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Staffers try to defend school against gang (Armed thugs held staff 2 1/2 days)
Baltimore Sun ^ | September 3, 2005 | Douglas Birch

Posted on 09/03/2005 1:05:29 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

.......The thugs laughed as they knocked the door down. "They told us they could do what they wanted, because the police weren't going to come anyway," said LeRoy Doucette, 56, husband of the chief custodian.

Some ex-students

Eventually, the gang forced the terrified school staff and their families - including several chronically ill and disabled people - into the school's auditorium. The staff recognized some as former students. "They thought it was a joke," said Evelyn Jenkins, 61, the school's parent-teacher liaison officer.

...The gang slept all day, the staff said, then set off from the school at night in boats to loot local businesses and homes. They broke into the computer room and pried open the locked freezers with hammers and crowbars.

As the floodwaters rose and cut off the school from the rest of the city - and perhaps from civilization - the invaders drank, smoked and partied. Sometimes they fired their weapons, staffers said, and at other times quarreled, with violent threats.

Huddled in the auditorium, the frightened defenders took turns sleeping while others kept watch. ...

When friends and volunteers approached in boats to evacuate the staff, the thugs threatened to hijack the boats and drove them away. When relatives of the staff brought food and water to the school, the thugs seized almost everything - giving the school's defenders only a few jugs of water. LeRoy Doucette said he saw the looters taking random potshots at passers-by.

....Finally, the staff put signs on the roof of the building begging for help. As helicopters hovered overhead, boats with armed men approached. The thugs were kept at bay, and the hostages were freed.

But the boats took the school's defenders only as far as a dry, deserted section of town....

(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: crime; gangs; hurricane; katrina; neworleans; thugs
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To: Travis McGee

I am watching this with great interest, I live half way between Galveston and Houston, I will make certain I am prepared to defend myself and my friends should the need arise. Happily my little town is well off the beaten path and folks here know to surive and stick together. Unhappily the probelms of Houston (gangs) creep closer all the time. Gangs have pretty much taken over night life in our neighboring town, I fear this event in New Orleans will only enboldem them to try it here too.


101 posted on 09/03/2005 2:47:41 PM PDT by jpsb
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To: Cincinatus' Wife; MeekOneGOP; potlatch; PhilDragoo; ntnychik; Smartass; Czar; bitt; Zacs Mom; ...



102 posted on 09/03/2005 3:11:06 PM PDT by devolve (------- warning -- do not check out my lame FR profile page -----)
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To: devolve

God bless the Duke.


103 posted on 09/03/2005 3:16:09 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: devolve

John Wayne to the rescue. We could use more men like him.


104 posted on 09/03/2005 3:25:16 PM PDT by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: potlatch; MeekOneGOP; PhilDragoo; Smartass; Alamo-Girl

"John Wayne to the rescue.

We could use more men like him." - potlatch




105 posted on 09/03/2005 3:44:29 PM PDT by devolve (------- warning -- do not check out my lame FR profile page -----)
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To: nj_pilot
WRT the permanently poor, what can be done?

The middle class of Louisiana have only one chance: abolish welfare, or at least all state components of it. Force the underclass to go elsewhere. Of course that also means they have to overthrow the Dem overlords

106 posted on 09/03/2005 4:04:12 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor
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To: jpsb

Must be a huge gang problem coming your way gradually, like a rising tide....


107 posted on 09/03/2005 4:28:24 PM PDT by Travis McGee (--- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com ---)
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To: Travis McGee

This is what social breakdown looks like. This will happen to any large city, if the power and water go out for days.

I thought having no government was a libertarian's dream.


108 posted on 09/03/2005 4:57:55 PM PDT by moog
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To: devolve

LOL, funny, funny!


109 posted on 09/03/2005 8:15:43 PM PDT by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: devolve

Thanks for the ping!


110 posted on 09/03/2005 9:09:57 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: devolve

bastids!


111 posted on 09/03/2005 9:50:29 PM PDT by bitt ('But once the shooting starts, a plan is just a guess in a party dress.' Michael Yon)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Liberals have coddled criminals for years, only gets you more criminals.


112 posted on 09/03/2005 9:56:51 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Conservatives are from Earth. Liberals are from Uranus.(c))
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To: mrustow

fyi


113 posted on 09/04/2005 12:24:17 AM PDT by jonatron
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To: The Red Zone

"Residential areas should go onto higher ground."I agree.This was a disaster just waiting to happen,and it WILL happen again.Someone at work mentioned that in NO ships in the Gulf are higher than ground level in downtown NO(?).It's not as bad here in Tampa Bay,but again,similar scenario,millions of people packed in like sardines in areas that are(in many cases)right on the water,and only inches above sea level.


114 posted on 09/04/2005 9:26:23 AM PDT by Thombo2
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

"He hopes, he said, that people elsewhere in the United States recognize that most of those left homeless by Katrina are hard-working family people who happen to live in a poor neighborhood. They should not, he pointed out, be confused with the thugs."

What percentage of NO citizens are dependent on some form of government assistance prior to Katrina?


115 posted on 09/04/2005 10:08:40 AM PDT by doc
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