Post by retire05 on Sept 3, 2005 18:32:34 GMT -8
I have a friend, Jimmy. A great guy who has worked all over the world before he settled down at age 38 to a wonderful girl.
Jimmy is from Mississippi but worked for years in New Orleans.
I had been trying to reach him all week since I knew he had gone back to Mississippi to check on his dad who has been ill but could never get through. He finally called me today.
You will not believe what he told me:
Jimmy said that on Sunday he and some other friends from Mississippi went to New Orleans. They were about 1 and 1/2 hours from New Orleans but made realy good time because the traffic was flowing out of N.O., not into N.O.
He has a friend there who heads up a disaster relief group. She had gotton a bunch of church buses and was going into the projects to get the people out.
Jimmy said that when they got to the project, along with police support, the people of the projects had taken to the streets. The people locked arms and made human barricades to prevent the police and the church buses from coming in. They shouted at the police that they were not leaving. Two police officers were shot.
When the relief workers determined that it was not safe for them to be there with the buses the whole mess, police, buses and care workers left.
On Monday the hurricane came.
Monday night the 17th St. Levee broke and Tuesday two more levees broke.
Jimmy took his airboat into the area where the water was rising rapidly and the people were going to be stranded.
Try to imagine the picture: airboats, large buses that can traverse the rising water, police officers and emergency workers all there to get the people out. The people would not leave. One police officer was shot and wounded seriously. Jimmy's airboat took two direct hits and began to sink. It is now not water worthy until it get repaired. They were shooting at anyone who tried to help them: Jimmy, the airboats, police, bus drivers and relief workers.
The people in the ghettos were not going to leave.
A lifelong friend of Jimmy's from Mississippi was there. He is/was a New Orleans police officer. He said to Jimmy "fuck these ni**ers (explative for black). I am not going to make my kids ophans for these people. Let them drown." Jimmy said his friend is black also. So the whole mess retreats, airboats, police, buses and relief workers. And the whole time they are retreating they are being shot at.
Jimmy said that by mid afternoon on Tuesday, 80% of the New Orleans police force had resigned. Just turned in their badges and left. He said there was no order, no instructions from the mayor's office as to what the police should do. Most of the police said that the town was under the control of the gangs and the police said "let them drown" and left.
In the Superdome, a little 7 year old girl was raped. When the other men saw the rapist and what he had just done to that little girl, they beat him to death. Yesterday, a National Guardsman, trying to help these people, was shot to death at point blank range.
What kind of people are these? People who shoot at other people trying to help them; people who rape little girls and kill Guardsmen trying to help them? Is this just a small sampling of what New Orleans was like before the hurricane?
Now these people are screaming because no one came to help them. That is just no true. People came, and got shot at. These people refused to leave. And we have 100,000 of these model citizens in my state. What is going to come of that? The effects this will have on Texas and Texans will not be good. Many people are worried that the problems the people had in New Orleans are now in Texas. The crime, the raping, the drugs. They didn't leave those behaviours behind. They brought them with them.
So when you have sympathy for these people, remember what they came from. Remember that these are people who have learned that the government is responsible for them and everything that they require to live; housing, food, clothes, medicine and even the responsibility to get shot at while trying to save them.
My friend Jimmy is angry. He is angry that he tried to help people that shot at him. He is angry that his boat is ruined. He is angry at himself for even trying.
I don't blame him.
Jimmy is from Mississippi but worked for years in New Orleans.
I had been trying to reach him all week since I knew he had gone back to Mississippi to check on his dad who has been ill but could never get through. He finally called me today.
You will not believe what he told me:
Jimmy said that on Sunday he and some other friends from Mississippi went to New Orleans. They were about 1 and 1/2 hours from New Orleans but made realy good time because the traffic was flowing out of N.O., not into N.O.
He has a friend there who heads up a disaster relief group. She had gotton a bunch of church buses and was going into the projects to get the people out.
Jimmy said that when they got to the project, along with police support, the people of the projects had taken to the streets. The people locked arms and made human barricades to prevent the police and the church buses from coming in. They shouted at the police that they were not leaving. Two police officers were shot.
When the relief workers determined that it was not safe for them to be there with the buses the whole mess, police, buses and care workers left.
On Monday the hurricane came.
Monday night the 17th St. Levee broke and Tuesday two more levees broke.
Jimmy took his airboat into the area where the water was rising rapidly and the people were going to be stranded.
Try to imagine the picture: airboats, large buses that can traverse the rising water, police officers and emergency workers all there to get the people out. The people would not leave. One police officer was shot and wounded seriously. Jimmy's airboat took two direct hits and began to sink. It is now not water worthy until it get repaired. They were shooting at anyone who tried to help them: Jimmy, the airboats, police, bus drivers and relief workers.
The people in the ghettos were not going to leave.
A lifelong friend of Jimmy's from Mississippi was there. He is/was a New Orleans police officer. He said to Jimmy "fuck these ni**ers (explative for black). I am not going to make my kids ophans for these people. Let them drown." Jimmy said his friend is black also. So the whole mess retreats, airboats, police, buses and relief workers. And the whole time they are retreating they are being shot at.
Jimmy said that by mid afternoon on Tuesday, 80% of the New Orleans police force had resigned. Just turned in their badges and left. He said there was no order, no instructions from the mayor's office as to what the police should do. Most of the police said that the town was under the control of the gangs and the police said "let them drown" and left.
In the Superdome, a little 7 year old girl was raped. When the other men saw the rapist and what he had just done to that little girl, they beat him to death. Yesterday, a National Guardsman, trying to help these people, was shot to death at point blank range.
What kind of people are these? People who shoot at other people trying to help them; people who rape little girls and kill Guardsmen trying to help them? Is this just a small sampling of what New Orleans was like before the hurricane?
Now these people are screaming because no one came to help them. That is just no true. People came, and got shot at. These people refused to leave. And we have 100,000 of these model citizens in my state. What is going to come of that? The effects this will have on Texas and Texans will not be good. Many people are worried that the problems the people had in New Orleans are now in Texas. The crime, the raping, the drugs. They didn't leave those behaviours behind. They brought them with them.
So when you have sympathy for these people, remember what they came from. Remember that these are people who have learned that the government is responsible for them and everything that they require to live; housing, food, clothes, medicine and even the responsibility to get shot at while trying to save them.
My friend Jimmy is angry. He is angry that he tried to help people that shot at him. He is angry that his boat is ruined. He is angry at himself for even trying.
I don't blame him.