Three Good Pieces On the Blame Game

The LLMSM will (as it already has) call this a "blame-shifting and smearing coordinated by the White House."

But it's not really coordinated, guys. It's just what we think. Kind of like how you guys were able to peddle the "Bush was slow and out-of-touch on Katrina line due to either incompetence or racism" line, all repeating it simultaneously. You didn't have to "coordinate" anything; you're 90% preening liberals. It just came naturally.

Anyway:

Geraghty:

I would also note that this is one hell of a police force your local officials hired and that you and your neighbors tolerated. 50 percent turned in their badges during the crisis and quit. Your police superintendent is conceding that some cops were looting. Just want to refresh your memory — four years ago, New York and Washington, planes falling out of the sky, thousands dead, no idea what the hell is coming next… and the cops, among others, showed up to work.

To save you guys now, I — and a lot of other Americans — will pitch in. We are witnessing the biggest mobilization of civilian and military rescue and relief crews in history. But I have a sneaking suspicion you’re going to want the rest of us to pay for the rebuilding of your city. (In the near future, we’re going to have to have a little chat about the wisdom of building below sea level, directly next to large bodies of water.) And if you’re going to come to the rest of us hat in hand, demanding the rest of us clean up after your poor judgment, I’d appreciate a little less “you failed us” and a little more “we’ve learned our lesson.”

Goldberg:

For the first day or two of this horrible story, the media held off talking about the now holy duality of “race and class.” A few writers, most notably Jack Shafer of Slate, thought the silence was a bit odd and raised some interesting questions about media coverage. Suddenly, within 24 hours the press couldn’t get enough of the subject. Cable-news anchors were demanding to know “what it says about America” that those left behind in New Orleans were disproportionately poor and black.

That newscasters were suddenly shocked by this development is a bit odd. Under what scenario, one might ask, were they expecting the Superdome to fill disproportionately with rich white folks while the poor watched from safety and comfort?

Michael Goodwin:

Start with crime. That looters ran unchecked after the hurricane isn't surprising when you consider that criminals have had the run of the city for years.

It is a perennial contender for Murder Capital. The 264 homicides last year were a drop of only 11 from 2003 - and the first decline in five years.

New Orleans, with fewer than 500,000 people, had almost half the murders of New York, which had 570 homicides last year in a city of more than 8 million. Put another way, if New York had New Orleans' murder rate, we would have more than 4,200 murders a year.

That the New Orleans police are hardly the Finest was proven by a shocking report yesterday: Nearly a third of New Orleans cops - some 500 of the 1,600 - are now unaccounted for. The department says some quit, but it doesn't know where most of them are.

The top cop, Eddie Compass, has responded by offering all officers paid vacations to Las Vegas and Atlanta. Yes, that's right - he is pulling all cops off the street, even while bodies lie in the open. Never in New York.

A commenter wondered how many of those missing cops were actually "missing" as opposed to "fictitious." In a city as corrupt as New Orleans, you have to wonder how many of these "missing cops" were actually phantom hires with the paychecks being deposited in some ward-heeler's account.