Genocide in New Orleans : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

Genocide in New Orleans
by Kirsten Anderberg Friday, Sep. 02, 2005 at 1:15 AM

kirstena@resist.ca Seattle, Wa
(http://www.kirstenanderberg.com)

I was seriously hoping that I would not have to write this article. But it has been too long now, and I have to say something. Regardless of whether the deaths en masse of poor black folks in New Orleans is due to neglect or maliciousness, the end result is constructively a genocide on poor blacks in America, right now, in 2005. The lack of aid to New Orleans at this late hour (7 pm, Sept. 1) is not explicable. I have only one explanation that I can muster up. And that explanation is classism and racism.

The reality is these refugees in New Orleans right now were already poor, so that tells you how much the government cared about them BEFORE this disaster. Why would you expect the government to all of a sudden, now, prioritize the group they did not care about before, to the tune of inadequate health care, inadequate and expensive housing, etc.? So this is not a shock, I guess, that the American government is apparently going to let poor black Americans die for no apparent reason, right on the nightly news. They were already not caring about the health of these people, so I guess they are still in that mindset.

Look, New Orleans is not on Mars. I cannot explain why military aircraft carriers, the like we saw during the South Vietnamese evacuation in the Vietnam War, are not landing in New Orleans and airlifting these folks out. Are they all in Iraq or what? I also cannot explain why they are not, at the very least, airdropping food and water onto the people in New Orleans, like they did in Afghanistan after 9/11. These people are literally DYING because America is not doing that! I cannot explain why they did not evacuate the New Orleans jail until AFTER the disaster, either. The many, many ways that the American government has now jeopardized the lives of poor black Americans in this Katrina disaster has literally scared me to death, as a poor person. I feel very strongly that if those were middle class white people stuck in those conditions in New Orleans right now, that relief would have come days ago. For some reason, just as the cops let L.A. burn in the Rodney King riots, this smells of racism to me.

New Orleans is not even a day away from the West Coast. I cannot explain why it is taking days to get help to those people dying down in New Orleans right now. But I remember when I was in the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, that the white middle class people had all the water they could use from the national guard, while only a few miles to the south, the mostly Hispanic communities, were standing in lines for hours in the sun to get only 5 gallons of water. My son and I drove up from the San Fernando Valley into the Santa Clarita Valley in 1994 after the quake collapsed our apartment, after seeing block-long lines at stores for water and long lines at high schools and parks with National Guard trucks giving out water to anyone with a 5 gallon container. When we hit Santa Clarita, there were cases of bottled water at every I-5 off ramp, with military personnel just sitting there, waiting for these middle class families to drive up. When I hit the Santa Clarita Red Cross, they also asked me to take some water off their hands, unloading a few cases of Evian water into my trunk! They had a surplus. I asked both the military and the Red Cross to please load the water up and drive just a bit over the hill where the water was desperately needed. And they refused. Maybe that story is a microcosm of what is going on here in New Orleans right now. No one wants to drive over the hill with supplies?

I cannot explain why there is not at least food and water for the people we are seeing suffering in New Orleans, and the idea there is no landing strip is not true. I have seen flat lawns with massive people littered on them, I have seen abandoned highway strips that could sustain a landing, and I am sure if you told the refugees if they move out of the area for the plane to land, they will be airlifted out, they would cooperate right away!

I have watched insane police hold machine guns to the bodies of mothers carrying clothing out of department stores on TV news. I saw the cops force the mothers to drop the clothing, with his gun in her chest, and she dropped the clothing, and it floated away. A pure authoritarian waste. Even Nazi-ish in nature! I saw police allowing their own into stores for food, but holding the people back from the same luxury, calling poor blacks desperate for food and water “looters” while the cops do the same exact thing and are NOT called looters. I would assume some cops are gonna die if they keep trying to act like this. I see America fueling a heavy crisis in New Orleans, then blaming the refugees for getting desperate. Just as it is in the Middle East, if people were fed by American government, instead of patrolled and pointed at with guns while hungry, things will be safer for all.

The racist cops of L.A. used the Rodney King riots to validate some kind of weird racist theory that blacks are violent and riot. But that is bull. The movie “Trading Places” with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd is a beautiful movie about this idea where you drive someone to desperation then call them criminals. My friend was cleaning pools in Beverly Hills during the Rodney King riots and she said there was a cop car on every block. But when she got into the lower income areas, a cop could not be found. So, from my own disaster experiences, I guess the class/caste separation of even disaster rescue in America is obvious and dominant.

I just told my 21 year old son that he is watching a genocide of people in America right now on TV, as this is what this feels like to me. I have heard NO logical argument as to how on earth those people could still be stranded in New Orleans. It is not Mars. This is ridiculous. And it has become obvious this delayed response in New Orleans is fueled by classism and racism, unless the U.S. government can spit out some logical explanation, but I have not heard one yet. New Orleans is a scene of constructive genocide right now on America’s poor blacks, and I do not know how Americans are just sitting quietly as they watch this on TV. I am out of my mind about this right now. Just out of my damned mind. I have never hated GWBush more, and I have never seen a better living example of classism and racism alive in America today. According to resources in Canada, Canadian TV is reporting they offered planes full of food, water, and supplies to help New Orleans refugees and America turned them down! Again, I wish I did not have to write this article. And I hope I am wrong in this conclusion. But again, I have waited days now for logical answers from the U.S. government and it appears those answers are not coming!

http://www.kirstenanderberg.com

STOP THE MASS MURDER THROUGH NEGLIGENCE NOW GOING ON IN NEW ORLEANS AND THE GULF COAST!

RESCUE, NOT REPRESSION!

THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT! DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME! http://www.worldcantwait.org

Action Alert--

1. Mobilize FRIDAY at your Town Square or Fed Bldg! Get out with signs demanding Drive OUT the Bush Regime!

2. Call the radio talk shows and talk about the 3 demands above. Tell people about the birth of The World Can't Wait this weekend.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Ohio: "Wednesday: MSNBC was interviewing people to see what they thought of Bush's speech on the hurricane.

They interviewed a young white guy in one of the poorest parts of Mississippi, which was destroyed. He is a car mechanic. He was shirtless and looked really pissed. When asked about what he thought of Bush's speech, the guy says, 'BUSH HAS GOT TO GO AND NOT BE PRESIDENT ANY MORE!'"

World Can't Wait Demands:

1) All the people still in New Orleans and the other devastated areas must be immediately and safely rescued and evacuated before any more needless deaths occur due to government criminal negligence. The massive resources of government--the ships, helicopters, and transport planes--must be immediately put at the disposal of the rescue effort.

2) The people should be housed in decent places and their needs must be immediately met.

3) People who are attempting to meet their basic needs must NOT be shot down or arrested! Bush's Azero tolerance orders must be withdrawn immediately. Government should meet all expenses involved in getting food, water, medicine, and other basic needs to people immediately.

4) The censorship of people in New Orleans and other devastated areas must immediately cease, and people must be allowed to tell what is actually going on.

5) The full truth of what happened and how this came to be, including the deep responsibility of the Bush administration, must be immediately made known, and those responsible up to the very highest levels must be held accountable.

6) Volunteer rescuers should be assisted and supported, and not repressed by government agencies, police, and national guard.

People are dying on the streets of New Orleans. This is criminal! The natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina was magnified by the culpability of the Bush administration and Congress for cutting $71 million from the budget for levees and for other environmental policies that contributed to the devastating floods that were predicted and could have been prevented. Scientists agree that global warning has had a direct impact on the severity of this hurricane. The Bush Regime has refused repeatedly to sign the Kyoto Protocols to stop global warming.

Bush's callous refusal to end his vacation even as the hurricane was killing people and the terrible devastation was happening is outrageous. What is going on in New Orleans is in no small part a concentrated example of how this administration views and treats Black people, thousands of whom were left without the resources to evacuate, and were not immediately rescued.

Billions of dollars and huge resources, including massive transport and medical capabilities, are being devoted to slaughtering people in Iraq, while people are dying in New Orleans for lack of these same resources.
STOP THE MASS MURDER THROUGH NEGLIGENCE NOW GOING ON IN NEW ORLEANS AND THE GULF COAST!

RESCUE, NOT REPRESSION!

THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT! DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!

World Can't Wait Demands:
Action Alert--

1. Mobilize FRIDAY at your Town Square or Fed Bldg! Get out with signs demanding Drive OUT the Bush Regime!

2. Call the radio talk shows and talk about the 3 demands above. Tell people about the birth of The World Can't Wait this weekend.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Ohio: "Wednesday: MSNBC was interviewing people to see what they thought of Bush's speech on the hurricane.

They interviewed a young white guy in one of the poorest parts of Mississippi, which was destroyed. He is a car mechanic. He was shirtless and looked really pissed. When asked about what he thought of Bush's speech, the guy says, 'BUSH HAS GOT TO GO AND NOT BE PRESIDENT ANY MORE!'"

1) All the people still in New Orleans and the other devastated areas must be immediately and safely rescued and evacuated before any more needless deaths occur due to government criminal negligence. The massive resources of government--the ships, helicopters, and transport planes--must be immediately put at the disposal of the rescue effort.

2) The people should be housed in decent places and their needs must be immediately met.

3) People who are attempting to meet their basic needs must NOT be shot down or arrested! Bush's Azero tolerance orders must be withdrawn immediately. Government should meet all expenses involved in getting food, water, medicine, and other basic needs to people immediately.

4) The censorship of people in New Orleans and other devastated areas must immediately cease, and people must be allowed to tell what is actually going on.

5) The full truth of what happened and how this came to be, including the deep responsibility of the Bush administration, must be immediately made known, and those responsible up to the very highest levels must be held accountable.

6) Volunteer rescuers should be assisted and supported, and not repressed by government agencies, police, and national guard.

People are dying on the streets of New Orleans. This is criminal! The natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina was magnified by the culpability of the Bush administration and Congress for cutting $71 million from the budget for levees and for other environmental policies that contributed to the devastating floods that were predicted and could have been prevented. Scientists agree that global warning has had a direct impact on the severity of this hurricane. The Bush Regime has refused repeatedly to sign the Kyoto Protocols to stop global warming.

Bush's callous refusal to end his vacation even as the hurricane was killing people and the terrible devastation was happening is outrageous. What is going on in New Orleans is in no small part a concentrated example of how this administration views and treats Black people, thousands of whom were left without the resources to evacuate, and were not immediately rescued.

Billions of dollars and huge resources, including massive transport and medical capabilities, are being devoted to slaughtering people in Iraq, while people are dying in New Orleans for lack of these same resources.

We need a communist party that can galvanize the masses and lead them to revolution! The leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party will develop a weather machine so that we can stop this racist injustice of hurricanes now and forever.

Instead of donating money to charity, donate it to Bob Avakian and the Revolutionary Communist Party. If you really want to help the people you'll help them get rid of this rotten system.

The People of the Dome:

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/1719092_comment.php

Little Somalia:

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/1719091_comment.php

National Guard delay likely to be examined

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/1719065_comment.php#1719090

'This is criminal':

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/1719065_comment.php

GOVERNMENT MASSACRE IN NEW ORLEANS!!!
by Observer Saturday, Sep. 03, 2005 at 8:37 AM

KING GEORGE LEADS GOVERNMENT MASSACRE OF THE POOR AND STARVING

Bush has declared war on New Orleans. His troops are brainwashed they are fighting an insurgency against a starving, desperate underclass!

GREEN LIGHT - "They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded," Governor Kathleen Blanco said of 300 National Guard troops who landed in New Orleans fresh from duty in Iraq. "These TROOPS KNOW HOW TO SHOOT AND KILL, and they are MORE THAN WILLING TO DO SO, and I expect they will."

RACIST URBAN BATTLE - “This place is going to look like LITTLE SOMALIA,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a COMBAT OPERATION to get this city under control.”

EXTERMINATE THE STARVING - "While some fight the INSURGENCY in the city, others carry on with rescue and evacuation operations."

SOMALIA?! COMBAT OPERATIONS?! INSURGENCY?!!

WAKE UP GODDAMMIT THIS IS A GOVERNMENT MASSACRE!!!!

Capitalism
by not dumb enough to give name Sunday, Sep. 04, 2005 at 3:24 AM

Yes, it's a massacre. And yes, it makes perfect sense under the decision calculus of empire.. The hurricane left millions homeless. Capitalism can't "afford" to relocate them all, replacing their jobs, homes and property. The economy would be devasated by the upsurge of homeless. Solution? Kill them. In the eyes of empire, it's a necessary step to preserve the overall order. This month will no doubt make hystory; it's just a question of how that hystory will be presented. In times of crisis, empire cannot maintain its center without explicit force. The mask comes off. When empire usually lashes out, it's against foreign-looking people in foreign-looking places, and so Americans are more easily deceived. The true nature of empire will only become more and more apparent in the years to come as it nears it's inevitable decline.

It's not the "mask of empire" that has caused black people to loot, murder and rape instead of helping out their fellow citizens.
Put the blame where it belongs...in a bankrupt black american culture that values personal posessions above their fellow humans. A culture that demands theft (no, not of food, clothing and water) of material posessions. Imagine stealing electronics, if you have no food, no water and no ELECTRICITY! Now that's just plain dumb.

i am a anarchist from Youngstown Ohio. Im pretty well known since im one of the few anarchists in the city....yet some stuck up army kid that was with my friend Larry, knowing very well who me and my friends were, comes up to us and says......"yeah, im going to new orleans to shoot to kill looters and the poor."......My friend John thought he was joking and asked," Youre not really going to do that are you?". And with a blank expression replied,"Yes. I am." Then walked away. What the fuck is going on here!?

add your comments

Black Culture?
by Can't Believe How Dumb People Are Tuesday, Sep. 06, 2005 at 11:54 AM

People aren't stealing electronics to USE them, dumbass, you steal electronics 'cause they SELL FOR MORE MONEY. When you have a family and live paycheck-to-paycheck, then all of a sudden a hurricane destroys your home, furniture, tv, bed, couch, etc. etc., the reason you steal is so you can sell the stuff and BUY food, clothing, shelter, etc. This is especially true when several days pass and the federal government hasn't helped you with shit.

But, of course, only in racist Amerika would someone be stupid enough to think the looting is "black people looking for bling-bling" instead of poor people looting because they've lost everything they had and can't even feed their families. Poor people don't have insurance, jackass, and even if they did, someone living paycheck to paycheck can't afford a deductable for everything that needs replaced.

You're a racist asshole.

*Sigh* Jesus this gets old. No, moron, the "mask of empire" isn't the act of people looting, the "mask of empire" is the government waiting 5 days to send relief, and then bring guns instead of money and food for those who need it most. Everything the poor of New Orleans owned was destroyed by a hurricane, and their families needed food and money. If the government hasn't brought food within 24 hours after the disaster, who WOULDN'T steal to feed their starving family?

THAT is the "mask of empire cast aside". When a disaster hits and people need help the most, empire puts economic calculus ABOVE concern for humyn life. We catch a glimpse of the "true nature of empire" when emergency services takes almost a week, and then the military is sent in to shoot-on-sight anyone who says, "I'm tired of waiting, my family needs money/food NOW, so I'm doing whatever I need to do to help them".

God I hate ignorant spoiled white men.

I ran across the site looking for the North Ridge quake that a friend of mine told me about.

During the North Ridge quake, the bridges on Routes 5 and 14 collapsed The collapse isolated a well-to-do community over the hill from where the middle-class whites and the 'waiting in line' Latinos were getting water. It took 6 or 7 days for FEMA to discover and get aid to the prosperous community. But my friend blamed it on the incompetence of FEMA, not a proletarian hatred for rich, white people.

Can anyone imagine what type of paranoid hysteria this site's letter would have contained, had the rich and middle-class been on her side of the hill, and the non-whites isolated on the other?

The hurricane's full force hit the Biloxi area, not New Orleans. Had the Federal Government been fully prepared, Mississippi would have been the focal point for mobilization, not New Orleans. It was the broken levees that did New Orleans in, and the levees have been a problem for a hundred years.

Despite what many people suppose, you cannot prepare to meet every contingency. There are three or four possible hurricanes out in the ocean at this time, one just off the east coast of Florida. Perhaps Ms K can tell us how and when to prepare for that one and the others. while meeting politically correct standards. Or should we just wait and see? It takes economic goods to meet an emergency, and economic goods are, by definition, limited. I won't even get into the problems of allocation and distribution.

A final observation, looting. Looting is not shopping. For other than water and food, there is no excuse for taking what does not belong to you during a disaster. A disaster does not make it a Freebie. And one does not eat armfuls of clothes and TV sets. Of course, Ms K will never understand any of this. One can only hope that she and her possessions are, someday, on the receiving end of a mob action. It might tend to ameliorate her compassion for thieves.

Make no mistake, I am not a supporter of Bush, nor of his Dirty Dog war, the cost of which, by the way, would pay for a ten thousand dollar scholarship for every HS grad in the U.S. But to call him and the people running FEMA and other emergency agencies, racists, based on what has happened, would be disingenuous. These people are politicians, they don't care where the get their votes.

Denny Crane

I think you're confusing the damage from a natural storm with the malicious neglect of government relief efforts. This isn't a matter of the "government meeting every contingency". It's simple, actually. In New Orleans, the brunt of the damage was in poor black communities. The French Quarter, and other upper-class communities, barely had flooding at all.

FEMA did NOT take 5 days for relief across the board. That would be a "meeting every contingency" issue. No, FEMA gave relief aid to the French Quarter and wealthy areas IMMEDIATELY, and only took 5 days for the poor, black communities. This is not "ill-preperation", it is outright prejudice, whether classist, racist, or a little of both. Limited in emergency goods? Are you serious? The only thing limiting the amount of emergency goods is greedy corporations and FEMA, who feel it a bad investment to help poor people. Third World countries have responded to equivilant disasters twice as fast with twice as many resources for the victims.

You embarrass yourself when you suggest that the richest country in the world took 5 days for disaster relief because it was not "prepared for every contingency". During the North Ridge quake, if the government offerred immediate relief to wealthy residents while poor residents went ignored, YES, it would have been a classism issue.

The levees that broke in New Orleans, btw, were earmarked for several million dollars in repairs last year. It never happened because Bush diverted the repair money to the war in Iraq. Is that a natural phenomenon too?

Looting:

There is no excuse for taking what does not "belong to you" in a disaster? Gee, how about your family starving? How about your family homeless, with no money to re-build a life elsewhere? You obviously live a privileged life, and have NO IDEA what a paycheck-to-paycheck family goes through, or would have to endure if everything they own was destroyed by a hurricane. If the government gave a shit about its people, no one would have to loot.

If a hurricane destroyed everything I've worked for and left my family homeless, you're goddam right I'd loot the most expensive shit I could sell for food/clothes/shelter money. You would too. Almost anyone would. And, in New Orleans, thousands of people DID. The looters were not "criminals", they were normal, hard-working, low-income folk who saw everything destroyed, and refused to believe their reward for years of work is absolutely nothing.

One can only hope YOU are left penniless and homeless after a disaster, and YOUR family starving. Then we'll see how high-and-mighty you are.

God I hate arrogant, classist, self-centered white men.

I see that ironical statements are a little too oblique for you. So allow me to restate my position. During the North Ridge quake, a well-to-do community was not given aid by FEMA for six days, while at the same time, FEMA gave aid to middle-class whites and poor Latinos. But no one accused FEMA was withholding aid from the wealthy on the basis of FEMA being biased against the well-to-do. It was a screw-up, just as New Orleans was a screw-up. The lack of aid in New Orleans had no more to do with hatred of poor blacks than the lack of aid in the North Ridge quake had to do with hatred of rich whites. In the case of disasters, screwing up is par for the course, and will continue to be; in the military it's know as snafu. Except now, due to this outcry about New
Orleans, the Federal Government, in cases of 'disaster,' will probably be allowed to enter
any state without the request of that state's governor, and that rule will come back to bite everyone in the rear-end. And I am not going to take the time to try to explain that ne to you. But I will give you a hint: RICO.

AS TO LOOTING - IN MY COMMENT I WROTE:

"A final observation, looting. Looting is not shopping. For other than water and food, there is no excuse for taking what does not belong to you during a disaster. A disaster does not make it a Freebie. And one does not eat armfuls of clothes and TV sets. Of course, Ms K will never understand any of this. One can only hope that she and her possessions are, someday, on the receiving end of a mob action. It might tend to
ameliorate her compassion for thieves."

IN YOUR ANSWER TO MY COMMENT, YOU WROTE:

"Looting:

There is no excuse for taking what does not "belong to you" in a disaster? Gee, how about your family starving? How about your family homeless, with no money to re-build a life elsewhere? You obviously live a privileged life, and have NO IDEA what a paycheck-to-paycheck family goes through, or would have to endure if everything they own was destroyed by a hurricane. If the government gave a shit about its people, no one would have to loot.

If a hurricane destroyed everything I've worked for and left my family homeless, you're goddam right I'd loot the most expensive shit I could sell for food/clothes/shelter money.
You would too. Almost anyone would. And, in New Orleans, thousands of people DID. The looters were not "criminals", they were normal, hard-working, low-income folk who saw everything destroyed, and refused to believe their reward for years of work is
absolutely nothing.

One can only hope YOU are left penniless and homeless after a disaster, and YOUR
family starving. Then we'll see how high-and-mighty you are.

God I hate arrogant, classist, self-centered white men."

NOW MY ANSWER TO YOUR COMMENT:

1. In quoting me, you intentionally left out a very important part of the sentence. So to begin with, you are a vile, dishonest person. And then you had the effrontery, the gall, to deride me on the basis of what you left out. I wrote: "For other than water and food,
there is no excuse for taking what does not belong to you during a disaster." And even that has qualifications as from where, from whom and by what means, it can be taken.

2. You have no idea of my economic situation, nor background. And your scenario concerning looting is just ridiculous. My personal opinion is that looters are not the homeless who have had everything destroyed, but the covetous and opportunistic. I can tell you right now that, in the dire circumstances you describe, it would never occur to me to loot TV's or expensive beauty products.

3. Your own rationale for looting is silly, if not specious: You have lost everything in the
world, and so have your neighbors. Your family needs water and food, your neighbors need water and food, and your homes have been destroyed. And you are wading around in knee-deep water trying to sell a hot TV set. Of course, your plan is probably more
complex than the average six-year-old's, you may have contemplated a back-pack full of IPods and, perhaps, precious jewels. Let me explain to you, there is no Looters' Bazaar.

4. In your rambling rationale in support of looting, you, not surprisingly, have not considered the ramifications of your position. Either looting is criminal, or it is not
criminal. It seems to be, no it is, in the foggy depths of your brain, not criminal.

So let us all get on the same page here. Looting, as it now stands, is a crime. If looting is not criminal, there is only one way to make it not criminal - it should be made legal. No wink and a nod, and let the looting continue - make it legal by statute, by law. Perhaps
the gist of it should read, "In periods of disaster, flood, famine, earthquake, riot, war, terrorist attack, etc, looting will be freely and generally allowed, and no physical, nor armed intervention will be used against looters...." This is just an example of what the
legislation might include. I am not in support of this; so, far be it from me to word the type of law that you would no doubt favor. I am sure that you could word it better and more appropriately. I would certainly be interested.

5. Lastly, concerning your racist remark about hating arrogant white men. It is obvious, you have never met a tall, fat, arrogant male Polynesian.

Denny Crane

I'll try and make this quick. It shouldn't take much. Your argument of, "hey, screw ups happen" is embarrassing.

During the North Ridge quake, a well-to-do community was not given aid by FEMA for six days, while at the same time, FEMA gave aid to middle-class whites and poor Latinos. But no one accused FEMA was withholding aid from the wealthy on the basis of FEMA being biased against the well-to-do.

First of all, the "well-to-do" community didn't need aid as much as other parts of Northridge; in fact, they had zero casualties. Find me an article that says otherwise (and I'd actually love to see the article stating it took 6 days for their aid).

Secondly, the overlooked community was small, and did not suffer the brunt of the earthquake. Easy to overlook. In New Orleans, however, the overwhelming majority of people, who DID suffer the brunt of the hurricane, were ignored. C'mon, are you blind? Immediately after the hurricane, while the majority of New Orleans was awaiting relief, FEMA rushed into the French Quarter and richer areas that didn't suffer NEARLY as much damage. Overlooking a small community that didn't suffer much damage is understandable as a "mistake". Overlooking the majority of victims who suffered the majority of damage is not a mistake. Your comparison between Northridge and New Orleans is terrible. You are correct that New Orleans and Northridge relief aid were fundamentally different. That difference, however, is due to the influence of George Bush and Halliburton, which I will explain below.

Finally, there are many articles that describe how Northridge disaster relief WAS classist, and DID neglect poorer communities. E.g., LA Times, 1/30/94, "Aftershocks: Great Leveler Gives All Victims Same Task of Healing".

The lack of aid in New Orleans had no more to do with hatred of poor blacks than the lack of aid in the North Ridge quake had to do with hatred of rich whites.

You're right. The lack of aid wasn't because the administration hates black people and enjoys seeing them die. It was because the administration wants excessive damage so reconstruction contracts are more lucritive, because this administration has close ties with reconstruction firms. The US has been accused repeatedly of "overbombing" Iraq, for instance, so the Halliburton reconstruction contract is more lucritive. Guess who got the reconstruction contract for New Orleans? You guessed it! Halliburton, Bechel, and Shaw Group. The racism/classism comes into play when the administration is determining how much destruction to allow before taking action. French quarter? Better act fast; people won't tolerate the "delays". Poor black neighborhoods? Well, they're "worth less", so the devastation can be prolonged (for larger reconstruction contracts). After disasters such as Katrina, Bush's friends make their money from the destruction. Why do you think Bush diverted money that would have fixed the levees? They had to choose which area to prolong relief (to make more profit), and they chose poor black areas instead of wealthy white areas. THAT is how racism/classism comes into play.

1. In quoting me, you intentionally left out a very important part of the sentence. So to begin with, you are a vile, dishonest person. And then you had the effrontery, the gall, to deride me on the basis of what you left out. I wrote: "For other than water and food, there is no excuse for taking what does not belong to you during a disaster." And even that has qualifications as from where, from whom and by what means, it can be taken.

First of all, this blatantly contradicts the black-and-white analysis of your #4. If looting is "either criminal or not criminal", that would include food, clothes and medicine. Secondly, "vile and dishonest"? What the hell are you talking about? I never denied that you said looting food was ok. You said ONLY looting food/clothes is acceptable, and I said looting expensive items IS ALSO acceptable. Stealing food feeds you for a day. Stealing and selling expensive equipment feeds you for a month, and might even get you a security deposit for a new apartment.

2. You have no idea of my economic situation, nor background. And your scenario concerning looting is just ridiculous. My personal opinion is that looters are not the homeless who have had everything destroyed, but the covetous and opportunistic. I can tell you right now that, in the dire circumstances you describe, it would never occur to me to loot TV's or expensive beauty products.

Hello? Anybody home? Who do you think the looters were if not people whose lives were just destroyed? Do you think they drove in from Texas? They overwhelming majority of "looters" WERE only taking food/clothing. The minority who took expensive equipment were still victims, and I don't think an affluent schmuck like yourself has any room to judge how they try to survive after what little they had was destroyed. And yes, I have no doubt whatsoever that you are affluent. Neither does anyone else who reads your crap.

Maybe you're right. Maybe it's ridiculous to think people who had everything they worked for destroyed desperately trying to get SOMETHING to help them start over again. Oh wait, that makes perfect sense. That's how I know you're affluent. If you worked all your life for practically nothing, you would understand the plight of people who had that almost-nothing taken away, left penniless, jobless and homeless. You aren't, so you don't.

3. Your own rationale for looting is silly, if not specious: You have lost everything in the world, and so have your neighbors. Your family needs water and food, your neighbors need water and food, and your homes have been destroyed. And you are wading around in knee-deep water trying to sell a hot TV set. Of course, your plan is probably more complex than the average six-year-old's, you may have contemplated a back-pack full of IPods and, perhaps, precious jewels. Let me explain to you, there is no Looters' Bazaar.

Yes, you take expensive equipment so you can sell it after you relocate. Or at least have something to start a new life with. No one said people act rationally in times of crisis. I'm sure if you were in the same situation you would respond by writing a dissertation, so I'm sorry those trying to survive don't share your superior intellect. You should try using your thesaurus a little less and basic logic a little more.

Oh, and there have been TWO reports of people carrying televisions. There have been HUNDREDS of reports of people stealing food, clean water, and clothing. Despite your attempt to demonize them, the overwhelming majority of "looters" being targeted by the military were stealing necessities, NOT huge televisions. Try reading more and watching corporiate media imagery less.

4. In your rambling rationale in support of looting, you, not surprisingly, have not considered the ramifications of your position. Either looting is criminal, or it is not criminal. It seems to be, no it is, in the foggy depths of your brain, not criminal.

Again, this contradicts your #1, where you state looting food and necessities is permissible during an emergency. And no, I don't think taking what should be rightfully yours should be criminal. If anything, the criminals are those exploiting the working poor in the first place. Your law-centric perspective of morality is a terrible argument. I'm sure I don't have to list the number of oppressive laws that have existed, and the right of those being oppressed to fight back. Yes, it is illegal for hurricane victims to take what they need. Yes, the law is wrong.

5. Lastly, concerning your racist remark about hating arrogant white men. It is obvious, you have never met a tall, fat, arrogant male Polynesian.

Whoops. I guess I should change "white" to "rich". My mistake. Your appearance may be Polynesian, but your ontology and ethics are as white as it gets.

Hey Denny, I heard another family who was left homeless and penniless is stealing a $200 television! You'd better get down there and shoot those opportunistic scumbags!

Strictly speaking, it doesn't matter much what race or class any of us happen to be. In the moral cosmology of Western civilization the importance of race is tantamount to the necessity of becoming "white", which is a distinction devoid of any practical reference to race, and the preferred method of transition, from "black" to "white", is work. Hence, we are all working our way to "whitehood". It's a judeo-christian concept, conflated with the protestant work ethic. Sin, as such, is the blot which denigrates the soul, and salvation is the ethnic cleansing of the soul. The sinners, condemned to eternal toil, are therefore black, and the saved are those who whitewash themselves with testimonial displays of faith and acts of charity, or good works.

Of course, the intended implication is to infer that the good work, while the evil do not. Although the Marxists, materialist heirs to the Christian spiritual cosmology, accept the inference stated above, with suitable substitutions for the socially useful and the asocially parasitic, the fascists refined the Manichean dichotomy to include the rich, who are, by definition, and the virtue of their wealth, traditionally entitled to their social salvation. Thus the indigent are, by their indigence, criminally-inclined and the affluent rise, through the labor and sacrifice of their gradually less criminally-inclined ancestors (and their more criminally-inclined immigrant probationaries), to some threshold celestial staus, where work is neither required nor expected, except for their continued capital accumulation, which works, in their stead, to organize the labor of those who have yet to achieve their "whitehood".

Cleveland Indy Media Center