Rep. Thompson Attacks Kinky

Representative Sefronia Thompson [D-Houston] has gotten on her high horse and thinks Kinky should apologize to Katrina evacuees for the statements he made about them in Houston last week. She says, "He has demonstrated a total lack of human sensitivity. The people of Katrina have lost everything and are suffering not only from the loss of loved ones, but the trauma of the event itself. What has precipitated from this tragedy is behavior that results from a disastrous event."

Give me a break! Kinky did call the criminal element that came here from New Orleans "thugs and crackheads". But he never said that all Katrina survivors were like that. He was talking about the criminal element only [and I'm sure he'd call Houston's own criminal element the same kind of things]. He did not refer to them as "thugs and crackheads" because they are from Louisiana, but because they are acting like thugs and crackheads.

But what exactly does Rep. Thompson mean by "behavior that results from a disastrous event"? Does she think surviving a hurricane exempts these criminals from paying for their crime? There have been 59 murders in Houston by Katrina evacuees. Are we supposed to feel sorry for these 59 murderers because they went through a traumatic event? If a person acts like a thug, there is nothing wrong with calling them a thug, and if a person smokes crack, then they are a crackhead, regardless of their race or their point of origin.

Many of the evacuees have found a home here in Texas, and I welcome them with open arms. They will be a valuable addition to our state. But those who wish to act like thugs, should be treated like thugs. Kinky did nothing wrong, and he owes no one an apology.