Posted on 09/18/2005 4:41:37 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi
By the police,perhaps the Nat'l Guard --- not the military.
Corrupt local gov't should not lead to a military state.
Perhaps I didn't make my point clearly enough. Any law can be trumped by executive order or swept away by Congress whenever there is a threat to security and civil order. Who knows how long the drafts of the Patriot Act sat there on the sidelines waiting for such an emergency as 9/11? I guarantee you that, in the time between 9/11 and the time the Patriot Act was passed, there wasn't time to draft, much less have individual Congressmen read a 4000-page piece of legislation. We have passed the point-of-no-return expecting our legal system and courts to protect us from executive orders or laws that are unconstitutional. Posse Comitatus can be waved aside easily. The same goes with laws that protect Americans' privacy, freedom from intelligence surveillance, etc. All that is needed is to somehow establish justification in the name of security. It's not right. It's just the way it is.
That does not mean Posse Comitatus should be amended. In fact, it should be strengthened to create a larger barrier between military and civilian law enforcement.
Instead of the doom and gloom you write, how about a practical suggestion for making things better?
I have thought of some different options. I do think FEMA could have executed better. The root cause of the problems I think were due to the fact the New Orleans and State officials were both incompetent but also greatly limited in their ability to respond because of damage from the storm itself.
As opposed to extending the military mission, why not organize FEMA like a military organization, perhaps under the Coast Guard. When states of emergency are declared have callups to active duty and deploy with similar equipment and organization of a military operation.
It is hard to imagine the spectacle of the US military rolling over the Panchartrain Causeway and engaging US citizens, unruly though they may have been, in a firefight.
I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, this is exactly how most of our laws and regulations are being written.
The MSM will inflate some perceived problem for months. Then both sides of the political aisle will attempt to protect us (especially women, children, minorities). Cha-Ching one more freedom lost because of the actions of some piece of human debris.
Maybe freepers should support stem cell research for growing a backbone in Republicans. I am tired of voting for Republicans only to get dumbocrap lite.
Your idea is good, but I disagree with the root cause.
The fault lies entirely with state and local officials. The ability to respond was diminished due to a lack of planning and a lack of protecting their first responders, not due to the storm damage. Local police, fire, medical, etc should have been secured and staged in a safe location so they could go into the city after the storm passed. That did not happen because there was no evacuation --- other than a verbal order. This lack of evacuation led to the numerous stranded people and the drowinings of those unable to help themselves (nursing home).
FEMA is primarily a coordinator of the responders. Since the state was unwilling to allow FEMA to coordinate the National Guard and since local law enforcement was scattered and in disarray, FEMA had nobody to coordinate.
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