Posted on 09/01/2005 7:16:17 AM PDT by TheForceOfOne
NEW ORLEANS Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission last night and return to the streets to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile as the city plunges deeper into chaos.
"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas hotels, hospitals and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said.
The number of officers called off the search-and-rescue mission amounts to virtually the entire police force in New Orleans.
The out-of-control thievery had escalated while cops joined National Guardsmen in focusing on saving lives.
In some cases, New Orleans police officers took part in the looting. One cop was seen carting off a computer and a 27-inch flat-screen TV, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Earlier yesterday, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blan- co said she has asked the White House to send more people to help with evacuations and rescues, thereby freeing up National Guardsmen to stop looters.
The looting got worse as people brazenly ran- sacked stores for food, beer, clothing, appliances and guns.
There have been some citizen-vs.-criminal standoffs, with one shopkeeper posting an ominous sign: "You loot, I shoot."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
That's ok, it happens to the best of us! :-)
I was at Great Adventures in New Jersey with some friends that day when the announcement was made "There is a blackout in NYC." We immediately left for NY. On the radio, the news came that some neighborhoods had looting, while some went to full blown rioting. My friends, who lived in Crown Heights, in Brooklyn, thought the worst as there had always been simmering violence there. What was worse was that their only child was with a babysitter in the apartment, and as the mother was nursing, there was not an infinite supply of milk.
I told them in the car that we would proceed to Queens where I lived, to pick up the requisite "supplies'. I went into my apartment when I arrived, took the 45 and the Mini 14. We then departed to Brooklyn. We avoided the Interboro Parkway from Kew Gardens, because it exited in East NY, a place that UPS was said, made no deliveries. We came in on other, less risky streets and I finally got into Crown Heights. Utica Avenue was burning, looters were everywhere, and there was sporadic gunfire. I remarked that I would not brake for rioters and quickly got beyond Utica to Schenectady and Montgomery. I pulled the car up on the sidewalk in front of the building. We exited the vehicle.
A mob spotted us and came toward us, but they were still almost 100 yards away. A few of them had guns; they appeared to be 38s and 25s. I took the Mini up, with both clips and pointedit at them. Their answer was that we were few and they were many. I shouted that I would fire on them if they came much closer, and that their guns did not have the range. I also stated that before we would go down, many of them would be on their way to Perdition. The mob then changed direction. I gave my friends the option of leaving with me, but they chose to stay. Defense of the building was being organized and some residents had both long and short arms.
I tnen took my leave, hitting the road at warp speed. I had not fired a single shot. Mobs are usually made up of vicious cowards
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton ...
feelgood righteous justifications are loophole paths to hell that open all kinds of violation.
A looter that does not submit to employer citizens and their authorities when present should indeed be shot as it is a double transgression.
Yup. In some people's mentality, might makes right and to hell with everyone and everything else.
I don't know if this compares, but part of the problem when we (I was there) first went to Baghdad is that the looting was allowed to happen and soon led to total lawlessness.
It is not as though this was a big surprise. N.O. is in hurricane territory. Even without this particular storm, should they not have a standing plan to deal with power outages and the like, in the event of damage by any storm?
IMO, the mayor and governor are complete incompetents, and should be dispatched accordingly.
They're looters themselves.
Professional looters, actually.
female cops looting?
Why am I not surprized the feminist brigades are striking. It is oh so PC and great of a loophole to commit crimes under the guise of "leveling the playing field", as if crime and murder were a game.
Elect a woman, eg Hillary, and get more Butch Reno action at Waco in the name of "empowerment".
Tried and proven..
What's that? Your insurance rates will skyrocket? Not my problem.
Yup. And if he don't give it to you, just go take it. After all, he believes that he can't shoot to protect personal property, only to protect himself.
Yes, because I don't think that the looters are a problem that warrants over-riding search and resue ops.
Add to which, others who may not have done such a thing will go along once they realize there are no repercussions. The few bad apples spoiling the whole bunch.
They will deplete their ammo. I think most of them are from the "pray and sprat" school of what passes for thought..
That idiotic governor should have had LA.'s National Guard ready for deployment prior to the storms arrival, so that as soon as it was over they could be there.
Abso-frickin-lutely unforgivable.
But I suppose those numb skulls voted these people into office, so they get what they pay for. Maybe next time they will vote for conservatives who know how to behave like adults.
While the mob was many and you were few, nobody in the mob wanted to be one of the ones to die.
One of my older neighbors told me a story . . . during the Atlanta riots, the police told the folks over here (Cobb County) that they could not hold the Chattahoochee River bridge. Residents had fire points set up on the Cobb side of the river -- at that time there were plenty of good ol' boys and vets in Smyrna with deer rifles and military surplus rifles who knew how to use them (a lot more city folk and Yankees over here now). My neighbor was sitting up above the railroad bridge behind a rock with his Garand in his lap. Never fired a shot, probably because the folks on the Atlanta side knew what they would face if they rioted over the river . . .
A good strategy..
"LOL! Those bad boys on the ground must have been re-using stamps!"
More likely they asked if there was a UPS store nearby.
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