Visiting Sharpton rebukes Bush He says race influenced government's slow rescue efforts in New Orleans Joseph SpectorStaff writer http://www.democratandchronicle.com/app ... (September 7, 2005) — The Rev. Al Sharpton ripped President Bush's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina during a visit Tuesday to Rochester, saying that Bush responded differently because the people most affected are poor and black. Sharpton, a civil rights activist who ran for president last year, spent the morning in Rochester to meet with civic leaders about a recent spate of violent crime and to endorse Wade Norwood for mayor. He saved his harshest criticism for Bush. Sharpton, who has visited affected areas, claimed the federal government's response was skewed."We probably have faced the greatest natural disaster that we have seen in the history of this country," Sharpton told about 60 people at a breakfast at the Hyatt Regency downtown. "And in the middle of it, we see the discriminatory tenets of those that ignored what was going on in the New Orleans area until it was three or four days old." Sharpton also defended comments made by rapper Kanye West during a telethon Friday. West said that "George Bush doesn't care about black people" and that America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible." Sharpton said, "Kanye West expressed the sentiment a lot of us feel. And that is why we feel the president responded differently because of the color of the people that were involved." He said Bush was more responsive to the hurricanes that struck Florida last year. In Florida, "George Bush got on television and announced the National Guard was available. His brother (Florida Gov. Jeb Bush) had all the help he could get. And as soon as the hurricane came in, George Bush came in right behind the hurricane. "In New Orleans that's not what happened. Hurricane hit, the president was on vacation in Crawford, Texas, and stayed there three days. Never responded until after people were already displaced." The president on Tuesday vowed to investigate how the rescue efforts have been handled. But the White House said any investigation would have to wait until the end of relief efforts, which are certain to take weeks — if not months. Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson Jr. happened to be in New Orleans on Aug. 27 and 28 — the weekend before the storm hit. He was attending the funeral of Clarence Barney, a close friend and former head of the New Orleans Urban League. As he left New Orleans that Sunday morning, Johnson said the roads were already packed at 6 a.m. The mayor was less critical than Sharpton of the government's handling of Katrina. "If they had put them all in cars and buses, they couldn't have gotten them out anyway," he said. "There are people who couldn't have evacuated if they wanted to." And Rochester's first black mayor shrugged off claims that race played a role in rescue delays, saying they resulted from poor emergency planning. He said mayors have lobbied in vain for federal assistance following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. "We have strongly protested when the Bush administration has diverted precious resources from public safety and other potential local catastrophes to support their political agenda," he said, adding that the federal government is clearly stretched beyond capacity. JSPECTOR@DemocratandChronicle.comIncludes reporting by The Associated Press.