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September 5, 2005
Looting by New Orleans Police
Before anyone accuses the White House of shifting blame* by refusing to fall on its sword over Katrina, we need to keep in mind the sort of local government the Feds had to deal with. The Interdictor offers a clue**:
The police are looting. This has been confirmed by several independent sources. Some of the looting might be "legitimate" in as much as that word has any meaning in this context. They have broken into ATMs and safes: confirmed. We have eyewitnesses to this. They have taken dozens of SUVs from dealerships ostensibly for official use. They have also looted gun stores and pawn shops for all the small arms, supposedly to prevent "criminals" from doing so. But who knows their true intentions. We have an inside source in the NOPD who says that command and control is in chaos. He reports that command lapses more than 24 hours between check-ins, and that most of the force are "like deer in the headlights." NOPD already had a reputation for corruption, but I am telling you now that the people we've been talking to say they are not recognizing the NOPD as a legitimate authority anymore, since cops have been seen looting in Walmarts and forcing people out of stores so they could back up SUVs and loot them. Don't shoot the messenger....
If you find it unbelievable that right here in America a city sank so deep into third-world style corruption and mismanagement that the police — rather than stop looting by whatever means necessary so as to keep civil society from coming unraveled — actually participated in the looting, check out this video.
Obviously, since this is not a totalitarian police state, the Federal Government relies on local government to be first responders and to play the major roll initially in maintaining order in a crisis. Katrina knocked over a rock in Louisiana, and there is no way you can blame Bush for the ugly things that were found wriggling around beneath it.
*Check out the comments; thank you Bergbikr for the link.
**Hat tip: Kill Righty.
Update:
Part of the NOPD will be sent for R&R in Las Vegas, where hopefully they will be able to refrain from lawbreaking while others clean up the mess in Louisiana. (Thanks for the tip, Saije.)
Posted by Van Helsing at September 5, 2005 9:26 AM
Comments
In order to protect the United States from militarism, the states have been given incredible powers. In this case, the state failed by not requesting the immediate entry of Federal assetts. I've been reading a lot of American blogs and am astounded at how ignorant most Americans are at the protocols that are in place to guarentee seperation of State and Federal roles. It's all there to protect their country, yet they don't have a clue about it. The worst is though, that the MSM, who should know better are purposefully NOT stating the facts as they are... the MSM knows damn well what the protocols are, but refuses to state them in order to vilify the Federal Government and protect dear beloved Louisianna Socialist Liberals.
Posted by: Debris Trail at September 5, 2005 1:26 PM
