Cajun Navy controversy...don't let exaggerated claims cloud good work!

via Jalopnik.

Let’s start with something that’s unequivocally good: According to The Times-Picayune, three men who identified with the Cajun Navy found a woman floating face down in water on Monday. What they did next was heroic.

“We jumped out and got her and gave her compressions right there in the water. We were holding her from behind,” one of the men, Joshua Lincoln, told The Times-Picayune. The woman, identified as Wilma Ellis, 73, eventually came to, wet and disoriented but alive.

“We got her back to safety, and that’s that,” Lincoln later told CNN.

Which is great! But at some point in the midst of all of that happening, there was trouble elsewhere, with a Cajun Navy organizer named Clyde Cain telling CNN some disturbing allegations: that some volunteers had been shot at while trying to help.

Which is awful, if true! Almost immediately though, on Twitter at least, people expressed their skepticism that it had happened at all, with Cain later taking to Facebook live to clarify “the facts,” which mainly consisted of looters in various guises afoot, he claimed, in addition to the shooting. Yes, the shooting happened, Cain insisted, but, no, no one had been shot, despite rumors to the contrary (which he sparked by going on CNN in the first place.)

“No one actually got shot. They shot at the boats. I’m not sure if they actually shot at it, or up in the air, but, shots were fired,” he said, before going on to blame CNN for any misconceptions. “I used to call it ‘completely negative news.’”

Story here. 

This is weird, but I can puzzle what happened (and its just a guess...I wasn't there).  These dudes are civilians.  They're hopped up, jazzed and excited to be doing not only good work but also something a bit dangerous.

They see some looters (they're definitely out and about), are scared to death because they've never seen criminal activity and inflate the story.

Bad on them if I'm right, but no need to pound on them.

They're doing work!

Of course this story revolves back to the need to revitalize Civil Defense.  These people should be organized throughout the South.  Hurricanes hit with alarming frequency from North Carolina down to Texas.  A database should be developed (yeah I know, but proper organization requires collection of information), basic standards developed (perhaps a free operations course on boating in urban areas in high water situations & basic first aid) and a gear list so that each boat is capable of performing basic tasks necessary to  aid citizens in distress.  For examples axes to cut thru roofs, a certain number of life jackets (provided at a discount thru govt vendors) etc....

But one thing is certain.

There are too many trying to trash the work of people trying to do good shit.

Did the guy exaggerate?  At best I would say he did.  Should he have been slammed on a national publication like Jalopnik?  No.  Follow the links and read the comments.  They start off fairly neutral and go down hill from there. That's too bad.  The vast majority are just trying to step up when the Feds were too slow to get the job done themselves.