Looting: Black Days In New Orleans
By Bob Parks (08/31/05)
Why is this happening yet again? Of course the answer is clear: racism. At least if you talk to liberals.
Being one of the millions of law-abiding blacks in this country, I am tired of being embarrassed by the actions of a minority of thugs, thieves, and opportunists that are using the devastation of New Orleans as an chance to get back at The Man. Then again, they got back at the man in Los Angeles, and after certain teams won championships. Black people aren't the only people who get caught up in mob hysteria, but in the latest episode in The Big Easy, we have a starring role.
What's even worse are the media liberals who are falling over themselves to portray the looters as victims.
"People are breaking windows to get into stores. They are breaking open doors. They are taking whatever they want," CBS News correspondent John Roberts said. "Police really don't have the manpower to be able to deal with this. They are trying to tell looters to put things down in place, chase them away. We haven't seen any arrests of looters." In some cases it was hard to tell whether the looting was an act of desperation or common criminals, CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan reports."
An act of desperation...?
Sure it may be desperation because the looters know what they are doing is a crime but they just don't care. When Klansmen refer to blacks as animals, and can show numerous pictures of people of color going from store to store and stealing anything that can be physically removed, how does one counter that?
Where's Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Where's the condemnation from the NAACP and other so-called black leaders? Why do we only hear justification and understanding from liberals when black people act the fool?
I know... I know. I shouldn't be airing our dirty laundry in front of white people. But I can't stop CNN from showing that laundry on worldwide television.
"The looting prompted authorities to send more than 70 additional officers and an armed personnel carrier into the city. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter but was expected to recover, authorities said. In the city's Carrollton section, which is on relatively high ground, looters commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a Rite-Aid pharmacy. The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items."
It's hard to know what to say when I watch the video of black people, who claim to be victims of racism, running down the flooded streets with merchandise that doesn't belong to them. It's funny that America is constantly called a racist nation. If that were the case, these black looters would be shot dead. Instead, they run away with their ill-gotten booty just to probably later return for more, that is if anything's left.
Poverty didn't cause people to steal en masse. As designed, those looters have been told they've been kept down. They were told they will never have any opportunities in life. They were told they'll never have the things that would make their lives complete. And guess who told them that? The very people who aren't there now condemning this public display of lawlessness.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Liberals and Democrats have created the aura in the black community that they understand the problems and feel the pain. However, they never seem to have any medicine. They consistently deny blacks the opportunity to abandon the lousy public schools black politicians would never send their own kids to. They push blacks into experimental programs that result in teen pregnancy rates that would never be tolerated in the suburbs.
Yet they seem to almost expect blacks to behave like rabid animals in the face of disaster and find ways to make us feel that it should be expected.
"New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. The Times-Picayune newspaper reported that the gun section at a new Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District had been cleaned out by looters. Gunshots were heard throughout the night in Carrollton. Police spokesman Marlon Defilo said an officer and a looter were wounded in a shootout. Defilo had no word on their condition. Three or four others were also arrested, he said. One looter shot and wounded a fellow looter, who was taken to a hospital and survived. Staff members at Children's Hospital huddled with sick youngsters and waited in vain for help to arrive as looters tried to break through the locked door, Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher told the newspaper. Neither the police nor the National Guard arrived."
Oh, and we have the almost uniform, scripted dig being mentioned on almost all the mainstream news outlets that the National Guard is missing in action. Of course, that's because that bonehead George W. Bush has them all in Iraq. Democracy Now! hostess Amy Goodman is out amongst her peers lobbing gripes....
"President Bush announced he would cut short his vacation by two days and return to Washington today. He spoke on Tuesday in San Diego. "Right now our priority is on saving lives and we are still in the midst of search and rescue operations," Bush said. During his appearance in San Diego he also took the time to briefly play guitar while with country singer Country Singer Mark Wills. Bush is expected to fly to Louisiana on Friday to tour parishes ravaged by the hurricane.
"Questions are also being raised if the federal government could have done more to protect the region from the deadly flooding. In 1995 Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project. Over the past decade the Army Corps of Engineers has spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations. But another $250 million in work remained. According to press accounts, the federal funding largely froze up in 2003. Over the past two years the Times-Picayune paper has run at least nine articles that cite the cost of the Iraq invasion as a reason for the lack of hurricane and flood control funding. Earlier this year President Bush proposed significantly reducing the amount of federal money for the project. He proposed spending $10 million. Local officials said six times as much money was needed."
I think it laughable that liberal elitists like Amy Goodman, who constantly uses black music on her show bumpers to prove she's one of us, would give a damn about the National Guard or anyone in uniform. I'll bet she didn't care for them much until Bushes occupied the White House. Now, all of a sudden, she gives a damn about the troops and that they should be in New Orleans and not in Iraq.
But back to the looting.
Black people in New Orleans should be made to understand that the whole world is watching. Any racism people may have is being justified every time they turn on their televisions. If you thought turning around the situation in the black community was tough then, wait until the Democrats you know and love so well, have to explain to their white constituents why they'll need to provide additional tax money to help. And when the plea is balked at, don't blame racism. Don't blame Republicans. Don't blame black conservatives who have moved on. Blame yourselves.
"On New Orleans' Canal Street, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates on clothing and jewelry stores and grabbed merchandise. In Biloxi, Miss., people picked through casino slot machines for coins and ransacked other businesses. In some cases, the looting was in full view of police and National Guardsmen. The historic French Quarter appeared to have been spared the worst flooding, but its stores were getting the worst of human nature. "The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been attacked," Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said. "We're using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on rooftops." Sen. Mary Landrieu's helicopter was taking off Tuesday for a flyover of the devastation and she watched as a group of people smashed a window at a gas-station convenience store and jumped in. At a drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers."
They should be ashamed, but Jesse will try and turn the shame on the rest of us who obey the law. This looting will be our fault. And aside from kissing Democrat ass, he will offer no new solution to poverty. Just excuses. Excuses that have run out.
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