Would the Govt response be different in NO.......

[Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Details

More on the situation at the Superdome: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9166349/

It's so out of control up there - why is a random guy trying to choke a little kid? Why is it so racial that whites and blacks cannot be mixed in refugee centers?

I've never been to New Orleans - is it really that bad there? Is this really what some of the people are like?

Because of all the occult and voodoo that goes on in NO, and it's reputation as one of the most "haunted" cities in the world, made this quote jump out at me from that article:

"It was like demons were here last night," Tinisha Green said. "Every time you tried to sleep, you popped up because people were messing with people's children in there. I mean, Lord Jesus, my mind is so messed up behind all of this."

If any evil spirits that have been bright in via the occult activity were also displaced due to the storm (even spirits wouldn't live under water, probably) I imagine they'd have to go somewhere...Superdome, etc. And no, it isn't as crazy as it sounds, lol!

[Magnum PI]

Originally Posted by aussieblue

Thank you mabel, look i've been trying to say what was said on our tv tonight and ive made a mess of it because im trying not to sound like a bigot or that im blaming all african/americans for all the trouble.

Our aussies werent even blaming all african/americans ( am i even saying that right lol) BUT they did say these thugs were hunting down (and at first the guy on tv said minority groups).
He was very frantic when he was talking, they all were. When they started talking about the rapes he said that the thugs were screaming out about getting whitey women. These aussies as well as some others (european tourists) ended up staying together for protection BUT he said they couldnt stay with the others (N O people) at the center because they were getting threatened etc.

They were moving from some place when some thugs started attacking. There was no police there, there was nothing.
The police have even told the tourists stay in hiding dont come out because of these groups wouldnt hesitate to kill them. But the guy said on tv, so we had to stay put and we couldnt even get water or anything PLUS we didnt even know where to get it or how to get to places where they were evacuating people.

The police just left them basicly because they were getting attacked too. The aussie said it is total havoc and the thugs are running it.
One of the guys said "these thugs are animals, they are raping children, the elderly, they are hunting people and all for the fun of it".

He just kept stating get those innocent people out of there.

In no way was these tourists bagging all americans and im not either.

~aussieblue

Aussieblue, I have friends in NO that told me that, during a "festive" occasion, things got out of hand, and the word went out.."All whites off the streets" in a certain area. This was 15 years ago. There is a terrible race problem in NO, as well as other areas. I am NOT a racist, but this is the hard reality we face there. Have you ever been to St. Thomas, Vi? If you are not a well heeled tourist, or a local with some saavy, you may not like the scene. Ever been called "the white devil?" I compare this mentality to the scene in NO. It is no secret that some places are "off limits" to whites, especially after dark. I have no answers or excuses for this, as you probably don't for the way the Abboriganies(sp?) were treated earlier in your country. I can only hope that events like this make us all pause, and think about what can be done to keep insane events like this from happening. We live on an ever shrinking, small planet. Learning to live together requires we listen to our higher spirits. Hopefully this will happen before we just kill each other off for no good reason...mpi

[Details]

Originally Posted by Linda7NJ

Until the gang memebers put down their guns to hop on a bus headed for.............?

Somewhere where the cops are better, and they'll be outnumbered, and not in the society they are used to manipulating. Magnum PI's post seems to fit what we are seeing - they won't find the same stuff so easy to pull elsewhere.

[Details]

Originally Posted by Magnum PI

Aussieblue, I have friends in NO that told me that, during a "festive" occasion, things got out of hand, and the word went out.."All whites off the streets" in a certain area. This was 15 years ago. There is a terrible race problem in NO, as well as other areas. I am NOT a racist, but this is the hard reality we face there. Have you ever been to St. Thomas, Vi? If you are not a well heeled tourist, or a local with some saavy, you may not like the scene. Ever been called "the white devil?" I compare this mentality to the scene in NO. It is no secret that some places are "off limits" to whites, especially after dark. I have no answers or excuses for this, as you probably don't for the way the Abboriganies(sp?) were treated earlier in your country. I can only hope that events like this make us all pause, and think about what can be done to keep insane events like this from happening. We live on an ever shrinking, small planet. Learning to live together requires we listen to our higher spirits. Hopefully this will happen before we just kill each other off for no good reason...mpi

Thanks for the info MPI - this just didn't seem to be ordinary human behavior - there had to be some reason.

[concernedperson]

OK, I will post something controversial. Not only are NO cops hardnosed and sometimes indifferent they are subject to political scrutiny. There is a lot of corruption statewide not just in NO but NO has been the largest city and boasted the largest revenue for a long time.It is no doubt that some cops committed suicide when things got totally out of their hands and no hands were helping them.People taught to live within their parameters not live outside the box.

I am just being human and looking at something that I have lived while there.The fault IMO is long standing.The corruption goes back in history and look at Huey Long and his machine. That is Louisiana politics, build the machine.They are really good at looking the other way when it doesn't suit them. You could draw parellals if you wish.

[Details]

I wonder how bribeable the cops are... could explain why they couldn't get a handle on the gangs.

[less0305]

Originally Posted by Details

I wonder how bribeable the cops are... could explain why they couldn't get a handle on the gangs.

Supposedly it was easy before a Chief Pennington came and he was the man they brought in to clean up the police department. I think they say he did a bang up job of it. I wonder if he's still the Police Chief there - I can't remember the name of the chief during all this hurricane coverage.

[bulletgirl2002]

I don't think he is anymore. I can't remember the name of the Police Chief. He did clean up the police force during the 90s though and the NO police force was very corrupt and bribable before he came.

[DEPUTYDAWG]

The son of an acquaintance of mine is a NO officer. First name Casey, 32 years old, ex-Marine. I believe he's been in NO since '96 or '98. I posted a few days ago about him, his mother had not heard from him since before Kat hit. But! She and others did see him in a photo on Yahoo on Tuesday, so she knew he was okay up until then.

She finally received her first call from him this morning before noon, he is fine, tired but not hungry, LOL. HE HAD TO ASK HIS MOM WHAT'S BEEN COVERED ON THE NEWS ABOUT THE DOZENS OF COPS THAT HAVE QUIT, ETC. He said they were hearing rumors about it, but didn't know how true it was, from wherever they are working. He said if it's true, like they were hearing, the guys that stayed would be pretty dam* mad at those that left the others in a lurch. At one time on Wednesday, they were out of ammo, but were okay on Thursday. (I'm not sure WHY they were out of ammo?) His last words were that it worse than what you probably think, but that a lot of good IS being done.

[Beyond Belief]

Didn't we hear via the news that alot of prisoners were released from jail because they didn't have time to move them and the jail wasn't safe?

[Dark Knight]

What happened with the inmates who took hostages right after the storm??

[concernedperson]

Originally Posted by less0305

Supposedly it was easy before a Chief Pennington came and he was the man they brought in to clean up the police department. I think they say he did a bang up job of it. I wonder if he's still the Police Chief there - I can't remember the name of the chief during all this hurricane coverage.

He is in Atlanta now.

[T'sNana]

Originally Posted by Dark Knight

What happened with the inmates who took hostages right after the storm??

I wondered about them as well.

[aussieblue]

Originally Posted by Magnum PI

Aussieblue, I have friends in NO that told me that, during a "festive" occasion, things got out of hand, and the word went out.."All whites off the streets" in a certain area. This was 15 years ago. There is a terrible race problem in NO, as well as other areas. I am NOT a racist, but this is the hard reality we face there. Have you ever been to St. Thomas, Vi? If you are not a well heeled tourist, or a local with some saavy, you may not like the scene. Ever been called "the white devil?" I compare this mentality to the scene in NO. It is no secret that some places are "off limits" to whites, especially after dark. I have no answers or excuses for this, as you probably don't for the way the Abboriganies(sp?) were treated earlier in your country. I can only hope that events like this make us all pause, and think about what can be done to keep insane events like this from happening. We live on an ever shrinking, small planet. Learning to live together requires we listen to our higher spirits. Hopefully this will happen before we just kill each other off for no good reason...mpi

Well Magnum pi you'd have to go WAY BACK in our history to see the style of descrimination we are seeing on our tv stations here PLUS hearing from our own people who have been trapped in there . We are after all in the year 2005 and i can tell you in a state of emergency we do not leave/abandon the elderly/the ill/the disabled/the low incomers, the poor.
We also do not turn on our own and rape and kill.
This is not a racism issue this is total discrimination against those minority groups.

The aussies who have gotten out have spoken of all the disabled who have just been dumped and about all the elderly just left to defend themselves.

There is an aussie girl trapped in a church still, she went to the aid of a couple of elderly people in wheel chairs, this was when she was trying to get to the dome as instructed. This was after the storm hit. The waters rose so quickly but she got them into a church. She got a phone call to her mum, told her mum what has happened and that she cant get the people to the roof, she also said "the careers just left these people to die mum and i cant do that, try to get us help". They have no water no food.

Her mum has been on our news and she is frantic, calls have been made to washington and she was told theres nothing that can be done just now. Our gov has been told to stay out, we cant go in to help.
Well actually we have done it sneakedly. Our media is allowed in so they have been searching for tourists to help get them out. The aussies have teamed up with the Poms and they are searching.
So our media can go in, but not emergency people????????

This is what is so shocking about this your own have abandoned your own. Your gov/officals what ever let down their own people.
That might be common in your country but in ours its so unbelievable, its just not on and we have a lot of natural disasters here.
Watching our media guys (stories) they are in total shock. Some of these guys even covered the Tsunami disaster and they are saying that the asian/indos/indians etc didnt behave anywhere near what they are seeing in NO. The governments responded quickly to everyone, there was no discrimination on race/residents or tourists/wealth etc. Even the gorilla groups stopped fighting to help out with the relief effort.

Im sorry if i am making people angry with my posts BUT there was a lot of criticism from America after the Tsunami to those countries effected about how they need to plan better for disasters. Even australia was criticised, we were told that we need to take on a bigger responsibility in the asian/pacific region lol that sure did make those other countries angry as well as us aussies.

So do you see why this NO situation is just so agrovating, we were preached to and yet Bush and co cant even get it right in your country.

The whole situation is just so sad and my heart goes out to those abandoned and neglected. No wonder those people are angry and i dont blame them.

~aussieblue

[Details]

Aussie, I don't think there's anything wrong with your post. This is unprecedented behavior in a natural disaster and out of one here too. And however it may sometimes happen in New Orleans, most cities don't have a race problem of that magnitude nor anything at all similar to it. Something is just rotten about that place.

I don't know why they're being such idiots about allowing other rescuers to go in; espeically when they allow the media - seems completely mixed up. If it's too dangerous for other people to go in and rescue people, it's too dangerous for reporters to be there too.

I'm massively ticked off too. I keep having this urge to say to just let the whole place wash away... except that I know that most of the people caught up in this are good to average people who are just too caught up in surviving to tackle the thugs and criminals themselves. And the police are just too few to take the thugs on. But how there got to be so many lousy inhuman thugs in one city is what I really just can't get. There's something so wrong here.

[T'sNana]

I heard a report (I was half asleep and can't remember who, but think it was Shepard Smith reporting) that people from the SuperDome were telling him that the Mayor was pushing the tourists ahead of everyone else? IMO, that's not right at all...it goes on my very long list of "UNBELIEVABLE".

[aussieblue]

Originally Posted by Dark Knight

What happened with the inmates who took hostages right after the storm??

I watched on tv that the less dangerous they let go BUT the others where bussed out.
I mentioned this on the thread where people complained about the tourists getting out before residents.
The crims got out even ealier than the tourist though. Plus theres still heaps of tourists still trapped there, go figure!!!!

It was your media that they reported it in, it showed the clip of the crims sitting on the overpass/bridge????? Im not sure what station it was though.
Our cable is basicly running 24 hours on this and they are jumping to and fro with reports from most of your major stations. Ive lost track on who is who.

~aussieblue

[Details]

Originally Posted by T'sNana

I heard a report (I was half asleep and can't remember who, but think it was Shepard Smith reporting) that people from the SuperDome were telling him that the Mayor was pushing the tourists ahead of everyone else? IMO, that's not right at all...it goes on my very long list of "UNBELIEVABLE".

What I heard was that the Mayor decided to take over the Hyatt? hotel as the operations base for rescue and recovery operations, so they evicted all the tourists and others out of there. They did get pushed to the front of the line for buses, and bused out of there.

Given what I've heard from Aussie and other people, including black people on the scene, I think that may have been the only choice, with how so many white people were becoming targets, they maybe knew they couldn't just put them in the Superdome to wait without sparking a riot.

[T'sNana]

Originally Posted by Details

What I heard was that the Mayor decided to take over the Hyatt? hotel as the operations base for rescue and recovery operations, so they evicted all the tourists and others out of there. They did get pushed to the front of the line for buses, and bused out of there.

Given what I've heard from Aussie and other people, including black people on the scene, I think that may have been the only choice, with how so many white people were becoming targets, they maybe knew they couldn't just put them in the Superdome to wait without sparking a riot.

WOW!! Thanks for clearing that up..I feel better. That makes sense now.

[Details]

Originally Posted by T'sNana

WOW!! Thanks for clearing that up..I feel better. That makes sense now.

Yeah, except for the bit where people are being so inhumane that you can't mix the races right now. That is just makes me furious!

[T'sNana]

Originally Posted by Details

Yeah, except for the bit where people are being so inhumane that you can't mix the races right now. That is just makes me furious!

I agree. IMO, I don't think the Al Sharpton's (sp?) of the world are helping either! It's not about race...it's about VICTIMS of this HURRICANE! I have seen white, Vietnamese, black, tourists of many nationalities, etc.

[Magnum PI]

Originally Posted by Details

Yeah, except for the bit where people are being so inhumane that you can't mix the races right now. That is just makes me furious!

Mee too...but if I asked you to join me for a nightime walk in, say, Houston's 5th ward, or a few dozen other places I could name....would you say SURE!!! sounds like fun! Race isn't an easy thing to speak of, or may I say, it's an easy thing to speak of, but a hard thing to bring under control at will. The races do, and must mix, but when things explode at times, do you think anyone can raise their magic wand and make it OK? Jessie Jackson said on TV recently how he was scared one night in D.C. when several black guys seemed to be following him, and he pointedly said BLACK guys. Surely you can understand that. It ain't right, but please don't say it's not there...mpi

[Details]

Originally Posted by Magnum PI

Mee too...but if I asked you to join me for a nightime walk in, say, Houston's 5th ward, or a few dozen other places I could name....would you say SURE!!! sounds like fun! Race isn't an easy thing to speak of, or may I say, it's an easy thing to speak of, but a hard thing to bring under control at will. The races do, and must mix, but when things explode at times, do you think anyone can raise their magic wand and make it OK? Jessie Jackson said on TV recently how he was scared one night in D.C. when several black guys seemed to be following him, and he pointedly said BLACK guys. Surely you can understand that. It ain't right, but please don't say it's not there...mpi

Yes and no... I don't personally think it's so much about race as class - most people aren't too worried about being followed by a black guy in a nice suit; most people are worried about being followed by a white guy in gang attire. You get a high-crime area, and anyone would be worried about walking through there. The fact that poverty and violent crime go together, and that often race and income go together make for some racially biased statistics and facts that do mean people will be more worried with a black man than a white man, all things being equal; but what makes a neighborhood unsafe to walk through at night unless you look like you fit there is usually crime, not race.

[Dara]

Did anyone hear this:

A top New Orleans police officer said Saturday that National Guard troops sat around playing cards while people died in the stricken city after Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans deputy police commander W.S. Riley launched a bitter attack on the federal response to the disaster though he praised the way the evacuation was eventually handled.

[Magnum PI]

Originally Posted by Details

Yes and no... I don't personally think it's so much about race as class - most people aren't too worried about being followed by a black guy in a nice suit; most people are worried about being followed by a white guy in gang attire. You get a high-crime area, and anyone would be worried about walking through there. The fact that poverty and violent crime go together, and that often race and income go together make for some racially biased statistics and facts that do mean people will be more worried with a black man than a white man, all things being equal; but what makes a neighborhood unsafe to walk through at night unless you look like you fit there is usually crime, not race.

Uh..yeah..kinda..When I lived in NYC, I walked home through areas that I wouldn't tell others to tread (unless they were cool). I was comfortable doing so..I'm gonna read your post again tomorrow when I get up...mpi