NEW ORLEANS (CNN) — New Orleans’ embattled, frustrated mayor accused
federal officials of “thinking small” and dragging their feet in response to
his city’s urgent needs, saying people are dying while officials are holding
news conferences.
“Excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed,” Mayor Ray
Nagin said in an expletive-laced interview Thursday with radio station WWL.
Nagin called for a moratorium on press conferences “until the resources
are in this city.”
“They’re feeding the people a line of bull, and they are spinning and
people are dying,” he said.
Nagin said he needs military troops to provide security and 500 buses to
take stranded people out of the city.
So far, he said, the promises are unfulfilled.
“I keep hearing that it’s coming. This is coming. That is coming. My
answer to that is B.S. Where is the beef?”
“God is looking down on all this and if they are not doing everything in
their power to save people they are going to pay the price,” Nagin said.
“They thinking small, man, and this is a major, major deal,” he said.
“Get off your asses and let’s do something,” he said.
The mayor said except for a few “knuckleheads,” the looting is the result
of desperate people just trying to find food and water to survive.
Nagin said part of the crime problem is because of drug addicts cut off
from their drug supplies and wandering the city “looking to take the edge off
their jones.”