Jun 20 2006
Read!
One has to wonder whether right-wing shock-blogger Michelle Malkin actually reads the news articles to which she links or if she just glances at the headlines and then flies off into one of her infamous rages.
Today, she linked to this article from ABC News…
National Guard Called In to Fight Big Easy Crime Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has pledged to dispatch the National Guard and state police to the beleaguered city.
The move answers a plea from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the City Council for help in protecting city streets.
“The situation is urgent, and we will accelerate our plans to deploy law enforcement to the city tomorrow,” the governor said Monday afternoon. “Having more law enforcement patrolling the streets is a direct deterrent to the criminal element. Criminals are not welcome in New Orleans or anywhere else in this state.”
The utilization of the additional forces comes after a recent spate of violent killings in New Orleans.
Outrage over the deaths of five teenagers in the early hours of Saturday morning was obvious among the city’s top politicians…
The police department’s Superintendent Warren Riley said that the amplified resources would help protect the city this summer as the population swelled. The city expects an influx of people returning home to New Orleans now that the school year is over and some assistance vouchers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have expired.
The New Orleans Police Department is operating with limited officers and is straining to patrol large swaths of the city’s unpopulated areas where homes are still being picked through by looters.
The police force is functioning at about 85 percent of its pre-Katrina strength. Almost 100 officers were terminated for abandoning their posts or other misconduct during and after the storm, and several others received honorable discharges.
The National Guard presence will largely patrol the unpopulated neighborhoods that were the most heavily damaged. The state police will help manage the French Quarter where large crowds still gather on the weekends…
With the additional help covering specific regions, the police department hopes to focus its efforts on the escalating turf war as criminals and drugs return to the city after evacuating in August. Last weekend five teens were gunned down in a sport utility vehicle, and a man was stabbed to death in an separate incident.
Emphasis added.
Ms. Malkin’s reaction to this news…
I’m fascinated by the goings-on in Mayor Ray Nagin’s Chocolate City. The National Guard has descended on the violence-plagued city at Nagin’s request and with Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s blessing…
What I find interesting is the total silence of civil liberties Chicken Littles who would be screaming “police state!” if Nagin were white and he and Blanco were Republicans sending convoys of armed military police officers into any other city in the country.
Just saying.
“If Nagin were white and he and Blanco were Republicans… the civil liberties Chicken Littles would be screaming.”
You see, it really has nothing to do with the fact that Mayor Nagin is black or that he and Governor Blanco are both Democrats… it’s the civil liberties Chicken Littles. It’s not about protecting a city that was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina last fall and most of which is still lying in ruins. It’s about racism and political partisanship.
Pretty sad, Michelle.
Where is your rage over the National Guard being called to help out with the flooding in Houston, where the mayor (Bill White) is a white Democrat and the governor (Rick Perry) is Republican?
Just saying.
P.S. Just a short word about comments… I don’t mind if you comment here and disagree with me. However, when you start calling me names and telling me how stupid I am… well, you’re in my house. Don’t expect that your comment will not be deleted. (Your two comments are gone, “B.P.”)
Kind of a conundrum, isn’t it? I don’t know how else you could possibly defend what Michelle did here other than call me names and call me stupid. There is no other defense.
11 Responses to “Read!”
What I find is fascinating is that Nagin and Blanco refused to send in Natioanl Guardsman durinbg Hurricane Katrina disaster and yet the Mayor and the Police can’t handle the violence in the City and they immediately get the Guardsman into the city except for the French Quarter where it might adversely effect tourism.
Read the ABC News article, Scott. Don’t argue just for the sake of argument.
Mayor Nagin and the City Council requested the assistance. The governor agreed.
You have a city that is in ruins, the police operating short-handed, violence and looting running rampant. The leaders of the city ask for help, and suddenly it becomes a political and racial issue.
Governor Blanco did not refuse to send in the Guard during Hurricane Katrina. Do not attempt, at this point, to rewrite history. She declared a state of emergency on August 28 — two days before the hurricane hit New Orleans.
Read the article. The Guard is helping out in the outlying areas of the city and the State Police are helping out in the French Quarter. Think about it for one moment. Your city is in ruins. Your city’s main source (and, at this time, probably only) source of income is tourism. Are you gonna want to park National Guard Humvees in the middle of your main tourist attraction?
Didn’t think so.
Len, if anybody actually read your leftwing nonsense, I’d be happy to respond to your foolishness. From the looks of things though, I’d just be wasting my time… or maybe you already deleted all the namecallers. On the other hand, they could all be busy researching the ABC archives as you suggest and just haven’t had time to post here. Now that Dan Rather’s been dumped by CBS (after 44 years) that’s where I go when I’m looking for objective reporting.
Jim, I am sorry that you feel what I write is leftwing nonsense and foolishness. I don’t, of course. Especially in this case. I found it sickening that anybody would equate the city officials of New Orleans asking for law enforcement assistance with racism and political partisanship.
Racism and political partisanship are mostly to blame for that city being in the condition it is now in. I’d hoped we would be able to somehow move past it. Seems we can’t. Shame.
Hey Len, “Left-wing nonsense” from those who read “Right-wing nonsense”? I guess were all a bunch of “wing-nuts”!!! The Right-wing is still a little (or a lot) bitter over the Black, Democrat Mayor from the Chocolate city getting re-elected. It was spun pretty hard to make the black, Democrat Mayor from the Chocolate city to be the most idiotic mayor of all the land but the “will of the people” saw through the Right-wing spin to the truth. Maybe the “will of the people” can see through the White Republican Mayor from Texas who had more people die from the evacuation than from Hurricane Rita itself? Duh…..
Len,
The big problem is you write so very little and repost other works so very much. LOL I am sorry, you already know that since this is your blog.
It is political partisanship and it is down right insulting that the Guardsman weren’t immediately sent in during Katrina and yet this situation which should be handled by the police force warrants senting in the Guard, what gives? BTW, I am not arguing for the heck of arguing, even though that is quite enjoyable sometimes, I just thought it was quite interesting that you seem to be picking this topic to post and not mention the fact that the Guard wasn’t sent in during Katrina and yet you were one of the peoiple trying to put most of the blame on FEMA and Bush for the lack of response during Katrina.
[Scott - please provide me with a link to your blog so I can see how this is supposed to be done.]
There is flooding in Houston so Perry sends the TXNG to help out. Gee, isn’t that what the NG is supposed to do? Help out during times of flooding, tornados, hurricanes?
And if you would bother to read Blanco’s request to the Federal Goverment prior to Katrina you would have found that she wanted the Louisiana National Guard that was deployed in Iraq sent back to help with Katrina. Guess she didn’t know that only 30% of her guard was in Iraq and maybe she just didn’t want to use the other 70% (or since she couldn’t find any supplies to send to the Super Dome, maybe she couldn’t find her remaining Guard, either. Guess she found them).
The NOPD is now up to 80% of what it was before the hurricane but gee, the population is down to 50%. And the NOPD still can’t get a handle on the crime in the city. 56 murders in New Orleans just this year alone and 2/3rds of those have been since April. Gang related says the Police Cheif. Where was he last year? Hiding under his desk? NO has had a gang problem for years and no one did a damn thing to stop it. Oh, that’s right. This is the same police force that is so corrupt that the Feds threatened to take them over due to the pay offs, murders, et al committed by the NOPD. And what happened to the investigation of the NOPD over the fact that checks had been cut for salaries of police officers THAT DID NOT EXIST?
Blanco and Nagin want the government to throw billions of dollars (taxpayer dollars, that is) to a city that is out of control. If Nagin can’t handle his city, if his police chief can’t handle the crime, they both need to hand in their resignations.
But then, maybe Perry sent his TXNG to Houston to handle the criminal trash from New Orleans that Texas took in during Katrina. God knows the murder rate in Houston has gone up since they got there.
And no matter how much you disagree, Malkin is right. If it had been a city with a “white” or “Repubican” mayor, the poverty pimps like Jackson and Sharpton would have been out in full force crying social injustice because the city had been “militarized”.
[Comment deleted. Not germane to discussion at hand.]
Retire05,
She had 6000 Guardsman waiting on standby and never sent them in, so you are sadly mistaken. She didn’t request any assistance until well after the suffering was already underway.
Len,
I pretty am sure you already know what I am saying when I said you rarely post much of your own words along with reposts of stories you have found while trolling the Internet. This entry happens to be one of the few that I have seen that actually has numerous words of your own.
As to #9… sorry, Scott, it is you who are mistaken this time.
As to #10… I respectfully disagree. I think if you’ll read back in this blog, you’ll find that I post quite a few of my own words.