Cops Leave Search and Rescue to Stop Looters

[Ursus americanus]

From Newmax

Cops Leave Search and Rescue to Stop Looters
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005
NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission Wednesday night and return to the streets to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile as the city plunges deeper into chaos.

"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas - hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The number of officers called off the search-and-rescue mission amounts to virtually the entire police force in New Orleans.
Amid the turmoil Wednesday, thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items.

Looters also chased down a state police truck full of food. The New Orleans police chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use.

Managers at a nursing home were prepared to cope with the power outages and had enough food for days, but then the looting began. The home's bus driver was forced to surrender the vehicle to carjackers.

Bands of people drove by the nursing home, shouting to residents, "Get out!" Eighty residents, most of them in wheelchairs, were being evacuated to other nursing homes in the state.

"We had enough food for 10 days," said Peggy Hoffman, the home's executive director. "Now we'll have to equip our department heads with guns and teach them how to shoot."

At one store, hordes of people from all ages, races and walks of life grabbed food and water. Some drove away with trunkloads of beer.

At one point, two officers drew their guns on the looters, but the thieves left without incident. One of the officers said he was not going to arrest anyone for snatching up food and water.

One young man was seen wading through chest-deep floodwater, carrying a case of soda, after looting a grocery store.

"It's really difficult because my opinion of the looting is it started with people running out of food, and you can't really argue with that too much," Nagin said. "Then it escalated to this kind of mass chaos where people are taking electronic stuff and all that."

Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she has asked the White House to send more people to help with evacuations and rescues, thereby freeing up National Guardsmen to stop looters.

"We will restore law and order," Blanco said. "What angers me the most is that disasters like this often bring out the worst in people. I will not tolerate this kind of behavior."

John Matessino, president of the Louisiana Hospital Association, said he had not heard of anyone breaking into the hospitals, but he added that thieves got into the parking garage at one hospital and were stealing car batteries and stereos.

New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. At one point, officers stranded on the roof of a hotel were fired at by criminals on the street.

Authorities said an officer was shot in the head and a looter was wounded in a shootout. The officer and looter were expected to survive.


© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Annarchy - a good reason to be armed.

[TunnelRat]

"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas - hotels, hospitals, ..."

How come there are any "heavily populated areas" left? Aren't they supposed to be getting people out of there?

The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items.

Looters also chased down a state police truck full of food.

I dunno, I don't really have a problem with the refugees of the storm foraging for food. Looting? Let's see, there are no ATMs, no credit card readers available, and no store clerks waiting to take cash. Yet there is a whole store full of food that will spoil soon, and a whole crowd of people with nothing to eat or drink. How is that looting? That's shopping.

When some take advantage of the chaos to steal a big screen tv or four pairs of Nikes, I can agree that it ain't right. But when there is no food or water available except in the closed locked stores, that's a different story. It's not as though the federal, state, or municipal agencies are distributing food and water in any sort of organized way yet.

The New Orleans police chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use.

So we make an exception for the police to pick up pens and pencils to write their reports, but we call a mom grabbing diapers for her baby a looter?

Managers at a nursing home were prepared to cope with the power outages and had enough food for days, but then the looting began. The home's bus driver was forced to surrender the vehicle to carjackers.

So, did the crowd steal the old folks' food? The article doesn't say.

Bands of people drove by the nursing home, shouting to residents, "Get out!" Eighty residents, most of them in wheelchairs, were being evacuated to other nursing homes in the state.

I think I have to agee with the "bands of people" here, they all need to get out...

"We had enough food for 10 days," said Peggy Hoffman, the home's executive director. "Now we'll have to equip our department heads with guns and teach them how to shoot."

Which has pretty much been our point all along...

At one store, hordes of people from all ages, races and walks of life grabbed food and water. Some drove away with trunkloads of beer.

At one point, two officers drew their guns on the looters, but the thieves left without incident. One of the officers said he was not going to arrest anyone for snatching up food and water.

One young man was seen wading through chest-deep floodwater, carrying a case of soda, after looting a grocery store.

"It's really difficult because my opinion of the looting is it started with people running out of food, and you can't really argue with that too much," Nagin said.

So I am not alone in my point of view.

"Then it escalated to this kind of mass chaos where people are taking electronic stuff and all that."

I agree that we've gotta draw a line between looting expensive electronic consumer goods and foraging for food. However, it is not all that hard to draw such a line, and it appears that the good cops are making good judgments.

And, you know, I'm almost not all that bothered by the "looting". Everything in all those stores is junk now. None of it is ever going to be able to be recovered. It is all a business write-off. I don't agree with the chaos, but I find it hard to be bothered with someone picking up what will otherwise shortly be ruined.

In one film clip a police officer with a shotgun stopped a looter who had an armful of goods. The cop made him put the stuff down. So the video clearly showed the kid dropping his loot onto the street where it was left. It's not as though there is any sort of effort being made to return the stuff to its owners (nor should there be).

I can agree that there is a need to restore order. Mobs of frightened, hungry people pose a serious danger. But as for all the redistribution of goods? I dunno that it needs to be made such a big issue...

[Willy P]

I was on the same line of thought as you last night from what I had seen. This morning I was looking at the news and it was not what I had seen last evening. It was more on the order of gang theft on merchandise that is useless right now. I mean how are they even going to get a tv etc out of the area and get anything for it?? It is past someone feeding the family now. Now it is getting ugly.

[Regulator2]

I couldn't agree more....these people were warned to leave 3 days before it hit...3 days..

now there is a percentage that couldn't leave for whatever reasons....but for the most part these people chose to stay...

if you were going to stay....why wouldn't you prepare.....I have 6 cases of MREs and Bottled water and 10 gallons of gas in fuel cans, stored in my garage...and I live in Ohio for crying out loud...

but that is me...I plan for the worst and expect the best....you have to prepare and be able take care of your own

these looters need to be stopped, breaking in and stealing things that aren't needed...flat screen TV's ...food water I can understand..but where in the hell are they going to plug it in

they shot a National Guard MP in the leg...these people are losing thier minds...and why because they are too stubborn or stupid to listen to the warnings they were given well in advance...

they are shooting a helicopters trying to evacuate people that are too sick to go on the busses

now I agree it is a tragedy....a catastrophy...and they need help and as an Ohio guardsman I have already gotten one phone call telling me I may have to go there very shortly

but recently coming from the armpit of the world...even the Iraqi citizens behaved better in the face of the failure of a corupt government and then a full blown war on their streets...they didn't turn into animals, now there are a certain amount of insurgents.....and we won't even go there

What has happened to the American Spirit and the ability to rise above this

check out Rush Limbaugh .com and the picture of the guy on his roof now there is an American...taking care of his own

[THE BIG HAMMER]

We should pull out of New Orleans. It's just too bad there - looting, killing, flooding, dying, disease, dead bodies everywhere. It almost sounds like a war zone. And we didn't find any WMD's yet. My gosh, there were more people killed in New Orleans this week than there were in Iraq. We must leave immediately! Maybe Cindy Sheehan will go there to protest the evil hurricanes.

[Regulator2]

Roger that Hammer...

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/eibess ... guest.html

[NavyChief]

I will agree that I'm very reluctant to use the words "loot" and "food" together in the same sentence. When does it become looting? I dunno. I reckon if they're trying to take my food and water, it's looting. While I am still of the mind looters should be shot on sight, I find it almost amusing watching some of it - I mean, what the heck they gonna do with it? They can't get outta the city, there's no power... Amazing.

[Petrovich]

I think they should declare marshal law and shoot the sons a britches on sight.

[Ursus americanus]

I think they should declare marshal law and shoot the sons a britches on sight.

Don't declare Martial Law and still shoot them.. . .

See my POST on Martial Law

[Petrovich]

I think they should declare marshal law and shoot the sons a britches on sight.

Don't declare Martial Law and still shoot them.. . .

See my POST on Martial Law

Yeah, well...okay.....just blast 'em.

[Ursus americanus]

I think they should declare marshal law and shoot the sons a britches on sight.

Don't declare Martial Law and still shoot them.. . .

See my POST on Martial Law

Yeah, well...okay.....just blast 'em.

I'll concur with that statement.

[Johnny45]

How about just make it legal to use deadly force to protect property? My father-in-law wants to know where Louis Farrikon and Jesse Jackson are with their million man marchers. He figures they would be in NO by now helping their brothers out. Now if the million mom marchers would just show up to cook for them they oughta have NO up and running in a couple of weeks. People have been indoctrinated to rely on authorties for their survival, that's why they get so p.o.ed when nobody shows up to help them right away. What happened to taking care of your neighbors? The strong taking care of the weak and sick. Saw a women from the projects on the news last night. She could only complain that no one brought her food or water and there were blind and crippled people back where she came from. I didn't see her pulling a boat out with sick and crippled people in it. Just her and her floating garbage bag. How 'bout filling up some of them bags with food and water and taking them back to the needy folks. They also need to station a few snipers on the roof tops with nightvision scopes. Start droping some of these gangs in their tracks and I'd betcha word would spread rapidly that the night is no longer your friend! What happened to real men, the kind that would stick together and look after those who couldn't fend for themselves? What a bunch of sorry, selfcentered, excuses for men we've become. Rant off!

[TunnelRat]

My father-in-law wants to know where Louis Farrikon and Jesse Jackson are with their million man marchers. He figures they would be in NO by now helping their brothers out.

The looters in New Orleans ARE the guys from the million man march. Who did you think was shooting at the police and the helicopters?

[Johnny45]

Yeah Tom, I'd guess you'd be right.