Posted on 09/10/2005 1:33:08 PM PDT by publiusF27
In the nearly two weeks since Hurricane Katrina, the government of New Orleans has devolved from its traditional status as an elective kleptocracy into something far more dangerous: an anarcho-tyranny that refuses to protect the public from criminals while preventing people from protecting themselves. At the orders of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the New Orleans Police, the National Guard, the Oklahoma National Guard, and U.S. Marshals have begun breaking into homes at gunpoint, confiscating their lawfully-owned firearms, and evicting the residents. "No one is allowed to be armed. We're going to take all the guns," says P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police.
Last week, thousands of New Orleanians huddled in the Superdome and the Convention Center got a taste of anarcho-tyranny. Everyone entering those buildings was searched for firearms. So for a few days, they lived in a small world without guns. As in other such worlds, the weaker soon became the prey of the stronger.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
I hope my friend sees this article. I don't think she believed me when I told her they were taking people's guns. She is a big "Reason" reader, so she will likely see it there.
I can see taking guns and other weapons from those in the dome. Breaking in and taking them from owners in their own homes is another thing altogether.
There should be laws against this.
It's bad enough that they are doing this on the orders of the mayor. Imagine if there had been a hurricane in Texas and President Clinton had ordered the confiscation of all weapons? You wonder why we have the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878?
There is!
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Apparently the second ammendment isn't enough and is under debate. We need something to put a finer point on the wording, something to the effect that confiscation of any firearms is illegal period.
The NRA has a call into the La. Attorney General seeking clarification on what is going on.
There is no City of New Orleans government.
Wait a minute. Why should convicted felons not have any firearms they have confiscated? Under the eighth amendment, people can have rights restricted or removed if so long as they are are given "due process of law".
The BATF and IRS are the front runners in the gun confacation process
This may be of interest for Tuesday's question.
This SOB needs to leave this country.
How the heck can they get away with this?????
So, generalissimo compass is just a warlord?
Hurricane damage has cast the Louisiana legal system into disarray, with courts and cases suspended or relocated, criminal and civil evidence imperiled or destroyed, and lawyers relocated around the U.S. desperately seeking work.
The extent of the destroyed evidence and lawsuit files remains uncertain, as several courts remain inaccessible or under water. But because of the damage, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco this week issued an order suspending all state civil-court deadlines, such as statutes of limitations dictating when cases must be filed, at least through Sept. 25.
Many civil and criminal trial courts have suspended operations in the parishes, or counties, in the New Orleans area. The federal district court in New Orleans says it is "closed until further notice" and that it hopes to reopen in three locations -- Houma, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La. The Louisiana Supreme Court has moved to Baton Rouge, and the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has shifted temporarily to Houston.
"There could be damage to the court records or filings, but we just don't know," said Robert E. Kleinpeter, president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, referring to several New Orleans-area courts.
Michelle Ghetti, a law professor at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, said that various Louisiana prosecutors met via conference call Thursday in part to discuss the extent of damage to criminal-case evidence. In an email to law colleagues, Prof. Ghetti recently wrote that courts "in as many as eight parishes/counties are under water, as well as three of our circuit courts, with evidence/files at each of them ruined."
As for criminal courts, most law-enforcement authorities have been preoccupied with maintaining the peace as much as they can, and haven't had a chance to focus on courts or evidence. The damage to records and briefs at many law firms is expected to be immense. Tom Alexander of CLC Inc., a legal-referral company, said, "There are a lot of large law firms that are not going to be able to recover their files."
The NRA will do too little, too late. Or else it will propose as a compromise that the NRA should be the designated receiver for the weapons.
The BATF is assisting full heartedly, however.
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