Amid rising chaos, fear spreads in rural Louisiana (fear evacuees)

[2Design]

This is an incredible story
what is the demographics of baton rouge?
Oh I just saw in the article - zachary is 2/3 white -

They say they fear the evacuees - this is unbelievable

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/weather/orl-canejim0305sep03,0,7132010.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

<snip>
The area is housing tens of thousands of evacuees, and its patience is running thin. Roads and stores are packed and parts of the city's downtown are filled with people living in shelters.

Their presence has unnerved some of the locals. One woman told me her boyfriend, a state worker, was warned by managers to stay in his office because the evacuees posed a threat.

Back in Zachary, Chief Watson says his office has been inundated with calls from people asking about events that never happened or things that contained only a kernel of truth.

"Every business in town has called," he said, "and half of them have my cell-phone number. They're all scared."

One day-care center called parents earlier this week asking them to come pick up their children early because the staff worried it couldn't guarantee the kids' safety.

A local bank locked its doors during regular business hours, selecting whom was allowed in. I found the same thing at the Dollar General store, where employees have been instructed to allow only a certain number of people in at any one time.

Cathy Avery runs the Tobacco Shop on Main Street in Zachary, a town that's two-thirds white. She says she has noticed "young black fellows casing the mini-mall." Avery keeps a pistol under the counter and says her father has taken to wearing his gun.

Avery is also sleeping in her shop. I ask her if that's because she has no power or because she's worried about her store.

<snip>

[XanaDUer]

1. Oh fer chrissakes...

They should use the usual diligence anyone would to stay safe, but I think they are listening too much to Faux News...

[MisterP]

9. or G. Gordon Liddy

all the gun talk is just a facade for living in self-induced fear for the past four decades: I'm familiar with this ridiculous Red Dawn mentality, since I'm in "the OC" triangulated between the Minutemen HQ to the west and the neo-Nazi and Klan HQs to the east, with big-l right-Libertarians in the middle proudly flaunting their insecurities. The only NRA that did anyone any good was struck down by the Supreme Court in the 30s.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. NIMBY?

:grr:

[applegrove]

3. See! Bush vacuum created a storm. Now he has money back in the

"fear bank" (9/11 wasn't issuing fear dividends anymore).

[Karenina]

4. "NIGGERS RUNNIN' WILD AND LOOSE IN THE STREETS!"

This "meme" has been a part of the collective consciousness for DECADES.

[wellstone_democrat]

5. that's why they've bee locked in ---this isn't a mystery

The locked them in buildings and used potential rescue personnel to guard the roads out for days for this reason---I'm in west Texas and I hear people worrying more about "them getting out!" than anything.

Of course, this isn't *racist* oh, no! Its because they are "desperate"----well that's what the speakers claim if you don't shut 'em down fast.

[Mythsaje]

6. If they're desperate

it's because the govt. MADE THEM THAT WAY.

Help them out and send them on their way to their current destination.

It's not rocket science, folks.

[mom cat]

7. white racists' fears run deep and the media has been throwing fuel on the

fire.

[growlypants]

8. White people are complete punks. We really are. Its shameful

[growlypants]

10. "young black fellows casing the mini-mall." The probably WALKED BY their

dumb, hick town mall.

[markus]

11. CNN, etc. must be stopped

I wish I had a giant fucking gun to take out their sattelites.

They are spreading fear and chaos. If our government were in the control of sane people, they would be taken off the air.

this is so fucking irresponsible.

[Catherine Vincent]

12. Paranoid idiots.

[demgurl]

13. Like these folks have not been through enough!

They make it through the hurricane. They survive not having food or water and now they have to put up with dumb fucks? They are truly being tested!

FOLKS, put down your guards. Your fellow man has been through more than anyone should go through in five life times. Give them food and shelter. Give them comfort. Reach out and perhaps the good you have done will see it's way back to you.

I can not believe I live in this country.

demgurl

[2Design]

15. nice way of putting this - and I wonder how they call themselves

christians

[StellaBlue]

14. Southerners feared slave revolts

because the revolts would have been JUSTIFIED and righteous in their rage.

The collective conscious of the South, and, really, by extension, especially after the poor, black diaspora made that emerged from Reconstruction, has deep-seated, and probably really fairly RATIONAL fears of this meme of "WILD BLACK FOLKS ON THE LOOSE" that everyone here keeps referring to.

The hicks are scared because they know the poor, black community has a righteous anger. Therefore, they are powerful. More powerful than if they were just plain ole looters and thugs.

Plus, in a LOT of places in the South, blacks outnumber whites significantly. These people realize that they may be outnumbered, or, from their perspective, swamped, by blacks.

And even more enlightened people who are not racist will sense the undercurrent of fear and restlessness, and also may fear the unknown.

The South has ALWAYS been in fear of a great uprising of the black underclass.

I, personally, after reading 'A People's History of the United States' by Howard Zinn, have become really fascinated by slave revolts, many of which occured very, very early in our nation's history. This has also made me interested in other revolts, such as the case of women in New England who refused to cooperate with the crazy Puritans and poor and working class women who refused to marry, despite the constant threat and reality of prosecution for having multiple children out-of-wedlock. Very interesting. Would love to hear recommendations for what are the best books on these topics. Perhaps I should start a thread re: this in the books section....

[pretzel4gore]

16. pigmedia= class warfare ideologues of white supremacy

that's the problem.
many years ago, time magazine, a supposedly 'liberal' new york establishment magazine with national distribution and (top level influence) was caught darkening oj simpson's eyes on their cover....few people today even know of this, though time magazine apparently apologised for their 'exhuberance' nothing really changed....during the bush sr/dukakis prez race back in those days ('88) someone did a show about network news coverage of the democratic convention. Several of the Dem delegates were from states with large black populations, thus the delegates were black BUT, they were only a tiny minority of the entire convention, which was overwhelmingly white....the program showed the archived 'live' feeds from the convention floor, and guess who the networks zoomed in on? whites from alaska? NOPE! asians from california? NOPE! Whites from idaho? NOPE! blacks from Mississippi? YESSIRREEBOB! you said it! The networks had several cameras on the floor, but the main feed concentrated on the black delegation (the producers zoomed back from the actual footage to show what was really there, a small black group withing a sea of whites!
Of course, Bush won the election. later on, clinton had to 'out repuke' bush in order to win in '92 and '96 (and remember the undying hatred of the gopigs despite what clinton did for them? remember?) all that fukking around with the psyche of the american people has put a genuinely dangerous man in power, and the losses are fukking STAGGERING!
the pigmedia needs to be rounded up, tried and executed by the citizenry..starting with fox'news' and cnn

[SoCalDemocrat]

17. Superdome is turning away evacuee's as well

Initially were gonna take in like 25K. Now they stopped at 4K and are turning the rest back. They don't want those poor blacks in their communities.

[NYC]

18. Do you mean the Astrodome in Houston?

There's a huge difference between 25,000 and 4,000. Quite a change of heart they had.