Reply #23: the false stories were the ones that didn't sound even remotely plausible to begin with... [View All]

[NorthernSpy]

I remember some insanity about people at the convention center supposedly running amok and raping babies, and murdering children, and stuffing their bodies in a big freezer. Some little shit in the National Guard got his name in the papers telling one such lie (Mikel Brooks), and the reporter didn't insist on seeing the bodies. Turns out, Brooks hadn't seen the bodies either, because there weren't any murdered children. It was a rumor, and the press reported it as fact.

Early on, there was that supposed "attack" on Children's Hospital that the hospital's own director informed the media it was pure invention: no such event had occurred. Then, in response to questions about rescue aircraft supposedly coming under fire, the FAA said that they had received no reports of any such thing. But even these prompt official debunkings didn't stop the flood of slanderous false news about survivors attacking hospitals and trying to shoot down their rescuers.

I'll never forgive that.


There was looting in New Orleans, and no one has said otherwise. What outrages me is that the ransacking of a friggin WalMart quickly displaced the 1,420 people who died in the flood as the main story. At least, the prospect of a relative handful of people making off with stolen TVs seemed to be what really got the fires of indignation burning for many.

For contrast's sake, the WTC site also suffered some looting during the recovery operation, at a time when access to the site was strictly controlled. The basement gold vault of Scotia bank showed evidence of an attempted break in. But this has NEVER been allowed to overshadow the courage and selflessness of the rescuers, or the human suffering and tragedy of the thousands who died there, or the moral significance of any of those people's lives.

Once the blacks were evacuated, the press seemed to lose their interest in the Katrina looting. Figures, because that's when we started seeing a new batch of opportunists (white this time) coming in from outlying areas and getting arrested when they tried to leave with pickup trucks loaded with other people's things. And then the (white) police chief of dinky little Mermentau, LA got caught stealing expensive sunglasses from a French Quarter shop...