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Lawlessness in New Orleans is a national disgrace
Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 9/2/05 | Rich Lowry

Posted on 09/03/2005 6:54:45 AM PDT by RKV

The disaster of New Orleans, unspooling minute by minute on our TV screens, has been wrenching - in one particular way even more gut-twisting than Sept. 11.

You could watch the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and feel horrified at the sheer violence and destruction of it; angry at the murderous evil of Mohammed Atta and the other hijackers; heartbroken at the awful suffering and loss. But there wasn't any cause to feel embarrassed and ashamed.

Those are the emotions evoked by sights of the massive lawlessness in New Orleans in the days after the storm and the inability of anyone to stop it. Katrina unleashed a catastrophe of nearly unimaginable proportions, confronting government at all levels with enormous challenges. That the reaction to the hurricane initially seemed uneven and slow is understandable, but even allowing for the hellish circumstances, the breakdown in civil order has been stunning.

Without order, which government exists to protect, nothing else is possible. Not even rescue operations, as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has learned. On Wednesday night, as the city descended into an urban dystopia straight out of the 1981 film ''Escape From New York,'' he had to command nearly all the city's 1,500 police officers to focus on re-establishing law and order instead of saving endangered people.

Everyone understands desperate people getting food or water by any means possible. Plundering tennis shoes and TVs, as a small thuggish minority has done, is another matter. And the problem is that there is no such thing as a little chaos. Once a climate of disorder is set, it has a logic of its own. First, it was stealing tennis shoes, then it was taking potshots at a helicopter arriving to evacuate people from the Superdome. Goons stole a bus from a nursing home and threatened its residents. Rescue workers report that rocks and bottles have been thrown at them and shots fired their way.

Unfortunately, the urban revival that had swept much of the country mostly left New Orleans behind. The atmosphere of lawfulness that stood New York City in good stead after 9/11 and during the 2003 blackout - although those were much less far-reaching disasters was never established. The city never had a Rudy Giuliani. Even as murder rates continued to decline in other cities in recent years, the murder rate in New Orleans crept up. The police were plagued by allegations of corruption and brutality, and, according to The Associated Press, only had ''3.14 officers per 1,000 residents - less than half the rate in Washington, D.C.''

Law enforcement, of course, is primarily a state and local responsibility, but in the age of the 24-hour news cycle, people look to the federal government and the president to solve any problem on their TV screens. Already the question is being asked if the feds could have jumped in sooner (the National Guard is now arriving in force). If President Bush pays a political price for the images of lawlessness that have played out in New Orleans, it will be the second time looting has hurt his cause.

The other, of course, was in Baghdad in 2003. It is a matter of consensus now that the rip-the-place-apart looting in the initial days after the fall of Saddam Hussein set the occupation off on the wrong foot. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explained the looting away at the time as the natural exuberance of a newly liberated people. One wonders: Has anyone in the administration read their Hobbes? Or does he not make the ''compassionate conservative'' reading list?

New Orleans has provided a corrosive lesson about government. At all levels, government is overbearing and nagging, paying for people's prescription drugs and telling us whether we can smoke in restaurants or not. But when it comes to its most elemental task of maintaining order and protecting property, it might not be up to the task when it is needed most.

Keep that in mind and buy a gun, just in case.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: bloat; fmcdh; katrina; lawlessness; lowry; neworleans; rkba; urbanbarbarians
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To: Certain_Doom
"Can you source this accusation in the real world outside of your own bizarre fantasies?"

Just Google "Africa and cannibalism" and spend the rest of today reading what you find.

121 posted on 09/03/2005 9:50:06 AM PDT by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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To: nmh

If, God forbid, we experience something like this, those who have managed to keep (fill in the blank) behind closed doors will be out on the street with no social pressures to keep it in check. The "what do I have to lose" factor comes into play.

We all would be surprised at the vermen crawling out from under the rocks.


122 posted on 09/03/2005 10:30:03 AM PDT by Protect the Bill of Rights (Sooner or later Ted is going to swing the camera over to Orlando's head!)
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To: 2harddrive

Do your own research. That is what the internet is for.


123 posted on 09/03/2005 10:32:22 AM PDT by MamaB (mom to an angel)
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To: dts32041
I think Johnstone was right on the money in his Out of the Ashes series of books.
124 posted on 09/03/2005 10:35:00 AM PDT by MamaB (mom to an angel)
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To: sockmonkey
Has anyone heard if the CANNABILISM reported Friday by Randall Robertson, liberal black activist and president of Transafrica, is true?

A search of your name shows you have asked that question 14 times on fourteen different threads.

Is there a reason you have posted the same question 14 different times?

Maybe he's hungry?

125 posted on 09/03/2005 10:37:23 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Durka Durka Durka. Muhammed Jihad Durka.)
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To: Uncle Vlad

Well, we're making important inroads but we still need to increase the audience! I'm astonished by the crap on outlets like CNN and in my area newspapers, the L.A. Times, for instance. We have a long battle ahead.


126 posted on 09/03/2005 11:01:14 AM PDT by Bernard Marx (Don't make the mistake of interpreting my Civility as Servility)
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To: Bernard Marx

But we're finally winning! :)


127 posted on 09/03/2005 11:03:00 AM PDT by Uncle Vlad
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To: tiki
Culturally, you're right next to New Orleans. We all are. This is America. They are Americans. The world isn't seeing what's happening as a New Orleans phenomenon. They're seeing it as an American phenomenon.

And yes, WE are to blame. WE are the ones who let this entitlement mentality thrive. WE are the ones who permitted this lawless underclass to prey on us. WE are the ones who laid down our arms and who looked away sheepishly while generations of parasites squandered the American legacy of independence and self-reliance. None of that could have happened if WE had stopped it.

We all know the reason the looters weren't shot on sight: it would have been a racial nightmare. Even now, the bloviators are posturing and pontificating, trying to turn this into a race issue. Who are these people that they can intimidate an entire nation into accepting anarchy rather than risking their wrath? They're people WE empower every time WE cave into their PC demands.

WE tolerated "affirmative action." WE tolerated Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and Lou Farrakhan and all the rest of those predators. WE continue to tolerate legislators who steal our money to feed gangsters, welfare breeders, and the very people roaming the streets of New Orleans now.

Hold yourself blameless if you want, but unless you were out actively fighting these cancers, you were complicit in their success.

That's not to say there are not acts of heroism coming out of this tragedy. People in Texas and surrounding states have opened their homes and hearts to the refugees. Rescuers are working beyond human endurance to retrieve the stranded and bring in supplies. There are going to be a thousand stories of sacrifice and nobility to emerge once these waters recede, to offset the disgusting scenes of looting and plunder.

But this never should have happened. Not in America. Not in MY America. Not in OUR America.

128 posted on 09/03/2005 11:16:10 AM PDT by IronJack
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Comment #129 Removed by Moderator

To: IronJack

Good on yer, IronJack. Your message needs to be printed on posters and distributed to every streetcorner in America. Johnson's Great Society doomed this country to a cultural paralysis that will keep us impotent and ineffective until We The People cure it.


130 posted on 09/03/2005 12:15:53 PM PDT by Bernard Marx (Don't make the mistake of interpreting my Civility as Servility)
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To: Certain_Doom

Your ability to read 132,000 postings in less than an hour is most impressive, but to comprehend no more than you did proves that a person will only believe what they want to believe.


131 posted on 09/03/2005 12:30:08 PM PDT by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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Comment #132 Removed by Moderator

To: Dick Bachert

You bring out a very imprtant point that has rarely been mentioned throughout all the looting reports and justifications.

Leaving a simple note or trail of what one took.

I suspect a fair number of the franchises have battery operated self-checkout stations. No mention of that option in emergency planning, but instead there has been an onimous omission of any conscientious concern for property rights.

That omission speaks volumes to what American society has become.


133 posted on 09/03/2005 1:21:52 PM PDT by Cvengr (<;^))
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To: IronJack

Actually, I was out there fighting. I registered to vote on my 18th birthday and was in the first class to do that. I have been active in politics for years. I used to write my senators when you had to use a pen or a regular typewriter. I regularly wrote editorials all of which were published. I have never missed a chance to vote. So Yes, I have done my duty.


134 posted on 09/03/2005 1:34:13 PM PDT by tiki
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To: tiki

I did all the same things. They weren't enough. We failed. This is the price we pay.


135 posted on 09/03/2005 1:41:54 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: sierrahome

Its OK.

I can understand how my post might be misinterpreted.

Its hard for people to understand "How can God allow such a thing to happen?"

I had a son born with severe birth defects. Its a natural thing to think. But when you find yourself leaning on the Lord more closely, and the warmth and love that comes from that, you realize that His blessings come in many ways.

My family is praying for all of the people in N.O. Even those who are living for themselves at the detriment of others. We are praying that they will come to realize the error of their ways.

If your family has faith, this might turn out to be one of the greatest things that ever happened to them. That might sound hard to believe, but I believe it to be true.


136 posted on 09/03/2005 2:00:43 PM PDT by Paloma_55
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To: Paloma_55
'I had a son born with severe birth defects"

I put myself through Ball State University as an aide in a CP ward of Turtle Creek Home for Children. I was 19 and given charge of the nursery. I had 14 kids from 2 to 19 that I cared for over 5 years until graduate school at Notre Dame. I worked at a Turtle Creek in geriatrics there in South Bend. Lots of Priests could never explain "How God could allow this" better than Mrs. Sisson She was an Army corp Nurse that had a CP child of her own. Thanks for accepting my apology...it is important for me to say to you that my abrupt behavior was wrong. Thanks friend!
137 posted on 09/03/2005 2:39:12 PM PDT by sierrahome
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To: IronJack

What else were we supposed to do, go to Washington with an AK-47?


138 posted on 09/03/2005 2:48:35 PM PDT by tiki
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To: IronJack
Instead of rising to the challenge, the way Americans are wont to do (or at least believe we are), we collapsed beneath it. This is not our finest hour.

Utter tripe.

139 posted on 09/03/2005 2:52:43 PM PDT by Howlin (Have you check in on this thread: FYI: Hurricane Katrina Freeper SIGN IN Thread)
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To: sockmonkey

He posted it 14 times; if he's so interested I wonder why he doesn't know his correct name?


140 posted on 09/03/2005 2:55:01 PM PDT by Howlin (Have you check in on this thread: FYI: Hurricane Katrina Freeper SIGN IN Thread)
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