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WARNING: THIS SITE FEATURES ORIGINAL THINKING...Jim Croce once sang Don't tug on Superman's cape..., which seems like reasonable advice should we not wish to anger the supreme powers. We do have this duality in our culture: the Superman that is the state collective, the leftist call to a politics of meaning managed by the state, the deification of "we're from the government and we'll take care of you" - versus the Superman that celebrates individual freedom, private property, freedom of conscience, free enterprise, and limited government. We humbly take on the latter's mantle and, eschewing the feeble tug, we dare to PULL, in hope of seeing freedom's rescue from the encroaching nanny state. We invite you, dear reader, to come and pull as well... Additionally, if you assume that means that we are unflinching, unquestioning GOP zombies, that would be incorrect. We reject statism in any form and call on individuals in our country to return to the original, classical liberalism of our founders. (We're also passionate about art, photography, cooking, technology, Judeo/Christian values, and satire as unique, individual pursuits of happiness to celebrate.) |
Superman's product of the century (so far):
Jeff (Protein Wisdom) quoted some of a Saturday (September 3rd) press conference by Lt. General Blum - note this excerpt:
Q: General, you mentioned a disintegration of the New Orleans Police Department. Do you know how many officers are still on duty?
GEN. BLUM: I would rather not say. I think you’d be better to refer that question to the mayor of New Orleans. I have my own estimate. I would say they are significantly degraded and they have less than one-third of their original capability.
Today, the New York Times provides some insight:
The crisis put enormous pressure on many police officers and firefighters, pressure some could not withstand. P. Edwin Compass III, the New Orleans police superintendent, said on Saturday that 200 of the 1,500 members of his force had walked off the job and that two others had committed suicide. He said yesterday that the city had offered to send all members of the police and fire departments and their families on vacations to Las Vegas. (Ed: Emphasis added.)
"When you go through something this devastating and traumatic, you've got to do something dramatic to jump-start the healing process," Mr. Compass said.
The notion of a vacation in the midst of disaster struck some as unusual. But officials likened it to an R&R break for combat troops. Military reinforcements, who arrived in the thousands over the weekend, will take over the search and rescue work temporarily, though New Orleans officials said they would remain in charge.
Unusual? I'll say.
Earlier this week the Times-Picayune reported:
Law enforcement efforts to contain the emergency left by Katrina slipped into chaos in parts of New Orleans Tuesday with some police officers and firefighters joining looters in picking stores clean.
At the Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, an initial effort to hand out provisions to stranded citizens quickly disintegrated into mass looting. Authorities at the scene said bedlam erupted after the giveaway was announced over the radio.
While many people carried out food and essential supplies, others cleared out jewelry racks and carted out computers, TVs and appliances on handtrucks.
Some officers joined in taking whatever they could, including one New Orleans cop who loaded a shopping cart with a compact computer and a 27-inch flat screen television.
Officers claimed there was nothing they could do to contain the anarchy, saying their radio communications have broken down and they had no direction from commanders.
“We don’t have enough cops to stop it,” an officer said. “A mass riot would break out if you tried.”...“The police got all the best stuff. They’re crookeder than us,” one man said...
One veteran officer said, “It’s like this everywhere in the city. This tiny number of cops can’t do anything about this. It’s wide open.”...
Inside the store, one woman was stocking up on make-up. She said she took comfort in watching police load up their own carts.
“It must be legal,” she said. “The police are here taking stuff, too.”...
It certainly sounds like Wal-Mart made a little more than the donations they announced for relief efforts last week.
I am not suggesting at all that the entire NO police department is negligent or worse. At least some significant portion of the officers there have been doing incredible good work in dire circumstances. They should be lauded for doing their job.
But there's enough evidence to suggest that there is something seriously wrong with the infrastructure of New Orleans law enforcement. Perhaps Mayor Nagin could enlighten us?
By the way - Do you remember the tax expense paid vacation that the surviving NY police, fire, and other first-responsers had in Las Vegas during the aftermath of 9/11 after losing hundreds of their brothers and sisters to the terrorist attacks?
Me neither.
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Astute, you are.
Posted by: Diana at Sep 5, 2005 2:06:41 PM
Yup. Did you read Bill Whittle's take?
http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html
>^..^<Posted by: JLB at Sep 5, 2005 7:12:43 PM
It undoubtedly takes a special kind of person, unselfish and emotionally strong, to deal with death day in and day out. The fact that these 200 or so people are/were police officers doesn't mean that they are automatically in this catagory. Before we judge these 200 we have to take into acount the whole picture.
1. They to live/lived in the area and are directly effected with the same loss as the local populace.
2. Just because they are police doesn't mean they are endowed with food and water. Survival is still basic human instinct. (this doesn't dismiss stealing TVs and other worldly possesions)
3. Again it takes a special person to stick it out on the job with family missing, and no hope in site.
4. The smell and threat of disease alone would take balls of steal to go back into the water time and time again.
5. We continuously evolve our ways of thinking. Hindsite is 20/20. Some one should have done a r&r package for the workers at the trade towers. The fact that it is being thought of now shows we are learning what it takes to deal with PTSD.My point isn't to stand up for those that quit or went corrupt. It's to point out that it is so easy to stand outside and judge others on the assumption of what you yourself would have done having been placed in the same situations. But the truth is you aren't in the same situation that the police in New Orleans are in. Remember for them there is little to no hope in sight. Morale has been demolished and from talking to fellow Marines that are there the Anarchy is much more wild than the news is reporting. There city has been destroyed, familys seperated or killed, their way of life, possesions, everything they knew as life itself has been destroyed.
On the other side of the debate I want to commend those that stayed to help preserve whatever law and order possiable. These heroes have excepted death as a friend and return with the knowledge that they will in the end make a difference. God bless America.
EMCEE: Point well taken James. Coming from you it means a lot. I don't know what they had to deal with. I just have the expectation that first-responders deal. Just think of what you did in the face of the enemy. And I'm all for R&R too - just not while there is water standing downtown. I'm certainly with you on commending the terrific heroes that are supporting the relief effort.Posted by: HM2 James Pell at Sep 7, 2005 11:05:37 AM
Well the workers that have been working from the begining are about to get a huge break. Massive amounts of Marines and Sailors leave tonight to make camp in NO. Anarchy is now a fad.
EMCEE: Nothing better than US armed forces to fix that fad my friend.Posted by: HM2 James Pell at Sep 7, 2005 1:39:29 PM
That is suposed to read Anarchy is now a fad.
EMCEE: OK, fixed it James.Posted by: HM2 James Pell at Sep 7, 2005 1:43:03 PM
James Pell - Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class - American hero with stories to tell about Iraq, Kosovo, and Bosnia.
Emcee - "Don't encourage him!" Jeff Goldstein
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