Tuesday, September 06, 2005

 

Another report of rescue officials abusing survivors

As I have mentioned, at least some of the troops who were sent to New Orleans seem to have believed they were being sent on "combat operations" against "the insurgency." Now reports are surfacing to confirm that there was abuse of survivors, in this case by police officers, not troops. This from the BBC. Read it and weep: Ged Scott, 36, of Liverpool, told BBC News that hotel staff and guests had received no help from the authorities. Police officers had taken "souvenir" photographs of stranded people begging for help, he added. .."I could not describe how bad the authorities were - taking photographs of us as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own personal photo albums, little snapshot photographs." ...He said at one point a group of girls was standing on the roof of the hotel lobby and called to passing rescuers for help. "They [the authorities] said to them 'well show us what you've got' - doing signs for them to lift their t-shirts up. The girls said no, and they said 'well fine', and motored off down the road in their motorboat. If that happened as described, those police officers deserve to be prosecuted.
Comments:
And perhaps not so coincidentally,Britons are saying:

The Red Cross is appealing for people overseas to contribute money to its Hurricane Katrina Appeal. But why does the world's richest nation need handouts?

Some typical comments:

I will not be giving to this appeal. The United States is the richest country in the history of the modern world. They should be diverting their wealth into domestic social care programs not into imposing their economic will on the rest of the world. Maybe this will be the wake up call that the people of the US need.
Alan, Herefordshire


They don't need our aid. If they don't put their full backing to G8, how should they expect us to help? Although, we should help our 'across the pond' cousins need our help in this crisis. We would do the same...maybe they will give more generously next time.
Tyron, Kent


Yes, some Britons say they will give and be glad to do so. But one doesn't really want one's most loyal ally to have these attitudes.
 
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