Christ (update+4)

This picture. I can’t think of anything to say. I’m blogless. Christ. Just…Christ. Let’s hope the safeties are off.

Story: N.O. police show off new crime-fighting equipment

UPDATE: He’s terse…

The photo selected to depict the public safety press conference on yesterday by the Times Picayune grossly misrepresented the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, the Superintendent of Police and the men and women of the police department. The press conference held by the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) was designed to display to the public the department’s new crime fighting and life saving equipment. Further, the announcement acknowledged the entities that have worked in cooperation with the city to make this new equipment a reality-the State of La Delegation authorized over $6million in the last legislative session for the purchase of new equipment as well as to acknowledge other organizations that donated equipment to this recovering police force.

Yesterday’s announcement was a lift to the morale of this heroic police department that lost much of it’s resources in Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that resulted from the levee breaches. Mayor Nagin was and continues to be on the frontlines working to secure resources for this agency, as well as the other agencies within city government that are struggling to rebuild.

Unfortunately, photos of the command unit that will be stationed across from the NBA headquarters for this week’s NBA All Star Game were not selected for publication, unfortunately photos of the smart boards and computer equipment that will allow officers to have real time data and analysis while in the field were not selected to educate, inform and reassure the publics confidence. Instead a photo, taken out of context, was selected by our own local media and now showcased across the nation as a mockery of all this city’s recovery efforts. This is the real tragedy.

Ceeon D. Quiett
Communication Director
Office of the Mayor
C. Ray Nagin

The real tragedy is that you’ve gone and acted like a yahoo again!

UPDATE 2: Times-Pic “clarifies”…

A photo in some Metro sections and on Nola.com on Wednesday showed a laughing Mayor Ray Nagin pointing an M-4 rifle at Chief of Police Warren Riley at a
news conference to announce new crime fighting equipment purchased by
the New Orleans Police Department. A review of a video taken at the
event shows that the mayor momentarily pointed the gun at the chief as
he was lowering it but he did not deliberately point it at Riley.

Get your water skies out. This story has jumped the shark.

UPDATE 3: Fark caption contest voting results…

UPDATE 4: After hearing the whole story, C. Ray is actually the victim in this whole thing. Beleive it or not. Shame on the Times-Picayune for shifty photojournalism.