This report, from a sociology section list, was passed along to me from a professor friend at U.C. in La Jolla. She got it from Phil Olson, of Univ of Missouri-Kansas City. Phil's an urban
sociologist of long-standing and former Head of Sociology at UMKC and President of the
Midwest Sociology Society. You've probably been reading and listening to lots of outrage about the Bush Regime's failures-- and Laura claiming that the criticism is "disgusting"-- but this first hand accounts by participants sounds a lot more compelling than the "reality show" playing out on CNN. As Karl Rove, Barbara and Laura Bush, Scotty McClennan and their allies in Congress and in the corporate media are in the highest spin mode possible, it's worth taking a look at this unspun report from on-the-scene witnesses and then to think about how "looting" is defined by Bush and his corporate allies, who are already licking their chops over the profits to be made. I've also included a Media Matters report on how right-wingers seek to redefine corporate price gouging as "not looting" and as something good and healthy.
The story about the guests at hotels in the French Quarter who ordered
buses only to have them commandeered by local law enforcement and who were
then turned out on the streets by the hotel owners was reported on the
national news during the week. The two people who wrote this were
apparently among that group. The urbanicide of New Orleans continues and the US now has some 250-500,00 DP's who are being scattered all over the country, perhaps many more who
have gone on their own and now are finding themselves running out of
resources and seeking refuge from family and friends. Is the New Orleans
story the Pompeii of the US -- only worse because Nature caused less
suffering than political, economic and social forces in a society
corrupted from top to bottom?
(This first hand report from New Orleans last week was received today from
a friend; it is so powerful and honest I think the members of this
listserv will want to know this. Phil Olson)
Sept 5, 2005
Fwd by Phil Gasper:
Two friends of mine--paramedics attending a conference--were trapped in
New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. This is their eyewitness report. PG
Hurricane Katrina -- Our Experiences
by Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky
Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Walgreen's store
at the corner of Royal and Iberville streets remained locked. The dairy
display case was clearly visible through the widows. It was now 48 hours
without electricity, running water, plumbing. The milk, yogurt, and
cheeses were beginning to spoil in the 90-degree heat. The owners and
managers had locked up the food, water, pampers, and prescriptions and
fled the City. Outside Walgreen's windows, residents and tourists grew
increasingly thirsty and hungry.
The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the
windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an alternative.
The cops could have broken one small window and distributed the nuts,
fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic manner. But
they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and mouse, temporarily
chasing away the looters.
We were finally airlifted out of New Orleans two days ago and arrived home
yesterday (Saturday). We have yet to see any of the TV coverage or look at
a newspaper. We are willing to guess that there were no video images or
front-page pictures of European or affluent white tourists looting the
Walgreen's in the French Quarter.
We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of
the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the
"victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed,
were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the
working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a fork lift
to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and
kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick
extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we
had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took
over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually
forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive.
Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators.
Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue
their neighbors clinging to their roofs in flood waters. Mechanics who
helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the
City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens
improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded. Most of these
workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from members of their
families, yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20%
of New Orleans that was not under water.
On Day 2, there were approximately 500 of us left in the hotels in the
French Quarter. We were a mix of foreign tourists, conference attendees
like ourselves, and locals who had checked into hotels for safety and
shelter from Katrina. Some of us had cell phone contact with family and
friends outside of New Orleans. We were repeatedly told that all sorts of
resources including the National Guard and scores of buses were pouring in
to the City. The buses and the other resources must have been invisible
because none of us had seen them.
We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up
with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City. Those who
did not have the requisite $45.00 for a ticket were subsidized by those
who did have extra money. We waited for 48 hours for the buses, spending
the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water, food, and
clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the sick, elderly
and new born babies. We waited late into the night for the "imminent"
arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later learned that the
minute the arrived at the City limits, they were commandeered by the
military.
By day 4 our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was
dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street
crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out and
locked their doors, telling us that the "officials" told us to report to
the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered the center of
the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The Guards told us we
would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City's primary shelter had
descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told
us that the City's only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also
descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing
anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, "If we can't go to the only 2
shelters in the City, what was our alternative?" The guards told us that
that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us.
This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and
hostile "law enforcement".
We walked to the police command center at Harrah's on Canal Street and
were told the same thing, that we were on our own, and no they did not
have water to give us. We now numbered several hundred. We held a mass
meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the police
command post. We would be plainly visible to the media and would
constitute a highly visible embarrassment to the City officials. The
police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in
and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the
street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk
to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge
where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City. The crowd
cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the
commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information
and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned
to the crowd and stated emphatically, "I swear to you that the buses are
there."
We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with great
excitement and hope. As we marched past the convention center, many locals
saw our determined and optimistic group and asked where we were headed. We
told them about the great news. Families immediately grabbed their few
belongings and quickly our numbers doubled and then doubled again. Babies
in strollers now joined us, people using crutches, elderly clasping
walkers and others people in wheelchairs. We marched the 2-3 miles to the
freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It now began to pour down
rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm.
As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across
the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began
firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in
various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us
inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation.
We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the
commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses
waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.
We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there
was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West
Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes
in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you
are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New
Orleans.
Our small group retreated back down Highway 90 to seek shelter from the
rain under an overpass. We debated our options and in the end decided to
build an encampment in the middle of the Ponchartrain Expressway on the
center divide, between the O'Keefe and Tchoupitoulas exits. We reasoned we
would be visible to everyone, we would have some security being on an
elevated freeway and we could wait and watch for the arrival of the yet to
be seen buses.
All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same
trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned
away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no, others to be
verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented
and prohibited from self-evacuating the City on foot.
Meanwhile, the only two City shelters sank further into squalor and
disrepair. The only way across the bridge was by vehicle. We saw workers
stealing trucks, buses, moving vans, semi-trucks and any car that could
be hotwired. All were packed with people trying to escape the misery New
Orleans had become.
Our little encampment began to blossom. Someone stole a water delivery
truck and brought it up to us. Let's hear it for looting! A mile or so
down the freeway, an army truck lost a couple of pallets of C-rations on a
tight turn. We ferried the food back to our camp in shopping carts. Now
secure with the two necessities, food and water; cooperation, community,
and creativity flowered. We organized a clean up and hung garbage bags
from the rebar poles. We made beds from wood pallets and cardboard. We
designated a storm drain as the bathroom and the kids built an elaborate
enclosure for privacy out of plastic, broken umbrellas, and other scraps.
We even organized a food recycling system where individuals could swap out
parts of C-rations (applesauce for babies and candies for kids!).
This was a process we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of Katrina. When
individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for
yourself only. You had to do whatever it took to find water for your kids
or food for your parents. When these basic needs were met, people began to
look out for each other, working together and constructing a community.
If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in
the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the ugliness
would not have set in. Flush with the necessities, we offered food and
water to passing families and individuals. Many decided to stay and join
us. Our encampment grew to 80 or 90 people. From a woman with a battery
powered radio we learned that the media was talking about us. Up in full
view on the freeway, every relief and news organizations saw us on their
way into the City. Officials were being asked what they were going to do
about all those families living up on the freeway? The officials responded
they were going to take care of us. Some of us got a sinking feeling.
"Taking care of us" had an ominous tone to it.
Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was
correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out
of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the
fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades
to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up
his truck with our food and water. Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced
off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when
we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every
congregation of "victims" they saw "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in
numbers. Our "we must stay together" was impossible because the agencies
would force us into small atomized groups.
In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered
once again. Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought
refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on Cilo Street. We
were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we
were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew
and shoot-to-kill policies.
The next days, our group of 8 walked most of the day, made contact with
New Orleans Fire Department and were eventually airlifted out by an urban
search and rescue team. We were dropped off near the airport and managed
to catch a ride with the National Guard. The two young guardsmen
apologized for the limited response of the Louisiana guards. They
explained that a large section of their unit was in Iraq and that meant
they were shorthanded and were unable to complete all the tasks they were
assigned.
We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. The
airport had become another Superdome. We 8 were caught in a press of
humanity as flights were delayed for several hours while George Bush
landed briefly at the airport for a photo op. After being evacuated on a
coast guard cargo plane, we arrived in San Antonio, Texas.
There the humiliation and dehumanization of the official relief effort
continued. We were placed on buses and driven to a large field where we
were forced to sit for hours and hours. Some of the buses did not have
air-conditioners. In the dark, hundreds if us were forced to share two
filthy overflowing porta-potties. Those who managed to make it out with
any possessions (often a few belongings in tattered plastic bags) we were
subjected to two different dog-sniffing searches.
Most of us had not eaten all day because our C-rations had been
confiscated at the airport because the rations set off the metal
detectors. Yet, no food had been provided to the men, women, children,
elderly, disabled as they sat for hours waiting to be "medically screened"
to make sure we were not carrying any communicable diseases.
This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt
reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker
give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street
offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome. Throughout, the
official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist. There was more
suffering than need be. Lives were lost that did not need to be lost.
And a story about a different kind of looting-- the kind of looting the Bush Family is all
about and the kind of looting the Bush Regime epitomizes. Media Matters posted this story
today. It's worth reading and worth thinking about in relation to the story above.
RIGHT WINGERS COME TO THE DEFENSE OF CORPORATE PRICE GOUGING
In his September 7 syndicated column, ABC News 20/20 co-anchor John Stossel defended price gougers, writing that by charging $20 for a bottle of water to a person whose baby needed it to live, "the price gouger makes sure his water goes to those who really need it." Stossel added: "It was the price gouger's 'exploitation' that saved your child." He justified this claim because price gougers -- people and companies that charge exorbitant prices for scarce and necessary resources (such as water or oil) -- "save lives" because they dependably provide those necessary goods or services to those who need them, motivated by their own self-interest to make money.
A September 7 Wall Street Journal editorial, titled "In Praise of 'Gouging,'" also defended high oil prices and criticized anti-gouging laws.
From Stossel's September 7 column:
"Consider this scenario: You are thirsty -- worried that your baby is going to become dehydrated. You find a store that's open, and the storeowner thinks it's immoral to take advantage of your distress, so he won't charge you a dime more than he charged last week. But you can't buy water from him. It's sold out. You continue on your quest, and finally find that dreaded monster, the price gouger. He offers a bottle of water that cost $1 last week at an 'outrageous' price -- say $20. You pay it to survive the disaster. You resent the price gouger. But if he hadn't demanded $20, he'd have been out of water. It was the price gouger's 'exploitation' that saved your child. It saved her because people look out for their own interests. Before you got to the water seller, other people did. At $1 a bottle, they stocked up. At $20 a bottle, they bought more cautiously. By charging $20, the price gouger makes sure his water goes to those who really need it. The people the softheaded politicians think are cruelest are doing the most to help. Assuming the demand for bottled water was going to go up, they bought a lot of it, planning to resell it at a steep profit. If they hadn't done that, that water would not have been available for the people who need it the most... It's the price 'gougers' who bring the water, ship the gasoline, fix the roof, and rebuild the cities. The price 'gougers' save lives."
And there you have it-- the George Bush Republican economic plans for how America ought to be run.
