Posted on 09/08/2005 3:40:23 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When some newby tries to tell me what I can say - Yeah I can be.
Maybe you should stay off this thread.
If you don't like people responding don't act like they are your children newby.
And by the way, jerk, I am not a 'he.'
So what.
What would Great Granny do? :)
Er, I take that back, they definitely had water pressure, but I'm not sure about power.
I agree with you. But I also have to say that I would have long since left that hell hole, knowing full well that the state and feds were likely to do something like this.
I bet you are just as ugly on the outside.
Did you see on Fox News (7:00 PM) the NOLA police dept taking the old woman to the floor? Fiesty little thing with a small revolver in her hand. But it was appalling to see them knock her to the floor and drag her out. Her house was, for the most part, habitable.
Would you go back if you knew your neighbohood was passable and not underwater?
Did you see the footage of Harry Connick Jr.?
Where is that little eye popping smily when I need it?
Someone upthread asked if this is constitutional since there is no Martial Law declared... I wouldn't think it would be..
He's not ugly. When you come on here, a pro Constitution, pro freedom forum (did you know that?) and imply we have limited rights, what do you expect? There are still people out there that feel passionately about our freedom, thank God.
Personally, I strongly suspect that there is somehow more to this story. Either someone has misinterpreted an order from on high, or, there are extenuating circumstances that have not been reported. Of course, I won't discount the possibility of a flawed decision from on high, either. We just don't know yet. Let's see what this turns out to be.
Somehow you haven't bothered to look at the post that I originally responded to, and it's not the one you quoted. So you think that maybe it's ok to insult the cops and military in NO working their tails off 24/7 and call them wannabee SEALS? This is ok? My response to him was that many of the contractors were actually former special forces. And to your accusation that I am not pro-constitution, pro-freedom well, pal, that is an absoulte insult that I won't tolerate it. I am the one that started this freakin thread! Mind your own business when you are don't know what you are talking about.
Evac is a nice euphemism. If you call evac taking people out of undamaged, unflooded houses, some with running water and electricity, that is.
They may have savings, but they have recently become unemployed and more than likely will stay that way for a long, long while unless they move someplace else. As for insurance, if you mean homeowners, they have no flood coverage. If they bought flood insurance, until I had the check in my hand from the feds, I sure would not spend any of it. The feds are going to be pressured to make all the people who couldn't afford or didn't buy any some sort of settlement too. With the initial payment of $ 2000 in a debit card to everybody, I will not be surprised if everybody ends up with some sort of "equal" settlement. Sooner or later there will be pressure to stop handing out $ like water after the first few hundred billion and if you haven't gotten yours before that, you probably won't.
"that is an absoulte insult that I won't tolerate it."
Does that mean you will be leaving?
So if I can HIRE someone to stay and be armed, its ok.
If I can't affort to HIRE someone and stay, I have to be robbed AND confiscated.
I wonder if the police are making provisions for the RETURN of the guns.
Correct. I doubt these folks needed to be evac'ed. At least from the glimpse of the neighborhood I saw. I will leave a caveat that there may have been more off camera that wasn't shown. However, that still doesn't support the removal of guns.
I will wait for more info...but stand by the statement I amde that law abiding citizens in less affected areas, who are provisioned and willing to defend their own property should be left alone to do so...in fact, they should be enlisted by the authorities to watch their own neighborhoods.
Itt would appear some of those cops working their tails off, are knocking old ladys down and taking their guns and taking them off their property, "pal". They deserve whatever insult comes their way.
Good thinking......
Be sure that the registered guns are the throw away guns.
Sounds like a gun grab, pure and simple. I would love to know what they are telling people when they take the firearms from them (IE, what they need to do to get the firearm back ETC.)
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