Posted on 09/01/2005 5:57:30 PM PDT by Uncle Joe Cannon
New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes
Friday September 2, 2005 12:46 AM
AP Photo MSDP112
By ALLEN G. BREED
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken. ``This is a desperate SOS,'' mayor Ray Nagin said.
``We are out here like pure animals,'' the Rev. Issac Clark said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where he and other evacuees had been waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead.
``I'm not sure I'm going to get out of here alive,'' said tourist Larry Mitzel of Saskatoon, Canada, who handed a reporter his business card in case he goes missing. ``I'm scared of riots. I'm scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire.''
Four days after Hurricane Katrina roared in with a devastating blow that inflicted potentially thousands of deaths, the frustration, fear and anger mounted, despite the promise of 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the looting, plans for a $10 billion recovery bill in Congress and a government relief effort President Bush called the biggest in U.S. history.
New Orleans' top emergency management official called that effort a ``national disgrace'' and questioned when reinforcements would actually reach the increasingly lawless city.
About 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at New Orleans convention center grew increasingly hostile after waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead. Police Chief Eddie Compass said he sent in 88 officers to quell the situation at the building, but they were quickly driven back by an angry mob.
``We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten,'' Compass said. ``Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.''
A military helicopter tried to land at the convention center several times to drop off food and water. But the rushing crowd forced the choppers to back off. Troopers then tossed the supplies to the crowd from 10 feet off the ground and flew away.
In hopes of defusing the situation at the convention center, Mayor Ray Nagin gave the refugees permission to march across a bridge to the city's unflooded west bank for whatever relief they could find. But the bedlam made that difficult.
``This is a desperate SOS,'' Nagin said in a statement. ``Right now we are out of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses.''
At least seven bodies were scattered outside the convention center, a makeshift staging area for those rescued from rooftops, attics and highways. The sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement.
An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.
``I don't treat my dog like that,'' 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair.
``You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for your own people,'' he added. ``You can go overseas with the military, but you can't get them down here.''
The street outside the center, above the floodwaters, smelled of urine and feces, and was choked with dirty diapers, old bottles and garbage.
``They've been teasing us with buses for four days,'' Edwards said. ``They're telling us they're going to come get us one day, and then they don't show up.''
Every so often, an armored state police vehicle cruised in front of the convention center with four or five officers in riot gear with automatic weapons. But there was no sign of help from the National Guard.
At one point the crowd began to chant ``We want help! We want help!'' Later, a woman, screaming, went on the front steps of the convention center and led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm, ``The Lord is my shepherd ...''
``We are out here like pure animals,'' the Issac Clark said.
``We've got people dying out here - two babies have died, a woman died, a man died,'' said Helen Cheek. ``We haven't had no food, we haven't had no water, we haven't had nothing. They just brought us here and dropped us.''
Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, ``'Go to hell - it's every man for himself.'''
``This is just insanity,'' she said. ``We have no food, no water ... all these trucks and buses go by and they do nothing but wave.''
At the hot and stinking Superdome, where 30,000 were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome, fistfights and fires erupted amid a seething sea of tense, suffering people who waited in a lines that stretched a half-mile to board yellow school buses.
After a traffic jam kept buses from arriving for nearly four hours, a near-riot broke out in the scramble to get on the buses that finally did show up, with a group of refugees breaking through a line of heavily armed National Guardsmen.
One military policeman was shot in the leg as he and a man scuffled for the MP's rifle, police Capt. Ernie Demmo said. The man was arrested.
Some of those among the mostly poor crowd had been in the dome for four days without air conditioning, working toilets or a place to bathe. An ambulance service airlifting the sick and injured out of the Superdome suspended flights as too dangerous after it was reported that a bullet was fired at a military helicopter.
``If they're just taking us anywhere, just anywhere, I say praise God,'' said refugee John Phillip. ``Nothing could be worse than what we've been through.''
By Thursday evening, 11 hours after the military began evacuating the Superdome, the arena held 10,000 more people than it did at dawn. National Guard Capt. John Pollard said evacuees from around the city poured into the Superdome and swelled the crowd to about 30,000 because they believed the arena was the best place to get a ride out of town.
As he watched a line snaking for blocks through ankle-deep waters, New Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert blamed the inadequate response on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
``This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy,'' he said. He added: ``We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans.''
FEMA officials said some operations had to be suspended in areas where gunfire has broken out.
A day after Nagin took 1,500 police officers off search-and-rescue duty to try to restore order in the streets, there were continued reports of looting, shootings, gunfire and carjackings - and not all the crimes were driven by greed.
When some hospitals try to airlift patients, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan said, ``there are people just taking potshots at police and at helicopters, telling them, `You better come get my family.'''
Outside a looted Rite-Aid drugstore, some people were anxious to show they needed what they were taking. A gray-haired man who would not give his name pulled up his T-shirt to show a surgery scar and explained that he needs pads for incontinence.
``I'm a Christian. I feel bad going in there,'' he said.
Earl Baker carried toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant. ``Look, I'm only getting necessities,'' he said. ``All of this is personal hygiene. I ain't getting nothing to get drunk or high with.''
While floodwaters in the city appeared to stabilize, efforts continued to plug three breaches that had opened up in the levee system that protects this below-sea-level city.
Helicopters dropped sandbags into the breach and pilings were being pounded into the mouth of the canal Thursday to close its connection to Lake Pontchartrain, state Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry said. He said contractors had completed building a rock road to let heavy equipment roll to the area by midnight.
The next step called for using about 250 concrete road barriers to seal the gap.
In Washington, the White House said Bush will tour the devastated Gulf Coast region on Friday and has asked his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign for victims.
The president urged a crackdown on the lawlessness.
``I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this - whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud,'' Bush said. ``And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The citizens ought to be working together.''
Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away.
``They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would blow our damn brains out,'' he said. ``We don't want their help. Give us some vehicles and we'll get ourselves out of here!''
----
Thanks for the link. This seems like an extraordinary situation to me but maybe that's just me.
Thanks Grampa, I bookmarked the site. That's an interesting and little known episode in our history.
The military services were used for civilian law enforcement in 1992 when President Bush issued an Executive Order for the US Marines, Army, and the federalized California National Guard to restore order following the verdict of the Rodney King trial.
So much for the "President doesn't have the authority" rap.
Additional non-combat domestic duties were added. In 1992, the US Army and Air Force assumed a domestic disaster relief mission when they responded to assist after Hurricane Andrew in south Florida and after Hurricane Iniki in Hawaii a month later.
A precedent for hurricanes.
That is one of the best written historical essays on the Bonus War.
Thanks for bringing it up.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011542.php
Another view
Below is a link to an excellent summary of the National Guard and reserves. The paragraph below is from this. This writeup was published in 2002.
Maybe some Freepers in the National Guard will come on board and explain Federalization of the Guard and how it can happen.
http://www.stormingmedia.us/63/6350/A635024.html
"In peacetime, however, National Guard units belong to states, and state governors are the commanders in chief. Unless federalized, Guard members are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and Guard units fall outside of the formal Department of Defense (DoD) command structure. Under the law, the National Guard is composed of individual, but nationally funded and regulated state militias that can be federalized and used as a reserve force."
Sounds like a typical day in Detroit.
I'm not sure what view those posts are an alternative to. I quite agree with them. The fault lies with LA and NO. NO has one of the biggest populations of welfare recipients and the city itself exists due to a national welfare system supporting their levee system. NO is a testament to the inefficacy of nanny-state socialism. Shouldn't liberals agree that NO isn't viable and ought to be aborted? ;^)
Thanks again, Grampa, you have a great wealth of resources on your hard drive. And your soft drive.
http://www.emergency.com/la-riots.htm
snip
According to California Governor Pete Wilson, he has activated more than 2,000 National Guardsmen to help quell the rampage in Los Angeles. The Guardsman are reportedly members of Military Police Units and are said to be armed with sidearms and M-16 rifles. Police spokespersons indicate that the Gueardsmen have not been used for law enforcement duties, but to secure areas that have been previously cleared by police. An unidentified Army Sergeant was reported to have said that the guard is "on stand-by" awaiting the orders of police officials.
snip
As lawlessness continued, President George Bush called for calm and a stop to "anarchy" on the streets of Los Angeles. He said that he had conferred with U.S. Attorney william Barr, Mayor Tom Bradley, and Governor Pete Wilson in an effort to provide whatever assistance might be needed to stop the senseless arson, violence, and looting. President Bush is said to have several key staff members monitoring the situation closely and available to provide federal assistance should it be needed.
snip
As 4,000 regular Army troops and 1,000 federal law enforcement officers move into Los Angeles, people have begun to actually assess the severity of this latest day of "revolution". They find thirty-eight (38) people dead, 1,250 people injuried, 3,600 structural fires, hundreds of businesses looted and closed, and more than 3,000 people arrested. At least four (4) police officers and three (3) firefighters have been shot and hundreds of other injuried as they attempted to control the fires and lawlessness of the past three days.
A "Dusk to Dawn" curfew has been imposed by Mayor Tom Bradley, in an effort to prevent citizens from congregating into the groups that have controlled the streets in recent days. The curfew also finally has "teeth" as 4,000 California National Guardsmen assist the police in securing areas of previous violence. This evening, the National Guard Units were also "federalized" by President Bush and supplemented by another 4,000 Army and Marine troops with orders to act as "Light-Infantry" and to "return fire if fired upon".
snip
Notice the Guardsman did not act as "policemen" but to guard secured areas.
The progression..and the conferring with the Governor and the Mayor came before he acted...along with the Attorney General..
I'm glad I did. You and MEG33 are going to force me to create a new folder if you keep it up. (what a tragedy)
For 2 cents, I will let you in on Grampa Dave's Secret.
When something historical comes up or a question like the Federalizing the National Guard, I use the best search machine on the internet. Yahoo.com and its search.
Yahoo.com's search is easier, faster and often more accurate than Google and the other searches. Below is the link to the Yahoo Search on "Federalizing the Nation Guard":
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=Federalizing%20the%20National%20Guard
Google is Great!
I have heard on the radio that Pres. Bush is heading down there today to 'conference' with 'local' officials. Perhaps he was invited but it sounded more like he had had enough and was going to go twist some arms. In the end the law will be followed, IOWs the 'local' officials will get to say "we asked the Pres. for help," but the reality will be that Pres. Bush opened a can of whoop-ass on them.
Those LA Dem pols are playing a game of 'drop the ball and blame the Republican Pres.' but it looks like he's going to publically put the ball back in play, put it back in their court and then they can hang on their own petards if they drop it again.
No kidding!? Thank you verrry much. I have used nothing but Google for 2-3 years now. I even use yahoo as a mail client so I see their buttons all the time but never was inclined to use the search function. Excellent!
Try it. You will probably like it.
One of the fun things to do is when a writer or pseudo writer makes an outrageous attack on GW, run a search on it to see the long pattern of such attacks.
>>I wasn't referring to those who couldn't leave, I was referring to those who wouldn't leave.>>
I agree, stubborness has it's own penalty sometimes.
I apologize too. Emotions are high right now.
Take care and I hope your wife's family is ok!!!
..I use Yahoo for news, email and Tvguide..I did not see the search feature..Thanks! I cannot believe I missed it..
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