Why are some people so inclined to blame the Katrina victims?

Question

I've heard a lot of people blame the Katrina victims for their predicament. WHY?!!! Most of the people whose corpses we saw floating in the water were too poor to be able to afford transportation to get out of New Orleans. Also, I even heard that Amtrak offered to transport people out of there before the storm hit, but the mayor turned them down. Even if some people did have the opportunity to leave, but didn't, let's STILL have some compassion here and not blame them all for their fate!

I'm not excusing the criminal behavior of some of the victims or the refusal of some to find work. However, we really should have more compassion for the people who were, for whatever reason, unable to evacuate.

cladiusneroimperator: Do you think that just because someone is a welfare recipient or a petty criminal that he/she deserves to drown? Perhaps it's appropriate that one of your namesakes should be Nero!

Answer 1

Funny how God blew the people of Kansas off the map last night with Tornado's, and they live right in the middle of tornado ally. You can bet those white conservatives will receive relief funds from FEMA before any of the people of New Orleans will. Read this link from George Bush... Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/53914

Answer 2

So let me see if I get this straight. Amtrak offered to take people out of harm's way and the mayor said no? Why the hell can't anyone see that the mayor is a complete fool? Not only that, if they had the opportunity to leave and didn't, but ended up dead I'm supposed to show compassion? What kind of drugs are you taking, anyway? But I guess everyone is a victim these days. How sad.

Answer 3

I haven't heard anyone blame the victims--from the actual hurricane, not their subsequent behavior in places like Huston who now want to throw the out because of their criminal activities. I DO blame Ray Nagin and other local and state officials who could have evacuated the entire city but chose to save themselves and their friends, basically. Ray and his cronies let hundreds of transit and school buses go underwater, for example, rather than using them to evacuate. Hospitals and nursing homes should have been evacuated long before Katrina it just as a precaution.

I will blame those who chose to go to the Superdome, though, unprepared. Even I heard on CNN the day before that people should evacuate and only go to the Superdome as a LAST RESORT, meaning they had absolutely no other option. If that were the case, they were instructed to go with a week's worth of water, blankets, and food because nothing would be there for them. Are you telling me that more than ten thousand people had absolutely no other option than to go to the Superdome? I don't think so. I even heard some of the victims on a show later explaining that they had heard such warning before and they had come to nothing so they really didn't prepare for Katrina.

So they were given the warnings, they had opportunity to leave--many of them--and they chose to ignore it, expecting the state to supply them with what they would need to stay alive because so many of them are being taken care of on a regular basis by the government. Further, who are we to blame but the victims in the Superdome for not bringing supplies with them when they were told to do so? For urinating all over the place rather than in the bathrooms? For raping and using violence toward others there?

Blanketly excusing them from any culpability in their predicament is why they expected to be cared for by the government when Katrina came because no one expects them to take responsibility for themselves.

Answer 4

Sway_26's answer rocks. The sufferer mentality has been very glaring in New Orleans, i.e., do not anticipate me to do something to make issues proper or safeguard myself...enable vast Daddy authorities do it. look on the version between New Orleans and Mississippi. no longer something is getting carried out in NO (except the position a very few electorate are taking concerns into their personal fingers and in basic terms doing it), yet Mississippi is cleansing up and shifting ahead. it truly is the version between the sufferer mentality and the can-do body of options that made united states tremendous to commence with.

Answer 5

Compassion is for the weak and infirm. What did those people do to earn our respect and pity. NOTHING. Most were welfare users and criminals before Katrina and the ones that are still begging are the same ones still being on welfare or criminals. Bext time put them all in the arena and drop a bunker buster on them.

Answer 6

being here in Houston I see it first hand. its been almost 2 years and a large majority of them refuse to get a job. they start looking for work only when the relief is supposed to stop. they continue to get free housing, they have extended the relief several times, so who's to blame? the government? me? you? logic tells me it has to be the "Katrina victims".

Answer 7

I don't blame the residents. I watched them on TV. I saw their pain and desparation. They had no concept of what to do in this crisis. Why would've they? They've been told for decades that their government would take care of them. This is what happens when a gov't creates a welfare state.

Answer 8

I notice on the street or in stores,dumb ignorant blacks never move when in people's path even when asked "excuse me" in a polite way.

I'm thinking the same dumb ignorant blacks,who are now victims, didn't plan on moving out of katrina's path either.

Answer 9

I don't blame them just like I don't blame the President.
If you look at the history of tragic storms in this country people have always tried to have a scape goat. No one is to blame. It just happened and we need to find the best way to rebuild our lives and go on.

Answer 10

then quit blaming the President. If you knew anything about the process at all, you would know the blame lays on the individual, then the mayor and then the governor. When it was shown to the world that none of the above were competent, the President HAD to step in and take over. When you start placing the responsibility where it belongs people will back off from telling you yet again where the responsibility lies.