[IMC-Boston-Editorial] New Feature Proposed: Cops and Troops Attack Survivors of Katrina

[Pete Stidman]

uh, 
yeah.  

I definitely agree, it would be newsworthy if these
were eyewitness accounts that really showed that
troops were just shooting the people they should be
saving but really the kind of language used here isn't
really called for without that.

That said I wish we were getting more solidly backed
criticisms of the rescue efforts because I think there
really is a ton to criticize.  The whole thing is more
than a natural disaster, it's like a view into
everything that's wrong with this country. 

Inequality, institutional racism, misspending, the
distraction of Iraq when were not finished bringing
democracy and freedom to people at home, and on and
on.  

I look around as I ride my bike to work each day this
week, through dorchester and Roxbury to JP, and I
think, if anything like that were to happen here it
would be the same thing.

Yet we should not be spending more on disaster
preparedness (although we could allocate what we do
spend better), it would be much more direct and maybe
even easier just to eliminate poverty.  The problem
is, no one with money really wants to do that.

-Pete

--- Matthew Williams <mw21 at mindspring.com> wrote:

> I don't know about you all, but this doesn't seem
> worth centering to 
> me. It just seems like a sensationalist,
> black-and-white interpretation 
> of what's going on. While there are important
> political aspects to the 
> disaster, Gould's writing isn't nuanced enough to
> capture them. And the 
> plug for socialism at the end seems decontextualized
> and disrespectful. 
> -- Matt
> 
> On Sep 2, 2005, at 4:01 PM, Alex Gould wrote:
> 
> > [As events unfold over this weekend, my
> observations and analysis are
> > being borne out. The government is committing a
> monstrous crime of
> > genocide against the black people of New Orleans
> -- Alex Gould,
> > Pawtucket, RI]
> >
> > As New Orleans Drowns and Rots
> > Cops and Troops Attack Survivors of Katrina
> > Bosses' Property Rights Supercede Rescue Efforts
> > by Alex Gould
> >
> >
>
http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/41066/index.php
> >
> > Politicians from Bush to New Orleans Mayor Ray
> Nagin offered no
> > transportation or housing when they ordered the
> population of New
> > Orleans, Gulfport, Biloxi, and the Delta to
> evacuate. The hundreds of
> > thousands of stranded, homeless survivors struggle
> for life's barest
> > necessities in the toxic floodwaters of New
> Orleans and the near-total
> > destruction of the Mississippi gulf coast. The
> dead are only beginning
> > to be counted, and are being left on the roads and
> in the rubble to rot
> > for the time being. Lacking electricity, food,
> clean water, medical
> > care, and communication with the outside world,
> hours are the
> > difference between life and death for the majority
> black working class
> > population of New Orleans, especially the elderly,
> the ill, and young
> > children.
> >
> > But former cable TV executive Ray Nagin on
> Wednesday, August 31 ordered
> > 1,500 of his police to stop their rescue efforts
> and control "looting".
> > Shotguns drawn and backed up by National Guard
> troops, the capitalist
> > state has turned against the desperate survivors
> of Hurricane Katrina
> > to protect its number one concern: the private
> property of business
> > owners. Oilman Bush has declared "zero tolerance"
> for "looters". While
> > he also mentioned gas price gouging, the
> executives at Exxon Mobil
> > needen't fear national guardsmen at their doors
> with shoot-to-kill
> > orders. ...
> >
> > ********************************
> > Workers and Oppressed Peoples of the World Unite!
> > http://www.workers.org/
> > US Out of Iraq Now!
> > http://www.iacenter.org/
> > ********************************
> >
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> >
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