October 17, 2005
New Orleans Thug Becomes Katrina Hero
The Times-Picayune devoted Sunday's front page to the story of 20-year-old Jabar Gibson who was kicked out of high school and has been committing felonies ever since. In his own words, Gibson says, "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, a lot of times." A prudent observer would have predicted that his future had been pretty well set. But Jabar Gibson's life changed dramatically because of Hurricane Katrina.
Comments are disabled.
Post is locked.
Gibson stole a school bus, loaded it with 60 of New Orleans' poorest residents, the youngest a week-old infant and the oldest 59, and drove to Houston. Gibson was the driver of what has become known as "the renegade bus" that was the first to arrive in Houston with Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
From NOLA.com:
Gibson acknowledges he stole the bus, although in what has become Katrina lingo, he "commandeered" it to rescue himself and his neighbors. While the storm's floodwaters ultimately did not advance into Algiers, there was no way of knowing that in the chaotic Tuesday morning after the storm. Water was filling up the east bank, Mayor Ray Nagin was on the radio that afternoon predicting several feet on St. Charles Avenue, and panicked residents crossed the bridge to the West Bank, telling tales of impending doom.So, one day Gibson is a street criminal with a regularly revised rap sheet and, the next day, he's under contract in the movie business. I foresee also probably a book deal, a television movie, and appearances on daytime and late-night talk shows. Who knows? Gibson may well end up being a motivational speaker."The police was leaving people behind. I had to pick up people on the bus. The police didn't want to do nothing. We stepped up and did what we had to do," said Gibson, who declined to say more because he since has agreed to a movie deal that prohibits interviews.
Companion post at Interested-Participant.
Posted by: Mike Pechar at
02:48 AM
| Comments (6)
| Add Comment
Post contains 323 words, total size 2 kb.
1
Well, this is America, after all, where even the dreams of young felons come true.
Posted by: jesusland joe at October 17, 2005 08:03 AM (rUyw4)
2
This just goes to show something I've known for a long time; people don't have to be intrinsically bad to commit crimes. Much criminal behavior is simply the result of a large number of people in society who don't fit into the mainstream and are regularly punished by society for it. I don't know the man's history, but from the sound of it, he's not a sociopath, and I'm guessing that his felony convictions are probably mostly drug related or other types of non-violent offenses.
We have created a society which is so rigidly structured and so highly intolerant of aberrant behavior that we have criminalized many things which do not really fit the classical definition of a crime. A crime, simply defined, is any deliberate act that directly causes harm or loss to another person, or to society at large. Notice the use of "deliberate", and "direct". But today, there are so many laws that every person alive in America, (and in many other countries), commits a crime every day whether they know it or not.
Ever smoke pot? Ever drive home from the bar after a couple or three beers? Ever drive without your seatbelt? Ever look at porn on the internet? Et cetera ad infinitum. We are all criminals, though not because we as members of society spend our days in rapine, pillage, arson, and murder, but because someone doesn't like something we're doing, though it harms none and damages nothing.
Here is some wisdom from the Tao of Lao Tzu:
Do not control the people with laws,
Nor violence, nor espionage,
But conquer them with inaction.
...
The more morals and taboos there are,
The more cruelty afflicts people;
...
The more laws and taxes there are,
The more theft corrupts people.
Yet take no action, and the people nurture each other;
Make no laws, and the people deal fairly with each other;
Own no interest, and the people cooperate with each other;
Express no desire, and the people harmonize with each other.
What was true two and a half millenia ago is true today, and one of the worst problems facing our society is that we have criminalized entire segments of our population just because we don't like what they do and how they live. That, fellow citizens, is why I am a libertarian.
We have created a society which is so rigidly structured and so highly intolerant of aberrant behavior that we have criminalized many things which do not really fit the classical definition of a crime. A crime, simply defined, is any deliberate act that directly causes harm or loss to another person, or to society at large. Notice the use of "deliberate", and "direct". But today, there are so many laws that every person alive in America, (and in many other countries), commits a crime every day whether they know it or not.
Ever smoke pot? Ever drive home from the bar after a couple or three beers? Ever drive without your seatbelt? Ever look at porn on the internet? Et cetera ad infinitum. We are all criminals, though not because we as members of society spend our days in rapine, pillage, arson, and murder, but because someone doesn't like something we're doing, though it harms none and damages nothing.
Here is some wisdom from the Tao of Lao Tzu:
Do not control the people with laws,
Nor violence, nor espionage,
But conquer them with inaction.
...
The more morals and taboos there are,
The more cruelty afflicts people;
...
The more laws and taxes there are,
The more theft corrupts people.
Yet take no action, and the people nurture each other;
Make no laws, and the people deal fairly with each other;
Own no interest, and the people cooperate with each other;
Express no desire, and the people harmonize with each other.
What was true two and a half millenia ago is true today, and one of the worst problems facing our society is that we have criminalized entire segments of our population just because we don't like what they do and how they live. That, fellow citizens, is why I am a libertarian.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at October 17, 2005 09:55 AM (0yYS2)
3
IM I am SHCOCKED TYPELESS !!
Posted by: john Ryan at October 17, 2005 11:27 AM (ads7K)
4
Maximus: Do you even know what crimes the guy committed?
That said, his former bad acts do not erase his current good act. Also, it is not uncommon that among the criminal class are some folks with daring, intelligence, and initiative, just like any other group.
That said, his former bad acts do not erase his current good act. Also, it is not uncommon that among the criminal class are some folks with daring, intelligence, and initiative, just like any other group.
Posted by: slickdpdx at October 17, 2005 11:29 AM (MjGRu)
5
No, I don't know his record, but like I said, he clearly isn't a sociopath, because sociopaths don't commit selfless acts like he did. And yes, many criminals are daring, intelligent, and possess initiative, but if he were truly of the "criminal class", meaning a habitual criminal, wouldn't he have filled the bus with looted goods rather than people in need of help?
Let me bore you with an anecdote. When I was very small I became deathly ill, and my dad's old '55 Chevy truck wouldn't start because of the freezing weather, and if it did, it wouldn't make it down the frozen mountain roads to take me to the hospital. He called all of the people in our community who had four wheel drive vehicles, starting with the people who went to our church.
It was the middle of the night and freezing cold, and all these good Christians couldn't be bothered with saving the life of a child, so my dad called the last man he could think of, who lived pretty far away. This man was a moonshiner and general scoundrel of the lowest type, but when my dad called him, he said he'd be right out. He took us to the hospital and stayed until I was released the next day, and refused to even accept gas money.
Just because someone is unlawful doesn't make them a bad person, it just makes them a social outcast. Hypocrisy is the engine that drives our society, and until we learn that we can't criminalize everything that we don't like, we will keep missing opportunies to let people be truly good.
Let me bore you with an anecdote. When I was very small I became deathly ill, and my dad's old '55 Chevy truck wouldn't start because of the freezing weather, and if it did, it wouldn't make it down the frozen mountain roads to take me to the hospital. He called all of the people in our community who had four wheel drive vehicles, starting with the people who went to our church.
It was the middle of the night and freezing cold, and all these good Christians couldn't be bothered with saving the life of a child, so my dad called the last man he could think of, who lived pretty far away. This man was a moonshiner and general scoundrel of the lowest type, but when my dad called him, he said he'd be right out. He took us to the hospital and stayed until I was released the next day, and refused to even accept gas money.
Just because someone is unlawful doesn't make them a bad person, it just makes them a social outcast. Hypocrisy is the engine that drives our society, and until we learn that we can't criminalize everything that we don't like, we will keep missing opportunies to let people be truly good.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at October 17, 2005 12:42 PM (0yYS2)
6
Well, IM, if I had been your daddy, I would have left whatever so-called church that was, and changed to the real church jesusland joe attended. Because people in jj's church helped his family many times, and anybody else who showed up with a need, whether a member of that church or not. I feel bad about your family's experience, and have said many times that actions always speak louder than words, and that especially goes for Christians, who are in a unique position to make a good or bad impression.
Posted by: jesusland joe at October 17, 2005 03:08 PM (rUyw4)
35kb generated in CPU 0.013, elapsed 0.0793 seconds.
34 queries taking 0.0725 seconds, 161 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
34 queries taking 0.0725 seconds, 161 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
