for the moment that government isn’t available, pretend they can’t help you. What are you gonna do? Simply lie down in the water and die? These people should be ashamed to call themselves “American,” if you ask me. It looks like this “gimmee, gimmee” welfare mentality has sapped them of their natural human survival instincts. You don’t just wander around the streets and ask reporters, “Where should I go? Why isn’t anyone helping us?” You fucking take a look around, read the situation and start working on the problem. Jesus Christ.
They are trying. As broomstick said, the roads are nearly gone. The infrastructure (power, water, phones, last I heard even cell phones) is gone. People are shooting at rescue helicopters and trying to break in to hospitals for drugs. The place is flooded and the water contains sewage and dead bodies. This is a nightmare situation.
I can understand the frustration, but let’s not start blaming the government. There is only so much they can do.
Oh my god. I never knew that it was that simple. Quickly now. To New Orleans!! We must show them the truth!!!
You really are a turd aren’t you?
What a despicable attitude. Blame the victim. Many of these people have no money at all, have lost what few possessions they had in the flood, and now you have the gall to question their citizenship. What a humanitarian.
Please tell me why petrol prices went up a week ago in NZ because of predicted damage to refinery capicity in the gulf of Mexico yet the Americam govt could not find a way to provide free transport to evacuate New Orleans…even after they deemed evacuation Mandatory?