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."
I agree - I can see ignoring the people with bottles of water, who were obviously not the problem - but why did the police just wait while people broke into jewelry and electronics stores, and finally were even able to arm themselves by stealing weapons? Anybody in their right mind would have known that such a breakdown in order would just grow.
Somehow, I don't think this would have happened in New York. New Yorkers are much more aggressive in defending themselves, even with their limited access to guns, and much more aggressive in vigilante justice. Plus nobody would be able to walk around in front of NYPD flaunting stolen TVs and weapons. Even with an idiot like Bloomberg in charge...
So while the true fault is that of the looters, I just don't know what the folks in charge of the city were thinking in letting them get away with this.
Good link. I didn't realize that EBay had message boards.
The article is quite damning. A hurricane hitting and flooding New Orleans was deemed to be one of the most likely disasters to occur. Bush cut funding for the levee and the levee broke. Clearly, the people of New Orleans were helpless and couldn't have maintained their own levee. Only Washington could do that. Without Washington we are all doomed.
on that board, someone posted a story on a study done in 87' laid it all out
what had been done since 87' to prevent it?
nothing
Breaking: Thousands of ACLU lawyers spotted headed for New Orleans.
as you might guess, they are dominated by libs and gays
"Everything falls apart. The center cannot stand" Keats
TELL ME ABOUT IT!
Water, water everywhere, and all the governor can offer is tears.
Agree.
This is no different than the fall of Baghdad. Our army thought it was OK to allow looting to show the people that "the USA are good guys". All that did was create a lotting/chaos mentaility that has bever been repaired.
Why didn't we learn anything from the fall of Baghdad?
I will not give a dime to charity. Most of these people have lived off my tax dollars through welfare their whole life. Now, they are looting jewelry stores and gun shops. I ma convinced many statyed behind just so they could loot. No donations from me!
I made some sarcastic comments yesterday about the international community's lack of response compared to our freebie cash grants after their disastes (like the tsunami). I now take that back. I HOPE the international community does not send help or money. These people deserve neither.
Bulldoze New Orleans. It is not worth saving since it obviously houses nothing but thieves and murderers. I just heard that a brother shot a sister over a bag of ice.
This RAT bitch/idiot is clueless.
An elected official never saw the LA riots, the Detroit riots? Hell, there are riots after footbal championships are won (e.g., Ohio State University) What is this RAT thinking? Is this RAT capable of thinking? This is the RAT "kumbaya all people need help all people are gracious all tax payers should help poor needy people they will be grateful" mentality.
Sounds to me she is using this excuse to cover-up the poor security and poor decision making on her part and that dumbass mayor's part.
New Orleans had been a high crime, high unemploymnet, high welfare, high mental health city before the hurricane hit. It was voted the third worst city in the USA. They should have known that many would not heed the evacuation warnings just so they could stay behind and loot--that's not rocket science.
The inept leadership is to blame for what is happening in New Orleans. Just wait until the next RAT pushes some anti-gun legislation. It would be suicide to be without guns for protection during riots and chaos like we are seeing in New Orleans.
Are there ANY FR members out there who do NOT have a handgun or shutgun? I refuse to send one penny to these people.
He waited 'til last night?!?
Just don't shoot them...........Harsh language only. [rolling eyes]
The generational remnants of LBJ's Great Society have advanced so far, they're playing cops and robbers in the stinking subsidized oasis of their own sewage.
I've seen news reports of people armed with AK-47s shooting up a police station. For God's sake, what the heck was Nagin waiting for?!
Last night on Chris Matthews some reporter or another said, and I'm not making this up, "the vast majority of the people, Chris, are taking food and other necessities of life."
Now...how on earth does this guy, in an area with no electricity, telephone or cell phone service, manage to do a statistical survey so soon and with none of these electrical devices?
And how did he manage to gather the data for his on-the-air announcement about this "vast majority" without the ability to do any sort of survey?
How did this fellow manage to get out and about what with all the water, how did he manage to do an inventory of what the looters were stealing all across the flooded city when even emergency vehicles could get through the waters?
Mark my words, ladies and gems, this looting has got the liberals skittish. Because caught, right on film, are the lowlifes and how they behave.
They're working furiously because the rest of America is watching, in real time and with shocked eyes, the actions of the sort of folk that keep the liberals in power.
Sure, SOME people are stealing food. You can bet your bottom dollar that if I were walking around lost and confused and a handy grocery were in my path I'd be helping myself to water and food with no guilt.
That's NOT the case with these looters. Hey, we Americans really are not as stupid as the liberals would have as be. We know looting and criminal behavior when we see it with our lying eyes.
And everytime a reporter or reporterette asks anyone in the field about "people stealing food", even if it's another reporterette but especially if it's a law enforcement or political type, they all launch into an invective that it is certainly NOT food they are stealing.
Think about it.
You're walking around, dazed and up to your hips in water. Getting rescued is probably way more important than hunger under the current circumstances. A lot of these people stockpiled food before the cane. Their bellies are not rumbling with hunger at this point in time.
It's just not something that the dazed survivors have high on their agenda, sneaking into Wixie-Dinn to steal some Ramen noodles.
We'll have those videos for years to come. The liberals are not going to like it.
These videos are going to expose what this country could become with no law and order.
Pffffft!
And just like 9/11...these videos will be forgotten about....I'd say in 2-3 weeks tops. I'd expect some lowlife becoming a millionaire...making a crap album about looting throughout the flooded areas, raping a few bitches, and capping a few cops and military personnell. Ah yes...the "gangstah"/thug culture run wild. Ain't it wonderful? The MSM will surely elevate them to victim/celebrity status. It says something about the society we live in when people gravitate to , and even aspire to be low life criminal scum. These criminals deserve the cesspool they're wasing in and living in.
@#$k it...what little compassion I had for the criminal/thug element here is gone. It has given me pause about what I should prepare for if a disaster event would take place in or close to an urban area.
Yet here are the officials in New Orleans, too timid to enforce common sense, while looting and savagery intensify and a great American seaport lies prostrate in the mud.
Those officials who fail to punish looters, make the criminals their true constituency.
Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep. --- Wm. Shakespeare
"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."
I'm sitting here wondering where the FReepers are that were OK with looting food and water. Where are the "I'd steal the food to make sure that my children eat" folks? Are they OK with the murder of those that planned ahead and prepared to take care of themselves.
Where are those Freepers now?
And don't for get the movies -- made for TV, or movie theater -- and the TV shows ("Tonight on CSI:New Orleans"), "docudramas", etc.* You know those word processors right now in Hollywood are glowing red hot.
*(And most with a very subtle to not so subtle "It's all Bush's and/or the evil Republicans fault.)
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