I can verify the shit you’ve been slinging versus the actual confirmed facts I’ve been seeing on cable news and the internet. You’re not looking too hot, son.
Wow I come back from endless meetings and lunch to find myself being called an asshole in my first pit thread. I feel like I belong now!
In any case, I just figured out that this link has changed content 3 times since I posted it. It’s not even the same story that I posted this morning. What the eff, News 4?
And sorry for being an emotional citizen reacting to news I not only heard on the radio 3 times on the way to work but on the local news website that I frequent all day. I didn’t post that link “knowingly” with false information to brew shit and start a war. Sorry if the worry of loved ones and the families of friends is on my mind and anything hindering their safety and rescue gets me fired up enough to make sure everyone knows about it. There’s no objective, there’s no secret plan to stir up shit soup because I need to get a rise out of people.
We’ll see.
Fair enough.
Seconded.
Look, Snowboarder and Askia – if all the ground-level word-of-mouth reports end up being untrue, then that’s great news to me. Evacuations will continue, and most everyone will get out safe and sound.
But right now, I’m not willing to give the Net and national cable news the benefit of doubt yet. Maybe later.
But what if that person lives right around the corner? And has taken the only thing they own left that they feel they may be able to bargain with? Or is this a case of breaking a few eggs (or many) to make an omelet?
Also, anyone want to address this perspective?
I believe Phnord brings up some very good observations. What do y’all think?
It just keeps getting worse. Where is the Army & National Guard.
My Brother-In-Law and Sister-In-Law stayed to help out in the emergency. They are acting as part of the staff at Charity. He’s a doctor and she is a Research Biologist with Tulane. Now the Aid workers need Aid and animals are preventing the helo’s from completing the evacuation.
From CNN
Marooned doctors plead ‘Please help us’
Unruly crowds disrupt, prevent hospital evacuations
<copyrighted article removed --Giraffe>
Phnord brings up the obvious: Don’t waste time on looters and thieves. Concentrate on anyone violently interfering with aid workers and evacuation efforts.
Martial law has not and cannot be declared in Louisiana. LA does allow lethal force to be used to protect property, but only by the actual owners of said property. That being said I have no problem with police/soldiers shooting (to kill) anyone to moment they pull a gun. When people were looting food and diapers it wasn’t a problem. Jewelry and electronics? wrong? yes, major threat to public safety? No! But gunstores! Order must be maintained at all costs so that people can be safely evacuted. We have armed bandits attacking children’s hospitals and people are trapped in their homes cause search & rescure teams are being shot at. Civil liberties don’t mean a damn thing when you’re dying of thirst, disease, lack of basic medical care. The gov’t must restore order by any means necessary. If that means stringing looters up in the streets so be it.
**Alphaboi ** – where are you? Are you displaced?
Thanks for reigning in a bit, bord. FWIW, I can wholly agree with this sentiment.
I’m aware that you’ve clarified what you mean by “looters,” and pray to whoever’s listening that there aren’t 1,000 of them to put down.
But at least one person in this thread advocates willy-nilly executions:
I can sympathize if the statement is so profoundly offensive and stupid that your rational mind simply blocked it out.
btw, am I the only person who is thinking “gee, if all our soldiers weren’t so busy in Iraq, I bet we could do more to help our own fucking citizens”… or is that just me thinking that?
Negative. The posse comitatus law forbids the miltary from performing law enforcement activities in the United States except under certain circumstances. Maintaining order is not the same as law enforcement authority.
Maybe, maybe not.
Negative. The military in general is good at one thing and one thing only: breaking things. If there’s one thing that we as a country need to learn, if the past 15 years haven’t already, the military is not properly equipped or trained to be peacekeepers. That is not their function.
There’s nothing at all illogical about it. Military presence should not be necessary in this situation. This is strictly speaking a civil matter. The military can assist with men and equipment, but I repeat that soldiers are not law enforcement officers.
How do you plan for the rescue of large numbers of people from a large city? Do you just guess where they’ll be and how many there will be? And do you think that in that planning you should factor in random nutjobs who find shooting at relief workers more important than getting out alive? That’s a bit ridiculous, I think.
This rescue is going about as well as could be expected given the circumstances.
Sorry. The above post was me, not Robin. We’re sharing the university’s computer. We don’t have this problem at home anymore.
jrfranchi, we don’t allow reposting of copyrighted material. Selected quotes are fine, the complete text of an article is not.
The military has been damn good at building things in emergencies also. There were temporary bridges built in France in 1944 that were still in use in the 80’s.
The SeeBees and Army Core of Engineering probably have more experience in building sea walls than FEMA will ever have. The Rescue Buses could and should have escort vehicles being that desperate people are shooting at them for no reason. The Police & Nat’l guard should do the actual police work, but the Army can and should act as guards and escorts.
Ok, sorry.
Like I said, “in general”. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Seabees are not going to be participating in any law enforcement activities, and my point was specifically referencing that.
No, they should not. And they cannot, by law. As a matter of fact, the National Guard, even when called up for civil disturbances, needs to be very careful about how they conduct themselves because they are not law enforcement. They can break up violent demonstrations, they can guard stuff, and they can detain, but they cannot arrest and they cannot just open up at the first shot fired and go to town.
I was replying to MsRobyn but,
If martial law was declared, this changes the rules from what I remember.
Were the reports of Martial law false?