Posted on 09/09/2005 8:13:25 AM PDT by 300magnum
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Soldiers and police confiscated guns from homeowners as they went house to house, trying to clear the shattered city of holdouts because of the danger of disease and fire. Police on Friday also marked homes with corpses inside, with plans to return later.
As many as 10,000 people were believed to be stubbornly staying put in the city, despite orders from Mayor Ray Nagin earlier this week to leave or be removed by force. By midmorning, though, there were no immediate reports of anyone being taken out forcibly, police said.
Police are "not going to do that until we absolutely have to. We really don't want to do that at all," Deputy Chief Warren Riley said.
Some residents who had previously refused to leave - whether because they wanted to protect their homes from looters, they did not want to leave their pets behind, or they simply feared the unknown - are now changing their minds and asking to be rescued, police said. "They realize they're not going to this awful situation like the Superdome or the Convention Center," Riley said. "As days go by, it seems less and less likely that we'll have to force anyone."
He added: "I don't know of any incidents where people are being bellingerent."
Police and soldiers seized numerous guns for fear of confrontations with jittery residents who have armed themselves against looters.
"No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons," Riley said.
Thomas say forced evacuations would be a mistake.
On Thursday, in the city's well-to-do Lower Garden District, a neighborhood with many antebellum mansions, members of the Oklahoma National Guard seized weapons from the inhabitants of one home. Those who were armed were handcuffed and briefly detained before being let go.
"Walking up and down these streets, you don't want to think about the stuff that you're going to have to do, if somebody's pops out around a corner," said one of the Guardsmen, Chris Montgomery.
Police also went door-to-door checking for bodies or anyone in need of rescue. Houses where corpses were found were marked so that authorities could go back later.
Under what legal authority is this being done?
I personally don't think they have the authority.
And will these weapons be returned to them? Fat chance.
Yep.
Like the folks here ...
Click Here for 411 KB Low
Quality .wmv Video
For Dial-Up Users
I do hope we are on the same page.
Build their gallows high
"No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons," Riley said.
On Thursday, in the city's well-to-do Lower Garden District, a neighborhood with many antebellum mansions, members of the Oklahoma National Guard seized weapons from the inhabitants of one home. Those who were armed were handcuffed and briefly detained before being let go...
Amendment II
A wll regulated militia, being necessart to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Some observations:
(1) the death toll in MS is something over 200. People in MS are far more efficient and did not have to deal with extended flooding, so their search and recovery is far more complete.
Additionally, MS actually received the full brunt of the storm. People in MS were far more likely to be drowned by the intial storm surge, to be crushed inside destroyed houses, etc. I would expect the highest natural death toll from this area and so far it's mercifully light compared to the sheer destruction of so many homes.
(2) We've seen exaggerations before. In the aftermath of 9/11, weeks later, people were still guessing that 25,000 were dead. It was only 11% of that number.
(3) Some of the stuff being said by news commentators makes absolutely no sense - i.e. that once the waters recede we'll find bodies at the bottom. Bodies float. That's why murderers weigh bodies down when they want to hide them in water.
Also, we keep seeing the makeshift grave of that poor woman named Vera again and again. We haven't seen any more than that one.
Also, we've seen the single body on I-10 again and again and again - not too many other corpses lying by the side of the road, just like there's not too many other makeshift graves.
I'm sure there are poor unfortunates dead inside some houses, but most people seem to have made it to roofs.
(4) The quickie funerals being described in the press are of very atypical cases - one of an NO policeman who fled the floods and shot himself in Baton Rouge, one of a man who refused to evacuate and was found dead in NO because he slept in the same room as his emergency generator and suffocated from carbon monoxide.
I'm hoping that all this talk is overblown.
...or how many were murdered in home-invasions?
I'm afraid that isn't the issue here.
The issue is ... by what right do the police have to disarm the citizenry?
Build their gallows high
Thank you for posting this
I saw this poor woman beings dragged out of her house yesterday, after being roughed up a bit.
Hey, if I had provisions and my house was dry, I wouldn't leave either. No telling what I might come back too!!
And the democrats will say that Bush is hiding the real numbers of dead from the public.
bttt
The authority of having more and bigger guns. It does prove what I always thought. The blowhards who claimed they would never let the government take their guns proved docile enough when they actually are faced with having to make the decision.
I am extremely naive on this topic, so forgive me for asking what are probably stupid questions:
- Will "law-abiding" (registered vs. gang) gun owners get their guns BACK? Do those who confiscate the guns give them some kind of notice/"receipt" of what they took? By model # or count?
- Do purchase "receipts" for guns now count as "important papers" to keep in a disaster kit in case something like this happens? So you have proof of what you owned that was confiscated (unlawfully, it sounds like)...
- What is the law that says they can do this?
This has gone beyond the ridiculous. Louisiana is a complete screw up as a state. That idiot governor is really pushing to use this disaster to force certain political outcomes.
Molon Labe you piece of filth...
Except the criminal's guns.
I've been saying no more than 2000 in N.O.
Now you will most likely be tackled, arrested or shot, and charged with some trumped-up offense. It's sad.
Whatever happened to the concept of citizens being the allies of the law? We once were on the same side, it was us versus the bad guys, and cops were glad for help.
Ok I'll buy TWO guns. A junk one for the government to steal and a good one to defend my right to have it in the first place.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.