Yesterday, Glenn Thrush reported that the kindly New Orleans Sheriff Harry Lee referred to in Bobby Jindal‘s response speech advocated racial profiling of black residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and once said, “We know the crime is in the black community. Why should I waste time in the white community?”
Well it turns out there’s even more to Jindal’s sheriff tale that meets the eye. Zachary Roth reports that Jindal may have made the story up.
According to numerous reports, Harry Lee did not leave the affected area of New Orleans during the crisis. But there is no reported evidence of Jindal having set foot in the area during the period when people were still stranded on roofs — which, based on a review of news stories from the time, was only until September 3 at the very latest. Indeed, the evidence strongly suggests he did not…
When the storm made landfall on August 29, Jindal was on a foreign trip. His family was evacuated to his parents’ house in Baton Rouge, and when he returned, he went straight there to join them.
Roth points to a Human Events interview where Jindal told a similar story, but the way it’s told implies that Jindal spoke to the sheriff after the fact, not during Katrina.
Is it really possible that during his first national gig, Bobby Jindal decided to pull a Tuzla?Â
— A. Serwer
