Blackwashing the issue of crime in New Orleans

If I read one more column or hear one more opinion from a socialist with a skewed perspective of the anarchy and looting in New Orleans I'll bust. If they aren't making a point that everything we saw on television never occurred in the first place, they're claiming that any looting was a result of economic status and/or race and the only thing standing between a looter and the throes of death by starvation and dehydration.

My own aunt, my conservative leaning aunt-in-law herself is starting to believe the socialist marlarkey of these columnists and talking heads, saying she herself would loot for food and water!

What every single one of these folk -- my aunt included -- fail to realize is the argument of the storeowner and the employees of that store. Until they do, they're walking solely in the shoes of the looters with the perspective of a leftist scribe, barring from their thought processes every other perspective.

One fellow commented to me that he would loot a store of food and water to protect his wife and daughter from starvation and dehydration. He probably thought it's a noble belief with him as the protector. It isn't.

I replied to him with a list of questions to consider:

You say you would break into a store for your wife or daughter and steal food and water.

How thirsty or hungry would your wife and daughter have to be to force you into this criminal behavior? Would this have occurred because you cared for your wife and daughter or because you failed to heed the warnings and prepare an emergency kit of food, water and medicine?

Does your failure to prepare give you the right to break the law and steal someone's livelihood? How would you know the storeowner had insurance or enough money to cover the loss or make the repairs? They may have sunk every nickel they had into the store only to have someone like you take everything they had in life and destroy it.

What if the storeowner was there? Would you assault him to take the food or water if you had no money? Would you have paid for it? I've yet to hear of anyone returning to a store in New Orleans to pay the owners for the food or water or medicine lifted and I doubt I will.

Assume I haven't eaten for three days ... does that give me a right to steal your wallet to buy food? Or break into your house while you, the wife and daughter are at the movies and take food, and then something I might trade later on for food?

If you want to put yourself in the shoes of the looters, you'd better also put yourself in the shoes of the storeowners and the employees of the stores who, even if the store survived the floods, may not have a store to come back to because of the looting.

BTW, assuming the looters had absolutely no canned foods in the cupboard whatsoever, on average it would take an adult as long as 30 days to starve to death or 10 days or more to enter into a coma from absolute lack of hydration. So no adult was on the brink of death when the looting began. The straits weren't dire.

That last bit of information, as anyone who regularly reads this blog would know, is from an Associated Press report describing how Terri Schindler Schiavo would die.

I'm not a cold-hearted sonuvabitch. Nor am I without sin. If a locked door stood between the life and death of an innocent, I could find mitigation. But that locked door didn't. And if I could break through a locked door, I guarantee you I could find a way out of the city and get some help, food, water and medicine. People had time to leave the city; and those who didn't leave the city had time to prepare. People of all races took advantage of the situation and, unfortunately, because a greater percentage of the people living in New Orleans are black, the preponderance of those committing the crimes was black.

The big difference is that whites are not trying to use race as some kind of defense for criminal behavior.

I was reading the drivel from columnists claiming that leaving poor blacks to fend for themselves in anarchy in New Orleans was some kind of grandiose racist scheme and the result of a failure of the Bush administration. Now I'm reading the drivel from columnists claiming that the reporting of the anarchy -- anarchy that now allegedly never occurred -- is some kind of racist plot to demean blacks.

First and foremost, the information about the rapes and murders came from the residents themselves. The local tv news program ran video 24/7 that included interviews with storm survivors. I watched as one black woman -- a respected figure in the New Orleans community -- recounted to Roman Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes about the bodies of all the dead babies she saw floating and about the roving gangbangers carrying guns and raping women.

I saw interviews with black men and women who claimed they waited at the convention center and personally witnessed the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl. In the background of the video was an ATM that had been cracked and the cash looted.

I saw video interviews from one New Orleans police station the station members had named "Fort Apache" with a handmade sign. The Lieutenant and Sergeant told about being fired at by snipers from windows in the city projects.

Eddie Compass, the resigned black Chief of Police of New Orleans, told Oprah about the violence at the Convention Center and Superdome, a charge repeated numerous times by black mayor C. Ray Nagin.

I also watched the Montel Williams show as Montel interviewed black storm survivors who claimed to a national audience they also had witnessed rapes and murders, as well as super large rats gnawing on the bodies of corpses.

The blame at that time was placed on President Bush and the racist rich whites who left the poor black families there to die at the hands of lawless bangers with guns.

Now, columnists and editorialists are claiming these events never occurred, that it was some kind of conspiracy by whites and the media to portray the poor blacks as animalistic and thugs.

So ... the question is, are black people to be believed in a crisis or are they not? Are whites racist if they believe them or are they not?

That looting was widespread should not and cannot be denied. I witnessed many looted stores myself, stores that carried no food or water but items of pawn value. Persons of every race carried out the looting.

These columns ignore the fact that New Orleans was home to a large criminal element. This criminal element was tolerated by corrupt local politicians. And many local citizens turned a blind eye to the crime in this cesspool on the Mississippi with the denial "it's not my job to get involved."

The unfortunate fact is that this criminal element is comprised chiefly of African-Americans. The city's police force, 250 of which who didn't show up in a disaster, is comprised chiefly of African-Americans. The leadership of New Orleans is comprised chiefly of African-Americans.

So who gets the blame? Whites. As usual. Whites are not responsible for the poverty of the blacks in New Orleans, where most of the employers are African-Americans paying minimum wage and no benefits for unskilled burger flipping or hotel/bar service jobs to African-Americans who -- despite grants, loans, scholarship, assistance from every source and affirmative action -- still fail to study, fail to do their homework and eventually drop out of school. Gangbanging is accepted in the culture as cool. It's the shortest distance to riches, not the long, hard road of education and sacrifice.

I'm sorry these intellectual elites are turning a blind eye to actual events, but facts are facts. Entertainer Bill Cosby told African-Americans that, as a cultural group, they needed to clean up their act, provide leadership and teach their children to toe the line instead of playing the race card as some kind of excuse. They have failed to do that.

Given a choice to move on, many hard-working, moral African-Americans are making the decision to NOT return to New Orleans because they know the attitude of denial pervasive in that city and they don't wish to be associated with it. It's not the attitude of the whites they fear; it's the complacent attitude of politicians who do nothing to solve the crime problem that plagues the city, a problem primarily of black-on-black crime.

National black leaders are no better. Defending the crimes of a criminal by saying he's black or Hispanic or white or Asian or poor is racist and discriminatory. Saying a criminal is a criminal because he made a choice to become a criminal is not. Race and economic status are no excuse for criminal behavior.

This means that anyone playing the race or economic status card as a defense for criminal behavior is guilty of racism. In my opinion Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan are racists who, by playing the race and economic status card, believe that African-Americans can't help committing crimes because they are black and/or poor. The stand they take demeans the advances made by African-Americans everywhere and contributes to stereotyping. But it keeps them in the racial excuse business, doesn't it? And that leads to contributions.

I can understand why many black columnists and editorialists have taken the position they have. They're embarrassed by the actions of African-Americans in New Orleans. If I were a 50 year old African-American, I would be embarrassed as well. You study hard, get a good job, go to church, serve your country in the military, become active in your community and in your child's activities ... and the next thing you know, African-Americans are looting guns from Wal-Mart, booze from Winn-Dixie and oxycontin from Walgreens. And there goes the rep you've tried so hard to build for yourself ... but only if you equate race with crime, which is racist.

The easiest way to explain away the actions of the looters and the criminal element of this festering city is to chalk it up to rumor, deny it ever existed, and claim that what everyone saw on television was -- in fact -- something they didn't watch. That's the position of the politicians and the heads of the Chamber of Commerce who want to see tourism in Louisiana again. Or, like black leaders seeking donations, chalk it up as a result of institutional racism. They won't say that the African-American culture has failed to make these criminal youth responsible for their own action.

African-Americans have as much as a public relations problem now as the entire state of Louisiana. Whether they blackwash the problems with the wide swath of the race card or SOLVE the problems is yet to be determined.

History says the problems will be blamed on whites and blackwashed as some kind of historical racist incident. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and Louis "Crazy Lou" Farrakhan will earn a few more million in speaking fees and Bill Cosby will continue to be derided as some kind of whacked-out turncoat spokesman for the whites.

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GEE, OFFICER KRUPKE

ACTION
Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

ACTION AND JETS
Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!

ACTION
There is good!

ALL
There is good, there is good,
There is untapped good!
Like inside, the worst of us is good!

SNOWBOY: (Spoken) That's a touchin' good story.

ACTION: (Spoken) Lemme tell it to the world!

SNOWBOY: Just tell it to the judge.

ACTION
Dear kindly Judge, your Honor,
My parents treat me rough.
With all their marijuana,
They won't give me a puff.
They didn't wanna have me,
But somehow I was had.
Leapin' lizards! That's why I'm so bad!

DIESEL: (As Judge) Right!

Officer Krupke, you're really a square;
This boy don't need a judge, he needs an analyst's care!
It's just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
He's psychologic'ly disturbed!

ACTION
I'm disturbed!

JETS
We're disturbed, we're disturbed,
We're the most disturbed,
Like we're psychologic'ly disturbed.

DIESEL: (Spoken, as Judge) In the opinion on this court, this child is depraved on account he ain't had a normal home.

ACTION: (Spoken) Hey, I'm depraved on account I'm deprived.

DIESEL: So take him to a headshrinker.

ACTION (Sings)
My father is a bastard,
My ma's an S.O.B.
My grandpa's always plastered,
My grandma pushes tea.
My sister wears a mustache,
My brother wears a dress.
Goodness gracious, that's why I'm a mess!

A-RAB: (As Psychiatrist) Yes!
Officer Krupke, you're really a slob.
This boy don't need a doctor, just a good honest job.
Society's played him a terrible trick,
And sociologic'ly he's sick!

ACTION
I am sick!

ALL
We are sick, we are sick,
We are sick, sick, sick,
Like we're sociologically sick!

A-RAB: In my opinion, this child don't need to have his head shrunk at all. Juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease!

ACTION: Hey, I got a social disease!

A-RAB: So take him to a social worker!

ACTION
Dear kindly social worker,
They say go earn a buck.
Like be a soda jerker,
Which means like be a schumck.
It's not I'm anti-social,
I'm only anti-work.
Gloryosky! That's why I'm a jerk!

BABY JOHN: (As Female Social Worker)
Eek!
Officer Krupke, you've done it again.
This boy don't need a job, he needs a year in the pen.
It ain't just a question of misunderstood;
Deep down inside him, he's no good!

ACTION
I'm no good!

ALL
We're no good, we're no good!
We're no earthly good,
Like the best of us is no damn good!

DIESEL (As Judge)
The trouble is he's crazy.

A-RAB (As Psychiatrist)
The trouble is he drinks.

BABY JOHN (As Female Social Worker)
The trouble is he's lazy.

DIESEL
The trouble is he stinks.

A-RAB
The trouble is he's growing.

BABY JOHN
The trouble is he's grown.

ALL
Krupke, we got troubles of our own!

Gee, Officer Krupke,
We're down on our knees,
'Cause no one wants a fellow with a social disease.
Gee, Officer Krupke,
What are we to do?
Gee, Officer Krupke,
Krup you!

Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
© 1956, 1957 Amberson Holdings LLC and Stephen Sondheim. Copyright renewed.
Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company LLC, Publisher.

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard.