Day 6: Mogadishu On The River
Four days have now passed since Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans and the surrounding areas, yet with the exception of the relative high rise of flood waters coming from breaks in the 17th Street Canal and the Industrial Canal, which has caused water in downtown to rise to 3 to 4 feet, the real threat to the citizenry are the human predators that have turned one of America's most fascinating cities into New Mogadishu.
While famed reporter A.J. Liebling like to compare Louisiana politics to that of 1960's Lebanon, what is transpiring at this very moment in New Orleans is savagery one would need to travel to third-world countries to see.
Charity Hospital, the primary trauma hospital in New Orleans, has been fired upon by snipers. Coast Guard rescue helicopters have also been shot at, as have boats deployed to save the stranded now going on their 5th day without clean water or food. A relief truck was intercepted by armed gunmen on the West Bank. Women have been raped at the New Orleans Convention Center by their fellow evacuees.
These terrible acts of violence are only hampering rescue efforts as more people die by the minute from the elements, disease, and dehydration.
I would wager that present-day Baghdad is a safer city than New Orleans is at the present time.
The delay in putting New Orleans under martial law has taken a toll. Wild looters who have already completely pillaged every place of commerce within sight are now locking their feasting eyes towards abandoned private residences. No doubt the more desperate ranks of the hellish banditti currently plaguing the city will have few reservations in invading occupied homes, leading to further bloodshed.
My question to Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco is this: how the hell could you not see this coming?
New Orleans has one of the highest crime rates in the nation. A recent spate of murders led the mayor into politically murky waters by suggesting a new tax to finance a more aggressive fight against criminals just prior to Katrina's arrival.
Did the mayor really think the criminal element, their twisted minds clouded in many cases with drugs, would all of a sudden reform themselves and lend a hand?
Is Governor Blanco so lacking in foresight and vision that it never occured to her that looting on a wide-scale was going to be a problem.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour never left any doubt that looters would be dealt with severely before the worst of Katrina hit the Magnolia State's fragile coastline, announcing to the world that such vermin would be dealt with ruthlessly.
Governor Blanco's after-the-fact tough-talk has not been heeded because the state and city have yet to truly take the gloves off.
What did we hear from the local leadership? Chasing looters would not be a priority they announced to the world, the equivalent of waving a Green Flag to thugs to begin stealing at will. Because they failed to recognize reality and anticipate the obvious, chaos has spread across the New Orleans area.
The city and state government should immediately cede control of New Orleans to military authorities so they can use all means at their disposal to establish law and order.
Shoot to kill orders must be promulgated and carried out. Fear alone is the only means to communicate to these human vultures that looters will pay a dire price for their activities. Once word gets out that looters have been fired on, through the same media outlets that unwittingly broadcast the ok to let the pillaging begin, the situation will become more tenable and more lives will be saved from the waters and the gun-toting vermin running the streets.
Instead of allowing people to loiter around the Superdome, they should be forced on to buses and driven to an area where the potential for a riot would be easily quelled. Anyone found walking the streets should be sent to a location to be sent off as well. The city needs to become a ghost town ASAP so those who are barely clinging on to their lives can avoid becoming ghosts themselves.
The National Guard must be allowed to step in where the state and city political leadership have failed. Good intentions and harsh words have done nothing to stem the violence as the parts of New Orleans that have not been consumed by the waters of Lake Pontchatrain slip into a Mogadishu-like abyss.
==================================================================
Mike Bayham is a former St. Bernard Parish Councilman and can be contacted at mikebayham@yahoo.com.
While famed reporter A.J. Liebling like to compare Louisiana politics to that of 1960's Lebanon, what is transpiring at this very moment in New Orleans is savagery one would need to travel to third-world countries to see.
Charity Hospital, the primary trauma hospital in New Orleans, has been fired upon by snipers. Coast Guard rescue helicopters have also been shot at, as have boats deployed to save the stranded now going on their 5th day without clean water or food. A relief truck was intercepted by armed gunmen on the West Bank. Women have been raped at the New Orleans Convention Center by their fellow evacuees.
These terrible acts of violence are only hampering rescue efforts as more people die by the minute from the elements, disease, and dehydration.
I would wager that present-day Baghdad is a safer city than New Orleans is at the present time.
The delay in putting New Orleans under martial law has taken a toll. Wild looters who have already completely pillaged every place of commerce within sight are now locking their feasting eyes towards abandoned private residences. No doubt the more desperate ranks of the hellish banditti currently plaguing the city will have few reservations in invading occupied homes, leading to further bloodshed.
My question to Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco is this: how the hell could you not see this coming?
New Orleans has one of the highest crime rates in the nation. A recent spate of murders led the mayor into politically murky waters by suggesting a new tax to finance a more aggressive fight against criminals just prior to Katrina's arrival.
Did the mayor really think the criminal element, their twisted minds clouded in many cases with drugs, would all of a sudden reform themselves and lend a hand?
Is Governor Blanco so lacking in foresight and vision that it never occured to her that looting on a wide-scale was going to be a problem.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour never left any doubt that looters would be dealt with severely before the worst of Katrina hit the Magnolia State's fragile coastline, announcing to the world that such vermin would be dealt with ruthlessly.
Governor Blanco's after-the-fact tough-talk has not been heeded because the state and city have yet to truly take the gloves off.
What did we hear from the local leadership? Chasing looters would not be a priority they announced to the world, the equivalent of waving a Green Flag to thugs to begin stealing at will. Because they failed to recognize reality and anticipate the obvious, chaos has spread across the New Orleans area.
The city and state government should immediately cede control of New Orleans to military authorities so they can use all means at their disposal to establish law and order.
Shoot to kill orders must be promulgated and carried out. Fear alone is the only means to communicate to these human vultures that looters will pay a dire price for their activities. Once word gets out that looters have been fired on, through the same media outlets that unwittingly broadcast the ok to let the pillaging begin, the situation will become more tenable and more lives will be saved from the waters and the gun-toting vermin running the streets.
Instead of allowing people to loiter around the Superdome, they should be forced on to buses and driven to an area where the potential for a riot would be easily quelled. Anyone found walking the streets should be sent to a location to be sent off as well. The city needs to become a ghost town ASAP so those who are barely clinging on to their lives can avoid becoming ghosts themselves.
The National Guard must be allowed to step in where the state and city political leadership have failed. Good intentions and harsh words have done nothing to stem the violence as the parts of New Orleans that have not been consumed by the waters of Lake Pontchatrain slip into a Mogadishu-like abyss.
==================================================================
Mike Bayham is a former St. Bernard Parish Councilman and can be contacted at mikebayham@yahoo.com.
posted by BourbonConservative at 5:02 PM
2 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Mostly I can see what you are saying (although I watched TV coverage of looting in Biloxi a couple of nights ago, so it doesn't sound like Barbour's proclamation did much good either).
I would like to add something though. This is four years after 9/11. What the heck has been done with those billions of Homeland Security dollars that we were supposed to have spent developing emergency response procedures to a citywide catastrophe? Four years since 9/11. Or do the Feds only come out if it is a terrorist attack? What if this had, in fact, been a nuclear weapon? (it may as well have been, from the effects)
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