Rescue "ticket"

Posted: 6:24 p.m. ET
CNN's Drew Griffin in New Orleans, Louisiana

I am stunned by an interview I conducted with New Orleans Detective Lawrence Dupree. He told me they were trying to rescue people with a helicopter and the people were so poor they were afraid it would cost too much to get a ride and they had no money for a "ticket." Dupree was shaken telling us the story. He just couldn't believe these people were afraid they'd be charged for a rescue.

Via Atrios.

Comments

[NBarnes]

It's bloody expensive to be poor in the US. Banks, ambulances, the goddamn check cashing services (who are going STRAIGHT to Hell to BURN FOREVER), telephone companies....

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

It sure is. That story really struck me because the belief was so plausible for these survivors. The people concerned about the cost of rescue tickets are part of the reality-based community--unlike, say http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_09_04_atrios_archive.html#112596381619694000>Barbara Bush who said of the residents of the Astrodome:

"Almost everyone I’ve talked to wants to move to Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed with the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (she chuckled)--this is working very well for them."

[Flint]

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (she chuckled)--this is working very well for them."

Lets see how much that goofy bitch laughs when they start pulling the thousands of dead out of buildings and the rage begins to break out.

"Let them eat cake" eh Laura?

[Auguste]

Condi, Babs, the Bush twins partying while Iraq burns - Marie Antoinette had nothing on the women of the Bush Administration.

Or the men, for that matter.

[Mathias]

Its not surprising since the poor are discouraged to seek medical attention for the very same reason.

In the 90s I worked for a large company as a low wage warehouse worker. Since it would cost the company money everytime an ambulance was called for a worker - workers werent allowed to call 911 on their own. First security would come down assess the situation then call 911. One time a worker fell 30ft to the floor and the company triued firing workers who called 911 before calling security then security tried turning the ambulance away.

Its amazing what is happening in poor and working class communities

[Herbert Browne]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned much is the level of brutality and corruption of the NO police. The reality check may have been the badges tha were turned in (and cops leaving service), rather than continue to 'police' the flooded city. With the power structure crumbling, and a bit of a leveling in relative physical advantage, there was not a lot of desire to be a cop, I imagine... even one in a position to "help". In this light, the responses of the poor to attempted rescue is simply a reflection of their experience and 'street wisdom' vis-å-vis relations with city cops. ^..^

[Zed Pobre]

In some cases, people *were* charged for rescues, albeit not by government rescuers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202677_pf.html

[GaijinBiker]

So what is the answer here? Give away more stuff for free so poor people don't expect to be charged for it all the time?

[NBarnes]

So what is the answer here? Give away more stuff for free so poor people don't expect to be charged for it all the time?

There's little that can be done for someone so small in soul and petty in spirit that reads these stories and responds like this. You and Ayn Rand deserve each other.

[GaijinBiker]

I didn't know we were having a contest to see who can wear his heart most visibly on his sleeve.

I can respond emotionally, yet still wonder what can actually be done to change the situation.

[cluttergirl]

"So what is the answer here? Give away more stuff for free so poor people don't expect to be charged for it all the time?"

Um, that is what we do in Canada. Give away ambulance rides and emergency room care. It's even free to have a baby in the hospital. For rich and middle class AND poor people! wow! Interestingly it is probably cheaper to fix a bone for free than to deal with people losing their jobs (and legs) when their leg needs to be amputated for untreated fractures. And it is probably also cheaper to evacuate living people for free than to pay to collect, identify and deal with decomposing corpses floating around later. But some places don't seem to get that.

I find it really interesting that one never asks this about giving free things to rich people. "Sign up now and get three months free limosine" "no fees for approved Gold Professional Plus Business Credit cards" "free louis vitton whatever with purchase of a mink stole" etc etc etc. It seems indeed that the more you can afford to pay, the more they want you to get used to getting something for free.

Thanks for the "scared of being charged" info. I am astonished over and over and over by the inhumanity of services in the US of A.

[Flint]

"I didn't know we were having a contest to see who can wear his heart most visibly on his sleeve.

I can respond emotionally, yet still wonder what can actually be done to change the situation."

That doesn't sound like a serious suggestion on how to change anything. What it does sound like is a snark from a sociopathic troll.

[GaijinBiker]

Going a little extreme there, aren't we, Flint?

You're right, I didn't suggest a solution to the problem of poor people who don't know that rescue helicopters are free. (Of course, neither did anyone else.)

Maybe public service announcements? I don't know.

[GaijinBiker]

I find it really interesting that one never asks this about giving free things to rich people.

Nothing is free, of course. Those incentives, as I suspect you well know, are designed to lead to further non-free business with those rich people in the future.

[GaijinBiker]

By the way, just to show you that I'm not deliberately trying to be contrarian, I think Barbara Bush's comment was disgusting.

[R. Mildred]

Weren't you told cluttergirl? the poor earned their poverty and the rich earned their richs.

Sure in reality, both are born into their class and society as a whole is geared towards making sure that as little class mobility as possible exists (both to protect the rich from being forced to slum it with only a few high performance sports cars and two mansions, and to stop the Neuvou rich from spoiling the dinner parties).

And okay, only the rich have ever had any real say in the laws and legal make up of america but there's the American Dream doncha know! This is a Land Of Opportunity(tm), a land where everyone who doesn't fit into a particular class, gender and has more than a certain level of melatonin in the skin is Free(c) to live a life of legal slavery in our Great Democarcy(tm).

And it's the only sensible way to run a coutry really. Think about it for a second, if the poor and the black had free access to medicine and doctoring, why they'd be able to live without the various disease and syndrome their badly paid work gives them from crippling them and their children financially, even being able to spend the money they now pay on medical insurance on getting further education or ensuring their children get further educated. And it's the same with properly funding public education, imagine if poor people had the same access to schooling as the rich, they might be able to eventually become middle class and have luxury time they could use to become politically active and help their friends who might not have climbed the ladder yet.

And a society where the people who live on the bottom of the heap, the ones who clean the toilets and serve the meals, can actually be represented will lead to rich business men being forced to shoot puppies live on their national TV stations in protest for having several hundred of their millions of dollars in wealth and property going towards the upkeep of roads or the maintanence of non-private hospitals.

Why do you hate puppies so much cluttergirl, what have they ever done to you?

[wkmaier]

I just heard about a facility here in New Jersey that is going to take in 100 families - busing them up, getting them in apartments, getting jobs for the adults, and immunizations for the children.

[Flint]

"Going a little extreme there, aren't we, Flint?"

No

[random, various]

George Carlin once asked us to bring to mind how clueless the average American is--then, he suggested we remind ourselves that half of the people in this country are even more clueless than that. I would like to thank GaijinBiker for clarifying for everyone precisely where on this dividing line he falls (hint--south of the border). Yet more verification that in order to be on the right these days, you have to be either clueless or heartless--or in the case of the president, an unhealthy dose of both.

Of course, we should all feel better knowing that Jeb Bush is willing to do his part to help the victims of NOLA. While his mother was out reminding the world yesterday just how morally bankrupt the whole Bush family is, Jeb was attending the FSU-Miami footbal game last night. During an interview at half time, he informed us--in an overly self-congratulatory tone (he would have given himself a fucking high-five if he could)--that he actually stopped to put $20 in one of the Red Cross buckets before the game. I am sure the unlucky soul holding the bucket wanted to throw up in it shortly thereafter.

[Pepper]

$20 motherstepping dollars? Did he say that? Where did you see that? Is there video somewhere?

I'm not doubting you at all - I just can't believe anyone could be so tacky. Then again, it is the Bush family, so anything is possible.

[Artfan]

Keith Olbermann of MSNBC gets it right.

http://media.putfile.com/OlbermannSwings/320

[michael Schmidt]

I've had several on-the-job accidents. On one of them, the Health & Safety guy said, don't worry, I'll take care of the paperwork. Three years later I was getting certified letters from a collection agency. So when I had some hernia-related gut wrenching cramps and someone called 911 and the ambulance came, I was worried, too...who do I talk to to make sure the paperwork gets done? Don't want my hernia to ruin my credit rating, y'know.

[Flint]

Well...

This stuff is just getting beyond belief in orders of magnitude now.

It looks like the government has selected its fall guy, which is Browne of course.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050907/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/katrina_disaster_response

(excerpt)
FEMA Chief Waited Until After Storm Hit

By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago

The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region — and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims."

I'm sure that the Busheviks want us to believe that it was all his fault... but hey those guys in uniform say the darnedest things! Here is a link to a BBC interview with the American General in charge of the Northern Command saying that they were ready to drop 9 million meals and water into Nola and chase the storm out with men, supplies, and the USS Bataan the hospital ship but they never got the command from President Bush.

http://news.globalfreepress.com/movs/katrina/BBC_Katrina.mpg

Of course the Presidents men talk a lot about Posse Comitatus preventing them from entering a state with regular military troops, but that is what Bush did anyway and has regular military on the ground while the Governor did not sign a waiver.

Having a troops is a good thing, waiting for a week to take action that clearly could have been take a week earlier is criminal:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/5/225114/3036

So... Up the revolution!

PS Keith Olberman's editorial on the administration was superb.

[GaijinBiker]

Person who doesn't support massive social welfare and healthcare programs = sociopathic troll

I see.

America is still the land of opportunity for people of all ethnicities, as people of all skin colors prove every day. But opportunity is a chance, not a guarantee.

[Flint]

I don't feed trolls.