The 'full transcript' of the recent local radio interview with New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has been published by CNN and others. But the published transcript is somewhat 'sanitised', having been amended somewhat for clarity.
During the interview Ray Nagin, normally a cool and well spoken character, was quite emotional. when we are undr stress or excited it's quite natural for our accents to broaden, for the 'correctness' of our speech to become more casual, and the actual transcript conveys much more of the heart-wrenchingly poignancy and pathos of the situation. Here it is for the benefit of those who missed hearing the full broadcast:
Quote:
Interview between radio presenter Garland Robinette from WWL radio, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin
R.
They said …… is comin today and my answer to that is “B.S. Where is the beef?�
There is no beef in this city, there is no beef in south east Louisiana, and these goddamned ships that are comin – I don’t see ‘em!
G. What did you say to the President of the United States and what did he say to you?
I.. I basically told him we had an incredible, ah, crisis here and that his flyin over in Airforce 1 does not do it justice. And that I have been all over this city and I’m frustrated, because we are not able to marshall rsources and we’re outmanned in just about every respect.
You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources savin people. Thousands of people. That were stuck in attics man. Old ladies. When you pull off the doggone ventilator vent and they’re standin in there in water up to their frickin necks. And they don’t have a clue what’s goin on down here. They flew down here. One time, two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, A.P. reporters, all kind of goddamn, excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed!
G.
Did you say, to the President of the United States, “I need the military in here�?
R.
I said I need everything! Now I will tell you this, and I give the President, ah, some credit on this. He sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done. And his name is General Honore. And he come off the doggone chopper and he start cussin, and people start movin. And he’s getting some stuff done. They oughta give that guy, if they don’t wanna give it to me give him full authority to get the job done, and we can, we can save some people!
G.
What do you need, right now, to get control of this situation?
R.
I need reinforcements. I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain’t talking about, one of the briefins we had we were talking about getting, ah, ah, you know public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people outta here. I’m like, YOU GOTTA BE KIDDIN ME. THIS IS A NATIONAL DISASTER! GET EVERY GODDAM GREYHOUND BUS COMPANY IN THE COUNTRY AND GET THEIR ASSES MOVIN TO NEW ORLEANS!
That’s, they thinking small, man, and this is a major, major MAJOR deal!
And I can’t emphasise it enough, man. This is crazy! I’ve got 15 to 20 thousand people over at the convention centre, it’s burstin at the seams, the poor people of Plaqumines Parish they’re at their….. they’re air-vaccin people over here to New Orleans. We don’t HAVE anything, and we’re sharing, with out brothers in Plaquemines Parish. We…. It’s…. it’s, it’s, it’s AWFUL down here, man!
G.
Do you believe that the President was seen, holding a news conference, but can’t do anything until Kathleen Blanco requests him to do it, and do you know whether or not she has made that request?
R.
I have no idea what they doin but, ah, I will tell you this. You know, God is lookin down on all this, and if they are not doin everything in their power to save people they are gonna pay the price! Because every day that we are delayin, people are dyin. And they’re dyin by the, by the hundreds I’m willin to bet you. There are…. We’re getting reports and calls that is breakin my heart from people sayin “I’ve been in my attic. I can’t take it any more. The water’s up to my neck. I don’t think I can hold out.�
And that’s happenin as we speak! And you know what really upsets me, Garland? We told… we told everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said please, PLEASE take care of this. We don’t care what you do, figure it out.
G.
Who did you say that to?
R.
Everybody! Governor, you know, Homeland Security, F.E.M.A. you name it we said it. And, ah, you know, they allowed that, that pumpin station next to it, pumpin station 6, to, to go under water. Our sewage and water board people, …. stayed there and endangered their lives. And what happened, when that pumpin station went down, the water started flowin again in the City. And it started getting to levels that probably killed more people. In addition to that, we had water flowin through the pipes in this City. That’s a power station over there. So there’s no water flowin anywhere on the East bank of Orleans Parish. So a critical water supply was destroyed, because of lack of action.
G.
Why couldn’t they drop the 3000 pound sandbags, or the containers that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering feat that just couldn’t be done?
R.
They said that there were some pulleys that they had to manufacture, but, you know, in a state of emergency man you, you are creative, you figure out ways to get stuff done. Then they told me that they went over night and they built seventeen concrete structures and they had the pulleys on em and they were gonna drop em. I flew over that thing yesterday and it’s in the same shape it was after the storm hit. There is nothing happening! And they’re feedin the public a line of bull. And it’s ‘spinning’, and people are dying down here!
G.
If, if…..some of the public called, and they’re right…. That there’s a law, and the president, that the Federal government can’t do anything without local or State requests, would you request martial law?
R.
I’ve already re….. I’ve already called for martial law in the City of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.
G.
Did the Governor do that too?
R.
Ah, ah, I don’t know. I don’t think so. Um. But we called for martial law when we realized that the looting was getting out of control, and we redirected all of out police officers back to controlling the street. They were dirty, dead tired from savin people, but they worked all night, because we thought this thing was gonna blow wide open last night! And.. so we redirected all of our resources and we held it under check. I’m not sure if we can do that another night! With the current resources.
And I am telling you right now. They’re showin all these reports of people looting and, and doin all that weird stuff, and there ARE some people doin that. But people are desperate. And they’re tryin to find food and water. The majority of them. And you got some knuckleheads out there. And they are takin advantage of this lawless… this situation where, you know, we can’t really control it. And they are doin some AWFUL, awful things. But that’s a small minority (he actually said majority) of the people. Most people are lookin to try and survive!
And you’ve gotta…. One of the thing’s nobody’s talked about this. Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me! And that’s why we were havin the escalation in murders. People don’t wanna talk about this, but I’m gonna talk about it. You have drug addicts, that are now walkin around this City, lookin for a fix! And that’s the reason why they were breakin in Hospitals, and Drug Stores. They’re lookin for something to take the ‘edge’ offa their ‘Jones’ if you will. And right now they don’t have ANYTHING to take the ‘edge’ off. And they’ve found, they’ve probably found guns. So what you’re seeing is drug starved, crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wreaking havoc, and we don’t have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city, and.. and form a perimeter around em, and hope to God that we’re not over run.
G.
Well you and I must be in the minority. Because apparently there’s a section of our citizenry out there that thinks, ah, that because of the law that says the Federal Government can’t come in unless requested by the proper people, that everything that’s been done to this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.
R.
Really?
G.
I know you don’t feel that way
R.
Well? Did… did the tsunami victims request? Did they go through a formal process to request? Ah… you know, did Iraq, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there?
What happ…. What is… what is more important? You know, I’ll tell you man. I am.. I.. I’m probably gonna get into a whole bunch of trouble. I’m probably gonna get in so much trouble it ain’t even funny. They probably won’t even want to deal with me after this interview is over.
G.
You and I will be in the ‘funny place’ together.
R.
But. We authorized 8 billion dollars to go to Iraq. Lickety sh…… quick! After 9/11 we gave the President unprecedented power. . Lickety sh…… quick! To take care of New York and other places. And you mean to tell me that a place where most of ya oil is comin through, a [place that is so unique that you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world everybody’s eyes light up, you mean to tell that a place where probably thousands of people have died ,and thousands more that are dyin every day, that we can’t figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need?
Come on man. You know, I’m not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly. And I don’t know whose problem it is. I don’t know whether it’s the Governor’s problem, I don’t know whether it’s the president’s problem. But somebody needs to get their ass on the plane, ands sit down the two of them and figure this out! Right now!
G.
What can we do here?
R.
Keep talking about it!
G.
We’ll do that. What else can we do?
R.
Organise people to write letters. Make calls to their congressmen, to the President, to the Governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to DO something! This is ridiculous!
I don’t wanna see anybody do any more goddam press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences! Don’t do another press conference until the resources are IN this City! And then come down here and stand with us, when there are military trucks and troops that we can’t even count. Don’t tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They NOT here! It’s too doggone late!
Now get off your goddam asses and do something. Let’s fix the biggest goddam crisis in the history of this country!
G.
I’ll say it right now. You’re the only politician that’s called, and called for arms LIKE THIS. And whatever it takes, the Governor, President, whatever it takes I bet that the people listening to YOU are on YOUR side!
R.
Well… I hope so, Garland. I am just… I’m at the point now where it don’t matter. People are dyin. They don’t have homes. They don’t have jobs. The City of New Orleans will never be the same. In this time.
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