Posted on 09/10/2005 7:02:27 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR
NEW ORLEANS -- The Algiers Point militia put away its weapons Friday as Army soldiers patrolled the historic neighborhood across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter.
But the band of neighbors who survived Hurricane Katrina and then fought off looters has not disarmed.
"Pit Bull Will Attack. We Are Here and Have Gun and Will Shoot," said the sign on Alexandra Boza's front porch. Actually, said the woman behind the sign, "I have two pistols."
"I'm a part of the militia," Boza said. "We were taking the law into our own hands, but I didn't kill anyone."
She did quietly open her front door and fire a warning shot one night when she heard a loud group of young men approaching her house.
About a week later, she said, she finally saw a New Orleans police officer on her street and told him she had guns.
"He told me, 'Honey, I don't blame you,' " she said.
The several dozen people who did not evacuate from Algiers Point said that for days after the storm, they did not see any police officers or soldiers but did see gangs of intruders.
So they set up what might be the ultimate neighborhood watch.
At night, the balcony of a beautifully restored Victorian house built in 1871 served as a lookout point.
"I had the right flank," Vinnie Pervel said. Sitting in a white rocking chair on the balcony, his neighbor, Gareth Stubbs, protected the left flank.
They were armed with an arsenal gathered from the neighborhood: a shotgun, pistols, a flare gun and a Vietnam-era AK-47.
They were backed up by Gregg Harris, who lives in the house with Pervel, and Pervel's 74-year-old mother, Jennie, who lives across Pelican Street from her son and is known in Algiers Point as "Miss P."
Many nights, Miss P. had a .38-caliber pistol in one hand and rosary beads in the other.
"Mom was a trouper," Pervel said.
The threat was real.
On the day after Katrina blew through, Pervel was carjacked a couple of blocks from his house. A past president of the Algiers Point Association homeowners group, Pervel was going to houses that had been evacuated and turning off the gas to prevent fires.
A guy with a mallet "hit me in the back of the head," Pervel said. "He said, 'We want your keys.' I said, 'Here, take them.' "
Inside the white Ford van were a portable generator, tools and other hurricane supplies. A hurt and frustrated Pervel threw pliers at the van as it drove off and broke a back window.
Another afternoon, a gunfight broke out on the streets as armed neighbors and armed intruders exchanged fire.
"About 25 rounds were fired," Harris said.
Blood was later found on the street from a wounded intruder.
Not far away, Oakwood Center mall was seriously damaged in a fire caused by vandals.
"We were really afraid of fires. These old houses are so close together that if one was set afire, the whole street would all go up," Harris said. "We lived in terror for a week."
Their house is filled with antique furniture, and there's a well-kept garden and patio in back.
"We've been restoring this house for 20 years," Harris said.
There are gas lamps on the columned porch that stayed on during the storm and its aftermath. The militia rigged car headlights and a car battery on porches of nearby houses. Then they put empty cans beneath trees that had fallen across both ends of the block.
When someone approached in the darkness, "you could hear the cans rattle.
Then we would hit the switch at the battery and light up the street," Pervel said. "We would yell, 'We're going to count three, and if you don't identify yourself, we're going to start shooting.' "
They could hear people fleeing and never fired a shot.
During the days, the hurricane holdouts patrolled the streets protecting their houses and the ones of evacuees.
"I was packing," Robert Johns said. "A .22 magnum with hollow points and an 8 mm Mauser from World War II with armor-piercing shells."
Despite their efforts, some deserted houses in the neighborhood were broken into and looted, Pervel said.
Now the Algiers Point militia has defiantly declared it will not heed any orders for mandatory evacuation. The relatively elevated neighborhood area is across the Mississippi River from the city's worst flooded areas and has running water, gas and phone service.
"They say they're going to drag us kicking and screaming from our houses. For what? To take us to concentration camps where we'll be raped and killed," Ramona Parker said. "This is supposed to be America. We're honest citizens. We're not troublemakers. We pay our taxes."
"It would be cruel for the city to make us evacuate after what we've been through," Pervel said.
The roof was damaged on her house, and the rains left "water up to my ankles," Boza said. So she moved into her mother's home nearby.
She said she still has 42 bullets to expend before she'll be forcibly evacuated.
"Then I hope the men they send to pull me out are 6 feet 2 inches and really cute," she said. "I'll be struggling and flirting at the same time."
ping for later
Truth always upsets liberals, who do not want the real story told in this disaster.
Anarchists regardless of race, need to be shot on sight. I presume to some, disasters are "emer card' shopping spree and a pass to get back at Whitey.
The reality of the looters, rapist and murderers, they are the heros of the left's commie revolution in America.
I can see Bin Laden smiling when the Anarchists went on their crime cruises saying," Ah!! look at all these new recruits to join the Jihad." OBL then says, It don't get any better than this, "Allah Akbar."
If shrillary steals the POTUS in 2008, you will see the next civil war take place in America.
"Evil only triumphs, when good men and women do nothing."
NSNR-CSAOTL-NRALM
I hope the shot perp is dead, one less POS to breath good oxygen. NSNR-NRALM
Morning CK,
You are absolutley correct in your statement. A good PO will esatablish a rapport with the people in his or her beat.
Those clientel are excelelnt resources for aiding in solving of crimes committed in their perspective areas.
Due to the government's forced hiring quotas and prior, criminals are often awarded with a badge and gun.
The NOPD needs a federal investigation by the DOJ, to put these rouge criminal cops in jail.
"When the law breaks the law, we have no law."
Have Glock Will Travel,
NSNR-CSAOTL
Morning Frannie,
I have been wondering where are these tens of thousands of dead bodies the incompetent,idiotic, non leader and complete fool Nagin proclaimed are located??????????
I believe Nagin, Blanco, Landrieu should be charged with negligent homicide and or reckless endangerment for this failure to act.
Never to quit,
NSNR-CSAOTL
Morning Rummychick,
Looks like a smoking gun has been found. Blowing up levees would entail homicide charges against the perps.
We all see why the mayor, governor and senataor and trying to deflect attention away from them, in this government money grab scam.
Typical democratic playbook strategy, seek to exploit any disaster for political&pecuniary gain.
This explosive residue will be traced to the source and the purchaser unveiled.
It would be nice to see some municipal, state and a certain La senator bite the bullet on this one.(Penal Institute Long Term)
"Crimes have short legs and are often caught easily."
Integrity Matters,
NSNR-CSAOTL
That's so the people have the wherewithall to form a militia when required, or protect themselves individually when required. Its the people being able to keep and bear arms as individuals, without infringement that makes it possible to have the militia intended by the founders.
LOL! Check out the post script to that guy's sign in Post 106!
Oh dear.... Doesn't sound like it's gone too well then!
Morning FP,
I believe this simple syllogism says it all, "Free Men and Women Own Guns, Slaves Do Not."
Let's all go out and purchase some more guns and watch the liberals go in to hysterics.
Liberals believe, only criminals should be allowed to carry guns, but not law abiding citizens.
My Glock Rocks,
NSNR-CSAOTL
I don't believe there is any 'explosive residue'. I think it's simply one more story designed to raise the paranoia level among the poor black people who lived in those areas, turn the blame away from the local authorities and back to the government, i.e. President Bush.
One way to confirm that is to see if the 'black' radio stations are pushing the story.
Then that would extend to bank robbers? Let's not absolutize what is necessarily a relative right. But obviously, it would be politically dumb to strip people of their weapons without cause. If it happend to me, I would hold the state accountible for any future damage to my property and not hand over the weapon until a manifest of the property were done.
It's absolute, not reletive. It's the right to life and self defense-effective self defense. What makes it absolute is MOLON LABE!
"strip people of their weapons without cause. If it happend to me, I would hold the state accountible for any future damage to my property and not hand over the weapon until a manifest of the property were done."
If the State doesn't give a damn about your right to life and your right to effective self defense, then they don't give a damn if you live, or die, let alone what you say.
A property right is a lot more tangible than what you are talking about. In any case, under due process the state may take away life, liberty or property. At least with a legal document you have a case. no matter what the terms of evacution orders are.
It's not a property right, it's the right ot life.
" In any case, under due process the state may take away life, liberty or property."
Due process requires the permission of the governed.
" At least with a legal document you have a case."
The relevant legal document is the 2nd Amendment contained in the Bill of Rights. If it's being dishonored, then the clowns doing so don't give a damn what paperwork you have.
"what the terms of evacuation orders are."
The evacuation and the "terms" are under contention elsewhere, not here. In this area, the folks in charge are reasonable and civil.
No document, especially a constitution, is self-enacting. Its primary purpose is to set up a governor and define its powers. It is left to officers and other officals to interpret. Any guarantee of individual rights will be by that government. You claim the right of rebellion. Not many governments are willing to acknowledge that claim.
No. Your logic is faulty.
" You claim the right of rebellion.
Rebellion? Against who, tyrants? Certainly!
"Not many governments are willing to acknowledge that claim."
So? Do you still love them? You may surrender to the dogs of hell, but as for me, they can KMA!
Simply put, you are wrong. It's an individual Right.
I also don't have the time or the inclination to explain it to you.
"A well-educated electorate being necessary to the preservation of a free society, the right of the people to read and compose books shall not be infringed."
Only polidiots are entitled to have books ?
I think I've found the root of the problem:
RobbyS
Since Dec 9, 2000
Native Texan and Catholic, former liberal Democrat left behind after the party scooted to the left in 1972. Voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976, mistakenly thinking he was a liberal Southerner. Found out quickly he ws a Southerner who was a liberal and anti-military despite his navy background and despite his demeanor, a hater. Fits nicely in the present party.
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