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August 21, 2006
When the Mayhem Settles Truth Begins to Surface
Have you ever noticed that Bush gets beaten to death in the height of hysteria, but when the dust settles, is usually vindicated?
We now have more on the utter incompetence of the local officials in New Orleans from Spike Lee's latest documentary:
The New Orleans police chief during Hurricane Katrina, Eddie Compass, says he unnecessarily "heightened people's fears" by repeating unconfirmed reports of out-of-control crime in the city during the aftermath of the storm, adding to the confusion caused by the disaster and potentially hampering rescue efforts.
"There were reports of rapes and children being raped. And I even got one report … that my daughter was raped," Mr. Compass says in the Spike Lee documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," scheduled to air on HBO tonight.
Mr. Compass resigned from his post as New Orleans police superintendent in September 2005.
"In hindsight, I guess I heightened people's fears by me being the superintendent of police, reporting these things that were reported to me," Mr. Compass said of the unverified accounts of crime and disorder in flooded New Orleans that he repeated to the press and on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
"But there was really no way for me to check definitively. So instead I erred on the side of caution. I didn't want people to think we were trying to cover anything up. So I repeated these things without being substantiated, and it caused a lot of problems," he said.
Officials and local commentators have long suggested that the false reports of rampant crime following the hurricane were a reason for the slowness of rescue efforts. With recovery teams and humanitarian aid groups frightened to enter the city, many storm survivors were left stranded on roofs without food and water, in makeshift rafts, and in filthy conditions at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
What upsets me most is that leftists always believe the worst about black people. They actually believed that going 48 - 72 hours without food that people started to EAT each other.
Yes, I saw some people looting Walmart for Xbox and such, but mostly, we just saw people who were tired and frustrated.
Posted by Aaron at August 21, 2006 07:38 AM
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