New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms as Water Recedes

Ny Times ^ | September 8 | ALEX BERENSON and TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

[RDTF]

Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here.

No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns, or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.

But that order apparently does not apply to the hundreds of security guards whom businesses and some wealthy individuals have hired to protect their property. The guards, who are civilians working for private security firms like Blackwater, are openly carrying M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.

Nearly two weeks after the floods began, New Orleans has turned into an armed camp, patrolled by thousands of local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, as well as National Guard troops and active-duty soldiers. While armed looters roamed unchecked last week, the city is now calm. No arrests were made on Wednesday night or this morning, and police received only 10 calls for service, a police spokesman said.

The city's slow recovery is continuing on other fronts as well, local officials said at a press conference late this morning. Pumping stations are now operating across much of the city, and many taps and fire hydrants have water pressure. Also, tests have shown no evidence of cholera or other dangerous diseases in flooded areas, though health officials have said the waters contain levels of E. coli bacteria and lead 10 times higher than what is considered safe.

Efforts to recover corpses have also started, although only a handful of bodies have been recovered so far.

[ChefKeith]

"It's O.K. my gun just has a camera on the end of it and I'm here to help"

[tacticalogic]

New Orleans is soon to become the seat of power of the One World Government.

Good. Then we can push the whole lot off into the ocean at once.

[Nov3]

You have to hope that if they were able to hold onto their paperwork in the flood (yeah ok) they'll get them back.

How many guns do you have paperwork on? None of mine. I found an AR-15 last month that I forgot I had.

[Petronski]

By making them defenseless the citizens are at too much of a risk if they stay...

That's the same statist crap Blanco pulled with the Red Cross and access to the Pooperdome: by making them thirsty and hungry the citizens are at too much of a risk if they stay...

These people don't believe in the intrinsic value of the individual, only in the manipulation and control of the sheeple crowd. There's something very Stalinist about that.

[dimquest]

What Is Martial Law? And is New Orleans under it?

By Keelin McDonell


Military presence? Yes. Martial law? No.

On Tuesday reports began circulating that New Orleans officials had put the flood-ravaged city under martial law. The attorney general's office of Louisiana quickly issued a denial.

Confusion persisted, however, after White House press secretary Scott McClellan told a group of journalists on Wednesday that "martial law has been declared in Mississippi and Louisiana."

Yesterday National Guard Lt. Gen H. Steven Blum sought to set the record straight, saying, "This is not, as it has been erroneously reported, martial law."
What is martial law? And who can declare it?


Martial law occurs when the military assumes police powers because local authorities and courts aren't functioning.

Although the president usually imposes martial law, federal regulation allows for a "local commander" to do so "on the spot, if the circumstances demand immediate action." Federal armed forces are expected to relinquish these powers as soon as the local government is once again operable.
During martial law, the military may arrest and try civilians, seize private property, and institute curfews, among other emergency powers.

In practice, however, martial law has been all but barred since the late 19th century. During the Civil War, President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and set up military courts in several states in the South and Midwest. Many at the time felt that Lincoln had superseded his authority, and in 1878 Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the military from performing civilian law enforcement without congressional approval.

The Posse Comitatus Act effectively limited the president's power to declare martial law, but it did not entirely end it. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the governor of Hawaii called for martial law. President Roosevelt approved the motion, and the islands remained under military authority until October of 1944.

Additionally, governors can still request that the president immediately dispatch federal troops to assist police during emergencies. This happened during two notable instances of rioting in recent history at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and after the verdict was handed down in the Rodney King trial in Los Angeles in 1992.
Neither instance constituted martial law (or violated Posse Comitatus) since federal troops were supporting and not supplanting local leaders.
During the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal, it was revealed that Oliver North had helped FEMA draft plans to overrule Posse Comitatus and impose martial rule if a major instance of civil unrest occurred.


More recently, civil libertarians have worried that the military may become the de facto enforcer of law if the United States is attacked.
The Katrina relief effort includes military assistance, but it is not martial law.

National Guard units are acting under the direction of governors, and federal troops are providing humanitarian relief.
Neither of these violates Posse Comitatus.

While martial law has not been imposed, a state of emergency has been declared in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, signaling that some civil liberties, such as the right to congregate, may be limited because of extreme conditions.

http://slate.msn.com/toolbar.aspx?action=read&id=2125584

---

The "extreme conditions" in New Orleans do not justify the confiscation of weapons from residents on their private property.

State & local authorities are exceeding their constitutional powers, and will [hopefully] pay the political price.

[Doctor Stochastic]

FEMA is now part of Homeland Security.

It's for The Children.

[Jeff Head]

I got it many years ago as a child when my parents pointed it out to me. Wrote about it some years later...HERE

[mewzilla]

Who can order the Guard to confiscate? And even if the LA Guard is told to do it, without martial law it's still illegal, isn't it? Jeez louise, lawbreakers can run amok, but citizens can't possess legally registered firearms? Federal, state, and local governments don't have to obey the law if it's not convenient?

[Tarpon]

So, there is no Second Amendment in New Orleans?

Depends on who you pay off. It's the New Orleans way.

[Lazamataz]

Anna, you were 100% spot-on.

Now back to my regularly-scheduled lurking.

[TXBubba]

You probably know more about it than I do. I can only report what I saw and heard.

[spunkets]

Arms for me, but not for thee. Kiss yer home good bye too. Now get out!

[muawiyah]

Almost everybody is OUT of New Orleans already. I doubt they are terribly concerned about those still in the city.

[mewzilla]

While martial law has not been imposed, a state of emergency has been declared in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, signaling that some civil liberties, such as the right to congregate, may be limited because of extreme conditions.

Exqueeze me? Without federal martial law, this is Constitutional?

[Nov3]

I KNEW you got it in general. I have read dozens and dozens of posts by you. In this particular incident I was a little unsure however.

What is happening is an outrage of epic proportions. We need to start calling our congressmen and raising HELL.

[mewzilla]

I don't know any more. I'm sitting here scraping my jaw off the floor.

[Michael Goldsberry]

Laz! You're back early! Ha! Good to see 'ya, man!

[Nov3]

Clear and succinct!

[DocRock]

Bookmark for reference

[TXBubba]

That makes two of us. Some days it is all starting to seem so surreal. Glad we have FR at times like these.