The loss of any public servant is a loss hard felt. Being a US service member myself having experienced the grief of losing a friend in the line of duty is a tough loss to deal with. Especially since public service is something fewer and fewer Americans choose to do.

The officers comments were strong and harsh singling out a particular race of people by calling it the choclate city assuming that blacks are the source of all crime. He is upset and rightfully so because he lost a good friend. Was he justified singling out a race of people calling them all crooks, rapists, and murderers… no. However hindsight is 20/20 and looking back at it I am sure he is sorry for his comments. It is equally racist for people to think that because he is a white law enforcement officer from the south that he is automatically racist.

The reason why attention is brought to those displaced by katrina is because the situations they bring warrant attention. They are for the most part bottom feeders who can't survive without government intervention. There have been well documented cases of people improperly using government funds to their own means not associated with survival. These discrepencies with these people have not been nationally brought to the attention of US citizens. My question is why. It is an infuriating problem for me to see money being wasted on these people. They are taking advantage of the laws in this country aimed at helping people so they can continue to get something for nothing.

Whats basically going to happen is our government will be forced to create new legislation that blocks easy access to gov't funds for people displaced by natural disasters making more paperwork and checks for people who actually need it slowing the process for them to get relief making a bad time in ones life even worse.

This is G o o g l e’s cache of http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/02/did-katrina-evacuees-bring-more-crime.html as retrieved on Jul 1, 2006 18:12:12 GMT.
G o o g l e’s cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web.
The page may have changed since that time. Click here for the current page without highlighting.
This cached page may reference images which are no longer available. Click here for the cached text only.
To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:ft5ClFb5WbQJ:www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/02/did-katrina-evacuees-bring-more-crime.html+katrina+evacuees+crime&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6&ie=UTF-8

Google is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content.
These search terms have been highlighted: katrina evacuees crime

what a tragic loss,in the prime of his life
taken by a no good scumbag who had no regard for public safety.
THese people come from a town that has no respect for law enforcement, and form their entire existance on how to milk the government for what they can rather than working an honest job for an honest living. Cities like atlanta, houston and all the other cities that opened their arms to these scumbag low lifes, and for what?
we watch our crime figures rise, and short of vigilante justice, we have our hands tied. THe mr chocolate mayor that went through the trouble to have people bussed back to scumville to vote should keep all these people in their own cesspool and let us have our cities back, and keep your scum in your own toilet WE DON’T WANT THEM WE DON’T NEED THEM
Maybe the next storm will finish the job the first one started
Step I hope the view from view from up there is a good one. You are deeply missed and will never be forgotten

Are you that stupid? I don't care if your friend was shot.

(SUCH compassion from liberals!)

It's one less mouth for America to worry about, which is the mentality you're treating people from New Orleans.I have lived in New Orleans most of my life and am currently here still helping to rebuild WHILE I work on my degree in Computer Engineering from Tulane. Yes, there was some trash in our city, but no more then is in any city. If anything had happened to your home you'd be all about your friends and family starting a new somewhere else. Feel compasion for others through your hatred for the one who caused you pain. If I were your friend I would been disgraced to now know how naive and ignorant you could be. I hope you can learn that the action of one peron does not represent the whole of the community from which he lived. May god bless you.

i like to refer to it as ENEMA Katrina………..afterall, it did flush all the shit out of NOLA!

and i extend my heartfelt apologies to those places that allowed these cockroaches to relocate.

funny how all along we southerners have been called and thought of as racists, yet there is the proof of what we have known all along committing crimes in your cities now.

guess we can now say it isnt racism but, knowledge.

Are you that stupid? I don’t care if your friend was shot.

(SUCH compassion from liberals!)

It’s one less mouth for America to worry about, which is the mentality you’re treating people from New Orleans.I have lived in New Orleans most of my life and am currently here still helping to rebuild WHILE I work on my degree in Computer Engineering from Tulane. Yes, there was some trash in our city, but no more then is in any city. If anything had happened to your home you’d be all about your friends and family starting a new somewhere else. Feel compasion for others through your hatred for the one who caused you pain. If I were your friend I would been disgraced to now know how naive and ignorant you could be. I hope you can learn that the action of one peron does not represent the whole of the community from which he lived. May god bless you.

I think the United States is the least racist country in the world along with Canada. If you can't make it here you can't make it anywhere. For all the lefties who are snorting, think about it. Which country do you nominate as less racist? China? Mexico? India with its castes? Arab countries that refuse to grant citizenship to non-Arabs?

Secondly, it is a fact that easy welfare, well-meaning though it was has ruined the black family since the 60's in a way that slavery did not manage. Black scholars such as Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele and John McWhorter write about this and cannot be dismissed as racist, which is the unfair criticism made of any non-black who dares to say the same thing.

Welfare degrades anyone who is on it for any length of time, black, white, Native, or purple polka-dot and becomes self-perpetuating with three to four generation families on the dole, many making no visible effort to become self-sufficient through education or hard work.

Any group that thinks they are entitled to be supported by other people's labor/taxes for life and are not trying to better themselves in any way through their own efforts are naturally going to be resented. This is not racist. This is human.

Any group that disproportionately participates in crime is going to be resented. Again, this is not racist. This is “crime-ist”. People do not like law-breakers who endanger us all, whatever their color.

Though the history of blacks and natives in America is tragic, it is no more so than countless other peoples around the world and across the ages. Jews suffered the Holocaust and were decimated. They picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and are among the most successful people on the planet wherever they go. Countries invaded by communist Soviet Russia who lost 30 % of their population in genocide, slow death in labour camps and displacement followed by 60 years of oppression have blossomed economically since regaining their freedom only since the 1990's! Blacks and natives would serve themselves better by following the successful templates instead of the death spiral they are in now, blaming everything in their lives on the past and others instead of taking responsibility for themselves. Many blacks and natives in America today especially under the age of 40 have suffered less than some of the immigrants who are paying taxes to support them! Where is the fairness in that?

Liberals in the universities, media and the courts are literally killing the people they think they're helping with the false kindness of Welfare. Teach people to fish i.e. do honest work, learn skills, and they develop self-respect. Give them fish, and it is never enough and they forget how to do anything for themselves. Liberal racism, the belief that blacks and natives alone cannot be expected to fend for themselves the way all other people with equally sad histories are, has brought failure and grief to the people they have patronized and infantilized. Instead of admitting this, Liberals just bull ahead and call everyone else bigots. Earth to liberals/Democrats. Your way doesn't work. Look, really look at the devastation you have helped wreak by making excuses for and having low expectations of people.

Racheal it is more then just a few bad apples from NO giving your state a bad name.

For the record you are not the problem. You go to school, and are working to rebuild your home. You are doing what these leeches are not willing to do. Kudos to you. I respect you.

They are sitting in hotels paid for with yours and my tax money just waiting for the government to go fix their situation for them. They are not willing to lift a finger to help themselves and make their situation better. What money they are receiving from the gov't they aren't spending on things its meant for like diapers, food, water etc.

These people have been free to go back to their homes for a long time… GO BACK HOME FREELOADERS!!! If my tax dollars are being used fraudulently by these bottom feeders it is not only my right to question it but it is my responsibility as a taxpayer and citizen.

I am feel for them for their losses. Some of their losses go as far as multiple family members however its still no excuse for wearing out their welcome. We have been generous enough as a country helping them get back on their feet and it is time now to cut our losses and send them back home.

Ms. U,

Hukd on fonix wurked fur u, dint it?

Can you even define what a conservative is (much less spell it)? Would you label those in power in the Republican Party conservatives? Do you get most of what you term a political ideology from Fox News?

You are an ignorant embarrassment to everyone who's ever worn a badge in service of this country. You are a coward who hides behind your lame, poorly designed web site and vacuous rhetoric masquerading for what you believe to be wit. I'm not even sure you realize that most of your “supporters” here and on Fark.com are ignorant, racist, hate-spewing scum. Furthermore, most of the people on here and on Fark who can string together complex sentences not rife with spelling or grammatical errors have done nothing but condemn you for your thinly veiled racist and hate-filled diatribe.

Muck, for the life of me, I cannot figure out where you are getting your opinion that I'm a bad speller and my grammar is poor. Can you PLEASE cite me at least one example, and cite YOUR source that I am wrong? Geez, you idiots are so small-minded, it's no wonder you can only accuse people of things they're not and revert to name-calling.

You might also learn the difference between fact and fallacy, such as the fact that the man who shot Officer Stepnowski didn't leave Louisiana until five and a half months after Katrina hit New Orleans. Say hello to Lucas Palmer when you reach the Gates of Hell, because you are no better than him.

LittheAsianGuy says:
July 5th, 2006 at 2:18 pm

This is the most racist and ball sucking site ever created.

Dude, how can you be serious? Here, have a look at this one…

http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/

I think the United States is the least racist country in the world along with Canada. If you can’t make it here you can’t make it anywhere. For all the lefties who are snorting, think about it. Which country do you nominate as less racist? China? Mexico? India with its castes? Arab countries that refuse to grant citizenship to non-Arabs?

Secondly, it is a fact that easy welfare, well-meaning though it was has ruined the black family since the 60′s in a way that slavery did not manage. Black scholars such as Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele and John McWhorter write about this and cannot be dismissed as racist, which is the unfair criticism made of any non-black who dares to say the same thing.

Welfare degrades anyone who is on it for any length of time, black, white, Native, or purple polka-dot and becomes self-perpetuating with three to four generation families on the dole, many making no visible effort to become self-sufficient through education or hard work.

Any group that thinks they are entitled to be supported by other people’s labor/taxes for life and are not trying to better themselves in any way through their own efforts are naturally going to be resented. This is not racist. This is human.

Any group that disproportionately participates in crime is going to be resented. Again, this is not racist. This is “crime-ist”. People do not like law-breakers who endanger us all, whatever their color.

Though the history of blacks and natives in America is tragic, it is no more so than countless other peoples around the world and across the ages. Jews suffered the Holocaust and were decimated. They picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and are among the most successful people on the planet wherever they go. Countries invaded by communist Soviet Russia who lost 30 % of their population in genocide, slow death in labour camps and displacement followed by 60 years of oppression have blossomed economically since regaining their freedom only since the 1990′s! Blacks and natives would serve themselves better by following the successful templates instead of the death spiral they are in now, blaming everything in their lives on the past and others instead of taking responsibility for themselves. Many blacks and natives in America today especially under the age of 40 have suffered less than some of the immigrants who are paying taxes to support them! Where is the fairness in that?

Liberals in the universities, media and the courts are literally killing the people they think they’re helping with the false kindness of Welfare. Teach people to fish i.e. do honest work, learn skills, and they develop self-respect. Give them fish, and it is never enough and they forget how to do anything for themselves. Liberal racism, the belief that blacks and natives alone cannot be expected to fend for themselves the way all other people with equally sad histories are, has brought failure and grief to the people they have patronized and infantilized. Instead of admitting this, Liberals just bull ahead and call everyone else bigots. Earth to liberals/Democrats. Your way doesn’t work. Look, really look at the devastation you have helped wreak by making excuses for and having low expectations of people.

Whoever authored this “blog” posting is a tool.

The loss of an officer like Stepnowski leaves a painful void in the hearts of the people who knew him best. We have all been diminished by his passing. He gave his life in the service of his fellow man.

Dagnabit, Ms U, you big tool. The Red Cross isn't government! Also note that the article said the Nat'l Guard didn't go in until two days after.

The Governor has to ask for the National Guard – they can't just go in and take over a city. That's something Blanco wasn't willing to give up – control over her state.

That a big fat failure. If it had been a city of white people, the Guard would have been there before the storm was even winding down and you know it. The government failed. And you fail too.

Been to Lacombe after the hurricane.

The people who say it was hardly touched are pretty much right.

Most of what's north of I-12 suffered wind damage only. Since Katrina was only a category 3 storm when it made landfall, the wind damage was pretty much 'normal hurricane stuff', not like the catastropic flooding south of I-12.

I wouldn't lump this guy in with evacuees.

Remember: this isn't from someone who's read about the storm. It's from someone who's been there.

Oh, also from eyewitness accounts:

The offical body counts for the storm were low. The actual number of deaths might very well have been three times what has been reported.

My father, alone, found more corpses than the 7 listed for the entire parish of St. Tammany by Wikipedia, and that is in the city of Slidell alone.

Been to Lacombe after the hurricane.

The people who say it was hardly touched are pretty much right.

Most of what’s north of I-12 suffered wind damage only. Since Katrina was only a category 3 storm when it made landfall, the wind damage was pretty much ‘normal hurricane stuff’, not like the catastropic flooding south of I-12.

I wouldn’t lump this guy in with evacuees.

Remember: this isn’t from someone who’s read about the storm. It’s from someone who’s been there.

To Ms.U:

Interesting article, except that you apparently only read the headline of it. The state recommended, with good reason, that the Red Cross not move in until the National Guard was in place, able to protect the supplies and see to orderly and fair distribution. The article’s headline, in the grand tradition of news worldwide, is written specifically to sensationalize the story.

I'm really sorry for your loss.

I live in New Orleans, I evacuated, and then came back. Please understand that the vast majority of New Orleanians are good people trying to get their lives back. We are down here doing our best to rebuild homes and lives where utilites like water and electricity frequently still don't work, where crime commited by both returning residents and people who came here after the storm to prey on easy targets is a continuing problems, and where the basic things other Amreicans take for granted aren't available. The first two weeks I was back I had to drive 30 minutes away just to get ice and drinkable water each day. I know that some of the Katina evacuees are horrible people — but most aren't. As the bad ones come back here, we fall victim to them just as we were victims of the storm. Those of us here still need your help and support to make it. Please don't let the scum keep you from seeing that most of us are just trying to live day to day and we thank all of you for what you've done for us.

First of all, let me express my sympathy for not only a life, but for the life of one whose job was to protect us from the criminals roaming our streets. It is fortunate that 'Step' was able to reduce the number of 'Wanted' by one before he died.

Louisiana is a state well known for its corruption in government since the days of Huey Long many years ago. The damage done by Katrina could've been minimized had the money allotted for strengthening the levies been used to do just that. And could anyone in the government, state or city, explain where it went? And here we are in the beginning of another hurricane season and nothing has been done to prevent the same catastrophe from happening again.

And what did the citizens of New Orleans do? They elected that same mayor who remarkably survived Katrina. The responsibility of the deaths of those who didn't evacuate should not be blamed on the Federal Government. It was the responsibility of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco to see that an attempt was made to move those people, whether they wanted to go or not, from harm's way. They failed to take control of the situation, and now tax payer dollars from the Federal Government is being handed out to those who survived. What they should be getting is job applications so they can go to work and not depend on the government to support them. The state and local governments should not be in control of any money granted for the rebuilding or the cleanup nor for making the levies stronger. That's been done, it didn't work, and why throw good money after bad?

As for not having a means of escape. why didn't someone go to the bus depot where thousands of school buses were parked and hotwire them for their escape to safety? Isn't survival one of the strongest instincts in man? Or, with the amount of advance notice these people had, they could've walked or even hitch hiked away from the path of the storm. No, they took the way of most people on welfare. They waited for a government that wasn't there for them.

The article written by Ms Underestimated on this might've been a bit strong, possibly because of her grief over the loss of a fellow officer, but her anger was understandable. If the man who killed him was already wanted for another murder, then why had he not been captured and tried? Was an incompetent police department even another weakness of the state and/or the city?

All of this could be argued back and forth for ages and probably will be, but the lesson learned from Step's death and from Katrina is clear. The state and city governments need some work, and men and women of integrity to do it.

Ms. U,

My sincere condolences to this fine officer's family…May he rest in peace and watch over y'all like an angek from above.

I just wish I was not reading some of the mean comments…I understand from where you are coming and venting your anger through your grief.

First of all, let me express my sympathy for not only a life, but for the life of one whose job was to protect us from the criminals roaming our streets. It is fortunate that ‘Step’ was able to reduce the number of ‘Wanted’ by one before he died.

Louisiana is a state well known for its corruption in government since the days of Huey Long many years ago. The damage done by Katrina could’ve been minimized had the money allotted for strengthening the levies been used to do just that. And could anyone in the government, state or city, explain where it went? And here we are in the beginning of another hurricane season and nothing has been done to prevent the same catastrophe from happening again.

And what did the citizens of New Orleans do? They elected that same mayor who remarkably survived Katrina. The responsibility of the deaths of those who didn’t evacuate should not be blamed on the Federal Government. It was the responsibility of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco to see that an attempt was made to move those people, whether they wanted to go or not, from harm’s way. They failed to take control of the situation, and now tax payer dollars from the Federal Government is being handed out to those who survived. What they should be getting is job applications so they can go to work and not depend on the government to support them. The state and local governments should not be in control of any money granted for the rebuilding or the cleanup nor for making the levies stronger. That’s been done, it didn’t work, and why throw good money after bad?

As for not having a means of escape. why didn’t someone go to the bus depot where thousands of school buses were parked and hotwire them for their escape to safety? Isn’t survival one of the strongest instincts in man? Or, with the amount of advance notice these people had, they could’ve walked or even hitch hiked away from the path of the storm. No, they took the way of most people on welfare. They waited for a government that wasn’t there for them.

The article written by Ms Underestimated on this might’ve been a bit strong, possibly because of her grief over the loss of a fellow officer, but her anger was understandable. If the man who killed him was already wanted for another murder, then why had he not been captured and tried? Was an incompetent police department even another weakness of the state and/or the city?

All of this could be argued back and forth for ages and probably will be, but the lesson learned from Step’s death and from Katrina is clear. The state and city governments need some work, and men and women of integrity to do it.

Ms. U,

My sincere condolences to this fine officer’s family…May he rest in peace and watch over y’all like an angek from above.

I just wish I was not reading some of the mean comments…I understand from where you are coming and venting your anger through your grief.

I am a native New Orleanian, born and raised here and continue to live here with my daughter. I am completely embarrassed to say that I am from here after everything that these “evacuees” have done in every corner of America. They aren’t evacuees anymore, it’s been almost a year since Katrina and they don’t deserve a penny more. I have always had great disdain for these type of people. I am a single mom working my ass off so that “these people” can sit at home, watch tv, drive the most expensive cars and eat steaks: to make things worse I have to watch this going on. As soon as my honey returns from Iraq I am packing up me and my daughter and moving from here. I am truly embarrassed and feel great sympathy for anyone who has to deal with the people that I have dealt with my entire life! If you want to know exactly how it is here just ask I have no reason to keep my mouth shut and take great pride in telling people just how horrible it really is here.