Martial Law means most constitutional protections are null and void. Among others, Habeas Corpus is suspended.
Posted on 08/31/2005 10:41:42 PM PDT by hatfieldmccoy
Disgusted and furious with the lawlessness of looters who have put fear into citizens, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared Martial Law in the city and directed the city's 1,500 person police force to do "whatever it takes" to regain control of the city.
Nagin said that Martial Law means that officers don't have to worry about civil rights and Miranda rights in stopping the looters.
Amid the chaos Wednesday, thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items.
Looters also chased down a state police truck full of food. The New Orleans police chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use. Managers at a nursing home were prepared to cope with the power outages and had enough food for days, but then the looting began. The Covenant Home's bus driver surrendered the vehicle to carjackers after being threatened.
Bands of people drove by the nursing home, shouting to residents, "Get out!" On Wednesday, 80 residents, most of them in wheelchairs, were being evacuated to other nursing homes in the state.
"We had enough food for 10 days," said Peggy Hoffman, the home's executive director. "Now we'll have to equip our department heads with guns and teach them how to shoot."
The echos from the sniper rifles should do nicely.
Gunshots, and gut-shot animal's screams, can be heard a LONG way away - especially over water (that has totally flooded NOLA).
You can hear gunshots from pretty far away.
Can you spot the liberal media spin? Here's a hint: Somehow I don't think they broke into a pharmacy to steal food.
I think the very fact that the looters dropped the food shows they were more concerned with holding on to the drugs, televisions, electronics, and other such items they were also stealing.
When the streets are left littered with food and ramen noodle bpackets by looters, that specifically means the looters were NOT taking the food and ramen noodles. If I start hearing about how the streets are being littered with widescreen plasma televisions, then I'll start believeing the looters are only after food.
It is a shocking thing to realize that Mary Landrieu is probably one of the smartest elected officials in Louisiana.
Thank God Sheriff Harry Lee is still around. Someone arrest Nagin and Blanco for negligence and put Harry Lee in charge of what needs to happen on the ground in southeastern Louisiana.
"What angers me the most is disasters tend to bring out the best in everybody, and that's what we expected to see," Ms. Blanco said at a news conference. "Instead, it brought out the worst."
Get a load of this. A Democrat tired of the stealin'.
Martial Law means most constitutional protections are null and void. Among others, Habeas Corpus is suspended.
Soldier has been shot at the Superdome needs medical attention. 0145 hours soldier shot upper leg. Being attended to by medical personnel. Shooter is cornered in locker room.
WTH, this is the third or fourth time I have seen where the idiot has supposedly declared martial law. Wager the first perp that goes face down in the muck, the worthless mayor will yell racism.
We used to shoot coyotes and drape their carcasses over a barbed wire fence. No words (howls) were spoken, but boy did their sheep killing buds get the message and skedaddle out of the country.
I'm going back to bed. Will pick up this story later.
Build their gallows high
Better to hang them from the light poles. As a warning to others...
so much easier to let it all happen than do anything, knowing who he wanted to blame up front
now to help with party politics, he can blame Bush cuts for levee breaks
RESCUE efforts have CEASED because the looting is too dangerous! The looting is such a threat to safety, that has become the top priority.
This is psychotic!
Watch and listen for this repulsive line of political attack. The Democrat is a carrion feeder.
i blame bushie.
no, not really
No doubt. The damage to their local economy may never be repaired at this rate. If I was a local vendor I would be so infuriated at their inaction I would relocate my business, along with the jobs it would provide to a city where I felt the local authorities would at the very least do their job.
To hell with rebuilding any going business concerns in NO. The mayor, IMHO, was catering to the "looter constituency" by waiting so long.
It is reprehensible that they weren't shooting looters on site for robbing banks, appliance stores and other non-perishable items not essential to their immediate survival. If they had started off that way immediately, and made it was widely known as possible, they could have reduced this tragedy instead of enhancing it with their incompetence.
Being judgemental? Hell yes! If I was a business owner, say I sold toys, and these looters have stripped my store of everything, why would I even consider restarting there? I know if it happens again this will be modus operandi, perhaps even for temporary blackouts. I would never trust serving the citizens again, even if the looters are just a small portion of the population. They ruined my livelihood.
Even if it was possible to recoup a small part of the massive financial loss, I would never make the effort to be part of such a community again.
They say these people lashed out because they are poverty stricken and repressed. Seems to me they have an active hand in repressing themselves. How exactly do we described what they've just done to the people who have worked so hard to build this former community through their hard work? The very people who created jobs for their economy. They people who made NO a destination instead of just another slime covered ghetto? Let them rebuild NO on their own.
"It is a shocking thing to realize that Mary Landrieu is probably one of the smartest elected officials in Louisiana."
God help Louisiana!
Why wasn't there as basic emegency security policy in place, for example:
a) Police units posted at all important medical facitities - especially hospitals. Also nursing homes. Patients in such places are in no position to defend themselves, and medical staff aren't usually of the type of mindset that thinks in defensive terms. After all, their primary focus is to save lives. Emptying a clip into some junkie who is willing to break in and kill patients and staff to get to drugs isn't part of their training or overall focus, usually.
b) The locations of gun stores, or general stores who sell guns and ammo should be known. If the owner(s) are absent or unable to secure the premises themselves, the police should a) secure the facility if there is sufficieent manpower; b) remove all guns and ammor and secure in police statiion if not enough manpower.
c) Important civic facilities should lilkewise be guarded. Museums, Banks, Post Offices, etc., etc.
These three simple items are to simply prevent the kind of anarchy that is evidently under way. There would obviously have to be more extensive pland for search and rescure, evacuation, etc.
I can't help but to be left with the impression that the authorities at both the state (Blanco, et al) and local (Nagin, et al) levels had no such plans, or were incompetent to make a serious attempt to implement them in advance of the storm, or even in its immediate aftermath. Now, if a not-always-brilliant guy like me can think of these simple concepts. why can't they?
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