“Let Them Go.”

This is some of the most stunning news footage I believe I’ve ever seen. Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera, serving as correspondents for Fox during the Hannity and Colmes show, located just outside the convention center in NOLA, completely lose their shit on the air. Smith holds it in at certain points, issuing through clenched teeth one-word rebuttals to Hannity’s attempts to spin, but Rivera makes no effort to hide his frustration and disgust, beginning to sob as he holds a baby and repeats over and over that the government, currently prohibiting people from leaving the convention center, needs to let them go.

To get an idea of what the situation is really like there, check out the Sept 1 entry comprised of notes from an interview conducted by this blogger via cell phone with one of the people stranded at the convention center:

Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.

[…]

Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.

The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

The buses never stop.

[…]

He says it's the slowest mandatory evacuation ever, and he wants to know why they were told to go to the Convention Center area in the first place; furthermore, he reports that many of them with cell phones have contacts willing to come rescue them, but people are not being allowed through to pick them up.

These people were instructed to go to the convention center, then left for dead. At least 24 hours after this interview was conducted, Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera were saying the situation was still exactly the same, with no food, water, or medical supplies, and the people forced to stay put in horrendous conditions.

Meanwhile, with the Red Cross being prevented from entering the city, it’s beginning to seem more and more like the refugees at the convention center were being held there in misery to give the president the best fucking photo op.