'A scene of anarchy'

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/scene.blog/

Editor's Note: CNN correspondents report back on what they are seeing in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Chaos at the convention center

Posted: 10:02 a.m. ET
CNN's Jim Spellman in New Orleans, Louisiana

I don't think I really have the vocabulary for this situation.

We just heard a couple of gunshots go off. There's a building smoldering a block away. People are picking through whatever is left in the stores right now. They are walking the streets because they have nowhere else to go.

Right now, I'm a few blocks away from the New Orleans Convention Center area. We drove through there earlier, and it was unbelievable. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people spent the night sleeping on the street, on the sidewalk, on the median.

The Convention Center is a place that people were told to go to because it would be safe. In fact, it is a scene of anarchy.

There is absolutely nobody in control. There is no National Guard, no police, no information to be had.

[High Plains]

1. No, a scene of chaos and abandonment

What is needed now is some real anarchy, by which I mean self-organization, radical democracy. These people are being abandoned and need to take matters into their own hands because no one is coming for them.

Anarchy? No, what we are seeing in New Orleans is a capititalist society coming apart at the seams. Every man for himself--isn't that the definition of capitalism?

I pray the abandoned residents of New Orleans work together for the common good, for their own survival. FEMA has abandoned them. Where are the police? Where are the supplies? Where are the buses?

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? The hurricane was a natural disaster; what is happening now is an unnatural one.

[LostinVA]

4. I've lived through some hurricanes and this never happened

Why? because THE NG?FEMA/HELP WAS THERE ASAP (even beforehand)! Order was restored IMMEDIATELY. There was no violence or wholesale looting. It was isolated. And people didn't have to forage for food and water and medicine -- they were taken care of so fast. Anarchy didn't happen because it was prevented from getting started.

I blame MOST of this on having most of the NG gone from the Southeast, on the Coast Guard and it's equipment being in Iraq, instead of here like they should be, of FEMA's budget being slashed and their equipment gone.

Jesus! Bring in soldiers from germany, the UK, the Philippines, Hawaii! They can at least rescue and feed people.

This is like Somalia during Black Hawk Down. My citizens DYING from lack of food and water? WTF???

Fuck you, *, and your robber baron Administration. Just fuck you.

[donheld]

2. America at its worst

They've left these people to survive or perish on their own. These people are acting exactly as one would expect people who are trapped and abandoned to act. I can't help but believe there is quite a bit of racism/class-ism at work here. This will go down in history as one of the worst acts of mankind ever. And the world is watching.

[truthisfreedom]

3. no planning. no FEMA. no lessons learned from 9-11. bush on vacation.

and he stayed on vacation and did nothing, just so he could see this carnage... it's what those bushes love. they love the carnage. guns going off in a scene of utter desperation... guns, guns, guns, blood, death, carnage, starvation, crying babies, filth, feces, horror, horror, horror. bushco is in heaven right now. we've got a taste of Iraq right here at home, and no plan to fix it.

[Vox_Reason]

5. But morCons are outraged by the black looters

A fine opportunity to come out of the closet and be the loud and vicious racists they truly are.

[OzarkDem]

6. Where is the National Guard?

Its become very obvious that the Bush administration is lying about the number of troops that have been made available for this disaster. Not surprising really, they lie about everything else.

[soda]

7. "Where is the National Guard?"

there in Iraq keeping the oil out of the hands of the Iraqis,i mean out of the hands of the terrorists. I´m not from america, but it seems to me the national guard is for defending the nation not for defending the oil?

[Massachusetts]

8. Hello McFly....

""Where is the National Guard?""

Also bagging Iraqi sand to send back for the levee plug project.

[Supersedeas]

9. when will the corporate media wake up to the lack of leadership...WHEN?

[DrZeeLit]

10. Fleeting thought: Bin Laden must love watching this.

We haven't really learned any lessons from 9/11.

This chaos shows that we don't have any "homeland security" at all.

Amazing revelations.

[rocktivity]

11. It's nice having reporters "on the ground"

But when they leave, they should take at least one person with them.

:headbang:
rocknation

[David__77]

12. This wouldn't happen even in Iraq.

That is because the Iraqi people have some discipline and political consciousness. The organizations of the people helped maintain people's security when the state disintegrated in 2003, and they still do.

[Just Me]

13. How is this possible? In this incredibly wealthy and resourceful country,

,...how can this be happening? :cry:

[defiant1]

14. This is absolutely sickening....

:puke:

Fucking Bush.

:puke: