[OT] Rant

I'm *SO* ashamed of the city in which I was born, New Orleans. I cringe
every time I hear of another crime committed by a Katrina evacuee here in my
adopted city of Houston.

In one instance a woman here had taken in two evacuees to live with her.
She fed them, bought them clothes, and opened her home to give them a place
to stay. They ransacked her home, stole her car, and bludgeoned her to
death in return for her kindness.

Houston has seen a 70% increase in its murder rate in the last two months,
the rate of drug-related and gang-related crime has sky-rocketed even
higher, and there have been violent riots in high schools here started by
Katrina evacuees - two of them major enough to make national news.

This is from a recent news article about the problem - talking about how,
now that the criminal element (seemingly the largest part of their
citizenry) left New Orleans, crime there is almost non-existent:

===============================

"Since Hurricane Katrina forced most of the residents to relocate, police
say, the daily shootings and killings have stopped.

'This was the most lethal criminal underclass in the United States,' said
Dr. Peter Scharf, director of the University of New Orleans Center for
Society, Law and Justice. 'We were heading for a murder rate of 72 per
100,000. New York City is at seven.'

By some estimates, hardcore criminals in New Orleans numbered in the tens of
thousands, and they're now living in other cities - Baton Rouge, Dallas,
Atlanta, and Houston."

===============================

Our mayor has asked FEMA and the federal government for extra funds to put
more police officers on the streets, but that doesn't seem likely since we
can't even get federal funds to provide school supplies for the huge influx
of students to our school system.

Houston, in its typical generosity and open-heartedness, has dug down into
its own coffers to make up for the short-comings of FEMA and federal funds
in order to provide housing, food, education, and medical care for the tens
of thousands of evacuees from New Orleans . And now, above and beyond all
that, we'll have to find some way to fund police protection from the very
people we're trying to help!

I have said, since before I moved to Houston in 1991, that I hated the
corruption, violence, police on the take and police brutality, racism, and
the general scummy-ness of New Orleans, and everyone I told that to were
surprised that I had such negative things to say of the old "Big Easy" -
after all, it was such a nice party town. People are finding out now
exactly what I was talking about, to their regret!

Now it seems that everything I ran away from almost 15 years ago has
followed me here!!!

end of rant

Hugs,

CatNipped

Careful Cat us white people will be accused of racism to think like that
even though the truth is staring everyone in the face.
"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I'm *SO* ashamed of the city in which I was born, New Orleans. I cringe
every time I hear of another crime committed by a Katrina evacuee here in
my adopted city of Houston.

In one instance a woman here had taken in two evacuees to live with her.
She fed them, bought them clothes, and opened her home to give them a
place to stay. They ransacked her home, stole her car, and bludgeoned her
to death in return for her kindness.

Houston has seen a 70% increase in its murder rate in the last two months,
the rate of drug-related and gang-related crime has sky-rocketed even
higher, and there have been violent riots in high schools here started by
Katrina evacuees - two of them major enough to make national news.

This is from a recent news article about the problem - talking about how,
now that the criminal element (seemingly the largest part of their
citizenry) left New Orleans, crime there is almost non-existent:

===============================

"Since Hurricane Katrina forced most of the residents to relocate, police
say, the daily shootings and killings have stopped.

'This was the most lethal criminal underclass in the United States,' said
Dr. Peter Scharf, director of the University of New Orleans Center for
Society, Law and Justice. 'We were heading for a murder rate of 72 per
100,000. New York City is at seven.'

By some estimates, hardcore criminals in New Orleans numbered in the tens
of thousands, and they're now living in other cities - Baton Rouge,
Dallas, Atlanta, and Houston."

===============================

Our mayor has asked FEMA and the federal government for extra funds to put
more police officers on the streets, but that doesn't seem likely since we
can't even get federal funds to provide school supplies for the huge
influx of students to our school system.

Houston, in its typical generosity and open-heartedness, has dug down into
its own coffers to make up for the short-comings of FEMA and federal funds
in order to provide housing, food, education, and medical care for the
tens of thousands of evacuees from New Orleans . And now, above and
beyond all that, we'll have to find some way to fund police protection
from the very people we're trying to help!

I have said, since before I moved to Houston in 1991, that I hated the
corruption, violence, police on the take and police brutality, racism, and
the general scummy-ness of New Orleans, and everyone I told that to were
surprised that I had such negative things to say of the old "Big Easy" -
after all, it was such a nice party town. People are finding out now
exactly what I was talking about, to their regret!

Now it seems that everything I ran away from almost 15 years ago has
followed me here!!!

end of rant

Hugs,

CatNipped

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I'm *SO* ashamed of the city in which I was born, New Orleans. I cringe
every time I hear of another crime committed by a Katrina evacuee here in
my
adopted city of Houston.


Crime and the criminal mentality often accompanies poverty and hopelessness.

Once something is a habit, you know how hard it is to stop.

New Orleans has a large number of people of color and for some reason
*eyebrows raised* poverty seems to correlate to that. (Remember, I was
born and raised in a city that was then 65 % nonwhite.)

It is a complicated issue.

While there are purely evil people all over and in all socio-economic
groups, you may have heard the saying that "even good, when it is
thirsty, drinks of still waters."

There's no way in hell you or I have endured what some of these people
have endured in the normal course of their lives, pre-hurricane or after.

I am not an apologist--this is just food for thought, my friend.

It is all very sad, that's for sure.

"cybercat" wrote in message
...

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I'm *SO* ashamed of the city in which I was born, New Orleans. I cringe
every time I hear of another crime committed by a Katrina evacuee here in
my
adopted city of Houston.


Crime and the criminal mentality often accompanies poverty and
hopelessness.

Once something is a habit, you know how hard it is to stop.

New Orleans has a large number of people of color and for some reason
*eyebrows raised* poverty seems to correlate to that. (Remember, I was
born and raised in a city that was then 65 % nonwhite.)

It is a complicated issue.

While there are purely evil people all over and in all socio-economic
groups, you may have heard the saying that "even good, when it is
thirsty, drinks of still waters."

There's no way in hell you or I have endured what some of these people
have endured in the normal course of their lives, pre-hurricane or after.

I am not an apologist--this is just food for thought, my friend.

It is all very sad, that's for sure.

Oh, it's not the individuals, of whatever color or economic level, that I am
disgusted with. It's the conditions that caused this that I was decrying.
As I said in my first note, "I hated the corruption, violence, police on the
take and police brutality, racism, and the general scummy-ness of New
Orleans." *THAT'S* what caused the problem. The politics of Louisiana are
a national joke - and *that's* because of the people there with the power to
change this who just haven't ever bothered to change it.

I hate the politicians on the take (who are going to have a field day with
all the recovery money pouring into the city and state). And I hate the
apathy of the voters who allow this to go on. I hate the fact that New
Orleans was unable to take care of its own citizens when disaster struck -
before, during, and after the storm - so they just let other cities take in
their people and they now brag and laugh about how their violent crime rate
has gone down.

It's disgusting.

Hugs,

CatNipped

"CatNipped" wrote

Oh, it's not the individuals, of whatever color or economic level, that I
am
disgusted with. It's the conditions that caused this that I was decrying.
As I said in my first note, "I hated the corruption, violence, police on
the
take and police brutality, racism, and the general scummy-ness of New
Orleans." *THAT'S* what caused the problem.

Sorry, Lori, I must be guilty of speed reading! I missed that.

CatNipped wrote:
I'm *SO* ashamed of the city in which I was born, New Orleans. I cringe
every time I hear of another crime committed by a Katrina evacuee here in my
adopted city of Houston.

Well, it's not just displaced NO citizens commiting crimes--here's a
story almost worse and makes *me* ashamed. Here, they caught a woman
who had been receiving all kinds of aid intended for Katrina victims.
Turns out she was just a fraud applying for post-Katrina aid. She'd
never even been to Louisiana in her life. Now *that's* about crappy.

wrote in message
oups.com...

CatNipped wrote:
I'm *SO* ashamed of the city in which I was born, New Orleans. I cringe
every time I hear of another crime committed by a Katrina evacuee here in
my
adopted city of Houston.

Well, it's not just displaced NO citizens commiting crimes--here's a
story almost worse and makes *me* ashamed. Here, they caught a woman
who had been receiving all kinds of aid intended for Katrina victims.
Turns out she was just a fraud applying for post-Katrina aid. She'd
never even been to Louisiana in her life. Now *that's* about crappy.

Yeah, I agree. There's been a lot of fraudulent claims made. Both sides of
the story make a sad commentary on humanity.

On the other hand, the generosity shown by hundreds of thousands of people
around the world after the tsunami and Katrina has restored a lot of my
faith in humanity. I guess when it comes down to it there will always be
both good and bad people walking about and the best we can hope for is for
the good to outshine the bad.

Hugs,

CatNipped

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
"cybercat" wrote in message
...

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I'm *SO* ashamed of the city in which I was born, New Orleans. I cringe
every time I hear of another crime committed by a Katrina evacuee here
in
my
adopted city of Houston.


Crime and the criminal mentality often accompanies poverty and
hopelessness.

Once something is a habit, you know how hard it is to stop.

New Orleans has a large number of people of color and for some reason
*eyebrows raised* poverty seems to correlate to that. (Remember, I was
born and raised in a city that was then 65 % nonwhite.)

It is a complicated issue.

While there are purely evil people all over and in all socio-economic
groups, you may have heard the saying that "even good, when it is
thirsty, drinks of still waters."

There's no way in hell you or I have endured what some of these people
have endured in the normal course of their lives, pre-hurricane or after.

I am not an apologist--this is just food for thought, my friend.

It is all very sad, that's for sure.

Oh, it's not the individuals, of whatever color or economic level, that I
am disgusted with. It's the conditions that caused this that I was
decrying. As I said in my first note, "I hated the corruption, violence,
police on the take and police brutality, racism, and the general
scummy-ness of New Orleans." *THAT'S* what caused the problem. The
politics of Louisiana are a national joke - and *that's* because of the
people there with the power to change this who just haven't ever bothered
to change it.

I hate the politicians on the take (who are going to have a field day with
all the recovery money pouring into the city and state). And I hate the
apathy of the voters who allow this to go on. I hate the fact that New
Orleans was unable to take care of its own citizens when disaster struck -
before, during, and after the storm - so they just let other cities take
in their people and they now brag and laugh about how their violent crime
rate has gone down.

It's disgusting.

It is.

To put a slightly positive spin on it, the worst element will eventually
gravitate back to Louisiana.

And a lot of fairly decent people who were more or less stuck in NO by their
circumstances will have the once in a lifetime chance to try to make a
better life for themselves and their families somewhere else.

Jo

wrote in message
oups.com...

CatNipped wrote:
I'm *SO* ashamed of the city in which I was born, New Orleans. I cringe
every time I hear of another crime committed by a Katrina evacuee here in
my
adopted city of Houston.

Well, it's not just displaced NO citizens commiting crimes--here's a
story almost worse and makes *me* ashamed. Here, they caught a woman
who had been receiving all kinds of aid intended for Katrina victims.
Turns out she was just a fraud applying for post-Katrina aid. She'd
never even been to Louisiana in her life. Now *that's* about crappy.


That is happening everywhere. There are a lot of safeguards in place to
make sure where anyone applying for aid is really from, so a lot of the
attempted fraud is being short circuited.

Jo

CatNipped wrote:

Our mayor has asked FEMA and the federal government for extra funds to put
more police officers on the streets, but that doesn't seem likely since we
can't even get federal funds to provide school supplies for the huge influx
of students to our school system.

Oh, don't think that just because there's no money for schools, that
means there's no money for law enforcement. It all depends on priorities.
Seems like there's always enough money for prisons (if not police), but
never enough for social changes that would make prison much less necessary.

That's very sad about the woman who offered her home to evacuees and was
killed for it. I'm sure that could have been any of us!

Joyce