Okay, I went back a page in this thread and re-read a number of posts by Billy.

Quote:
Maybe Springer should ask "if this happened in Idaho, would armed gangs be looting, murdering, raping, and attacking search and rescue teams?" Face it, this anarchy wouldn't happen in a 'red' county, and Orleans parish looks to be solidly 'blue':
...
My point about red and blue is that the 'have-nots' are usually very reliant on the state, which is a staple of the 'blue' side.



I don't know. I personally think the same chaos would have happened in any hot (temperature), densely populated USA city that was left without food, water, power, and policing for as long as NO was after the hurricane. But we won't know until it happens elsewhere.

Quote:
Politicians and officials should be blamed for late action or inadequate planning, but you can't blame them for the anarchy in NO that has hampered the rescue. You can't help people who refuse to help themselves.


That last remark is inflammatory. I feel that the vast majority of folks who were still in NO at the time of that remark were good people who simply wanted to be helped out of a very bad situation. A number of them might be not so good people, but still in need of assistance. They weren't hampering the rescue, and would aid themselves as much as they could.

The violent people with guns were/are far fewer, and are the ones in the way of the rescue operations (even today). It was a bad and tasteless generalization to lump them together with the others.

-ml