Police in New Orleans Begin Confiscating Weapons

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/national/nationalspecial/08cnd-storm.html?oref=login
According to BugMeNot you can login to view the above with user: liarliar1234 and pass: password if you are smart enough to not already be registered).

But here's the important bit from the above article anyway:

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 8 - 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 III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.

But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.

Now, I understand that they are concerned with the possibility of violence when they begin forcibly evacuating the people who remain from the city. Its a valid concern, and when I first heard they were going to start doing that I said to everyone in the room watching TV with me "That’s when the shooting starts again".
But taking peoples legally owned firearms is not the solution.
Why? Because firearms are not the problem. They never are. People who do stupid or dangerous things are the problem, and firearms make it no easier for them to do those things. And wonder of wonders, criminals who want to use firearms will not obey any ban or comply with any confiscation program, because they are criminals and the law already has no meaning for them. It solves nothing.
What confiscating the legally owned guns from the citizens of NOLA will do is make them easier prey for the criminals, who didn’t turn in their guns and probably cant be found to be asked for them anyway. I'll go out on a limb here and assume that a lot of the people who were moving around in groups of armed looters have gone "underground" to abandoned buildings (of which there will be some amazingly fine pickings right now, from court-houses to out-houses) and are moving from place to place, avoiding detection, with their "posse" and piles of stolen big screens and PS2's.
NOLA for criminals right now is possibly the largest Temporary Autonomous Zone in the United States right now, definitely the largest in any urban setting (I can think of plenty of areas here in the Southwest U.S. where it could still be the wild west, but no one is exploiting the space and absence of control in any massive, or illegal, way as in NOLA). The TAZ, disconnected from the establishment and not really under the strict control of the government at any level, is an ideal place for criminal enterprise of all sorts. Oddly enough it may also be one of the last places in this world where a human being can be truly free.
However, survival in a TAZ as a non-criminal is dependent on the ability to bite back. Disarming people prevents them from being able to do that - no mans home is his castle when he has no way to defend it.
Now I realize that the disarmament is a precursor to forced evacuation, so it’s not like they are leaving these people there, but how long of a time period will there be between disarmament and evacuation? If its anything more than overnight, the citizenry will be at the mercy of those who still have guns. Namely the criminals, but lets not forget the behavior of the New Orleans P.D. in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, many of them took as much advantage of the TAZ as they could, looting right along side everyone else. Not every New Orleans cop did that, of course, but many of them did and there is now no good way to tell who did their job, and who disgraced the uniform. If there are still N.O.P.D. officers working down there, they are not to be trusted, I'm sorry. Cops are human too - those who do their job get my greatest respect, and some of them my friendship - but there are those few who have no honor, and damaged morals and ethics, and will do harm for their own gain or pleasure. I'm sure some of those bad seeds have gotten down there as volunteers, of all types (Medics, National Guard, Police, etc.) and all it takes is one.
Disarmament solves nothing and makes the people weaker.

I think the actual solution is to just leave people alone. Make a stronger evacuation effort, bordering on forced but with a strong backing of educating people about the dangers of staying (namely disease in the water, and thus on everything the water touched), and then those who still want to stay, let them. It is a problem that will correct itself in short order; they'll get sick and be all too willing to leave then. Or they'll die. Hate to be that way, but its nature at work - It shouldn’t be the government’s job to keep people alive beyond a reasonable expectation, and expecting the government to take care of you when you refuse to take care of yourself and leave a place like NOLA is far beyond reasonable.
But, if things were done that way, they wouldn’t have to worry about officers being shot at by people resisting removal. They wont have to waste manpower on the unwilling but demanding, or the insane and dangerous.
But of course... everyone is special, and entitled (so sayeth the government) so they deserve to be evacuated to safety whether they like it or not. The government knows what’s good for you, and being disarmed and left at the mercy of fate while you wait to be dragged kicking and screaming from your home is what’s good for you.

Rain on my Parade

Just got off the phone with the health office about getting my Hep. vac's and other shots for going to the gulf coast. No dice.
Seems they dont want to give the shots to people who dont know for sure if they are deploying.
Also seems that the other agencies selecting people for deployment are looking at the un-vaccinated as their last choice picks too.
Much cursing and spitting.

Cest la Vie. Sun will come up tomorrow all the same.

Time to start shopping around, see if one of the smaller local health offices has what I need on their shelves and are a little more willing to give it out.

Rain in the High Desert

Rain out here is a complete elemental thing, it is made up of all that is. If you want to see the circle, the yin and the yang, chaos and order, you need to see it rain here.
The sky begins to grey and fold, rolling under and rising like an ocean at storm turned upside down, and then it begins to fall...

The earth comes clean and then begins to get up and move away, going walkabout

And as the wind fans the storm and drives it, pushing the torrent through, in its wake the sky begins to burn


Then when the fires burn down, their last flickering hopes for life dying with the setting of the sun the heavens are reduced to ash

And when all has come to pass, the rains return as the sky splits and spills itself and all is renewed once again


The rain out here, in the hot, dry mountain country, is a spiritual thing. Each rain dances and rolls with power and energy, but some carry an awesome burden of it, a pleasure the borders on terror, as all life borders on the veil called death. It will make your heart beat faster, your breath will steal away but each will taste sweeter, and your back will straighten to accept the weight of it all, as each drop of rain teases and runs down your skin, dancing with the lightning raised hairs.

Those Who Will Do

There is a phrase that pretains to less-than-ideal equipment I have been using a lot lately as I go through my gear and prepare to be called to go down to the Gulf Coast, "(blank) will do, if I will do" - blank being the piece of kit being discussed at the time.
I really like the mindset behind this phrase - it puts the importance on personal knowledge and ability, skill, instead of on tools and technology. A tool or a technology is only as good as the person behind it - even the best tool will fail miserably in the wrong hands, but even the worst can be put to some use if the person behind it knows what they are doing, it will do, if they will do.
As I watch events unfolding in New Orleans and surrounding areas, and talk to friends and associates about it, I am continually impressed that this can be applied directly into classifying people.
Ohh, I know, bad: profiling! I'm singling people out and singling people out is bad (unless its in the name of "celebrating diversity" of course. Somewhere we forgot that the goal was unity... ).
But it is true, you can pretty easily divide people into "Those Who Will Do" and "Those Who Wont Do".
The latter, those who wont do, I think have been illustrated quite well in recent days by the ne'er-do-wells in New Orleans causing all the trouble. These types of people, those who feel entitled no matter how lazy they are, will never stand up and do for themselves when they have been taught for so long that it will just be handed to them. This isnt the first time I've spoken of this either, I saw the problems with these kinds of people some time ago, but what I saw was a "kinder, gentler" if you will sort of problem. I wanted to believe they would simply suffer, not try to drag others down with them into their suffering. It was naeive. I am far less tolerant of these types of people now than I was back then.
Those who will do however are a fantastic group of people. The capable, resourceful, adaptive and thoughtful people who are willing to work to get ahead, to survive and to help others in a time of need. I am proud of these people, because people like this are my friends, they are the people I choose to stand with.
As I've prepared to try and do my part down South, I've had several people I hardly know step up and offer me things of significant financial value, because they too wanted to do their part and couldnt go down themselves because of circumstance.
I also have friends who are down there, providing aid, law enforcement, and whatever else is neccessary.
Those who will do are attracted to these jobs, fire-fighter, police, emergency medicine, etc. but it is more than just a job - it is a calling, and one doesnt have to be a professional whatever to be one of those who will do. Bus drivers, systems administrators, school teachers, manual laborers, anyone from any walk of life who is capable and resourceful and can and will do for themselves, and for others.
My heart swells with pride for these individuals - The people who helped others escape NOLA, the fire-fighters who went up the stairs into the malebolge of the World Trade Towers and never came down again, the people every day and stand up to do brave, heroic things, silently and without asking or wanting to be recognized, the people who are simply capable and take care of themselves and their people without questioning "shouldnt I just be given this?". These are thepeople who will lead us to survival and rebuilding in the aftermath of events like Katrina.
In the future, with terrorism, the sudden rise in disease (tropical diseases like West Nile are in the United States now. Malaria and other nastiness, like Dinge Fever, is sure to follow. NOLA is going to be a fucking breeding ground for tropical nastiness if any of it gets brought in on trade ships), and simple overcrowding combined with a rather twisted and savage economy and weak infrastructure, things like the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans are going to become more common.
The "entitled" wont be the ones who pull us back up, and re-take the reigns of civalization.
It isnt too late, people can still change... but we will run out of time eventually, and we're all going to have to pay the tab that those who wont do have run up in the last few years.

Naw'lins & Gulf Coast Insanity

For some further thoughts on NOLA here's some interesting reading in the same vein as my earlier post about the curse of "entitlement":
How Many People Did Dependance Kill?
Trudeaupiate
Diagnosing New Orleans: a Canadian Perspective (This one also contains the previous links, but its quite interesting as a stand alone piece too).

The Thin Line Between Civilization and Anarchy

I’ve been trying to keep informed about the post-Katrina stabilization and rescue efforts, and find out about immediate opportunities to get into the area, and have noticed something. Several private contractor companies, the kind who provide private security contractors in Iraq, have gotten or are in the process of acquiring contracts to go to New Orleans and similarly affected areas to provide armed security and medical response. They are paying in the neighborhood of $400 a day for those with the qualifications they are looking for (all too high speed, low drag for me to qualify).
High-risk employment Private Security/Military Contractors operating on American soil, and actually needed! on our soil too. I wish I could say I never though I would see the day. Unfortunately, I’ve known we would see the day for a long time now.
What I didn’t know, what I couldn’t guess, is just how easily it would come. How easily the framework of our society can come crumbling down. How fine the line between Civilization and Anarchy actually is.
The armed gangs, the looters, the general pandemonium, chaos and merciless anarchy that has risen up in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is nothing short of phenomenal. The people who need assistance are the biggest threat to those trying to assist right now. And relatively, it took very little doing. It took one big storm, a lot of wind, and a lot more water to send a large American city from functional and stable into a tailspin of uncontrollable unrest.
And the people doing it all? They want this. The looters, rioters, rapists, murderers, they want to live like this, and act like this. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be.
I’ve already seen media personalities, and various supposed experts and important people (I.E. Jesse Jackson, a most self-aggrandized lying blowhard) jumping up and down and crying out that this is a race issue, that its an issue of the haves vs. the have nots (the proletariat vs. the bourgeoisie, to use a term from another era), of the oppressed vs. the oppressors, poor vs. rich.
Simply put, that’s not what its about at all. It’s about animals acting like animals (and to anyone getting ready to say I am picking on blacks, calling them animals, I’d ask you to keep your ideas to yourself – I’m talking about all races, creeds and colors who act that way).
I’ve heard people say that since the average poor family in Nawlins makes less than $10,000 a year they didn’t have the money or resources to evacuate (bug out) when the hurricane was bearing down on them. Fuck that nonsense. I grew up and have lived most of my life (still being a young man) in a family that made less than $6,000 a year on average. We always had a vehicle (maybe not the best vehicle, but we’ve always had one), we always had suitcases (and if that failed we always had plastic bags), we always had shoes. That’s all you need to leave an area and take your shit with you.
This isn’t an issue of the poor and oppressed being left behind to die by the rich. This is a case of a bunch of people too stupid to listen to reason finally having to pay the price for their stupidity. Most stupidity in this day and age carries a relatively small price, but the piper will always have to be paid in the end.
This isn’t a case of active, or even passive, racism. This isn’t the proletariat suffering at the callous and cruel hands of the bourgeoisie. This is the stupid suffering at their own hands, and then getting sand in their cunts about it.
In this day and age when our children are taught entitlement instead of responsibility and self-dependence not one of us should be surprised that the situation in New Orleans has degraded as far, and as quickly, as it has.
The continual allowance for stupidity: the continual passing of kids through grades when they wont do the work; the continual mediocritization of everyone in the schools and workforce so that there is “equal opportunity” for the stupid (meaning the intelligent have to be forced lower) and we have “no child left behind” (even if they deserve it); the continual dumbing down of entertainment and information all across the board so that the stupid wont feel left out – all of this teaches everyone that “no matter what, you are entitled. You can be as stupid as you want, act as badly as you want, and you are still entitled to all the same things as those who are willing to learn, willing to be intelligent, and willing to work for what they have”. And all of these things are directly responsible for what we are seeing today in New Orleans.
Any other reason or explanation is simply bullshit. The stupid/willfully ignorant, lazy, ne’er-do-wells of New Orleans (and the rest of the country) have been told for the last thirty years that they are entitled to whatever they want without having to make any effort, without having to be anything but stupid, lazy and ne’er-do-well, and until now our society has been stupid enough to support that belief. Now, now that something truly awful happened and the stupid, lazy and ne’er-do-well actually had to work to come out good, those who still felt entitled are pissed and acting like the shit-heads they are, taking their aggression out on the world around. They have been told they are entitled, so now they are damn well going to act like it and take what they want, do what they want. Simply put, they are acting like little girls with sand in their cunts.
Fuck ‘em, I hope they all get shot.

The Road to Hell

My state Department of Health put out a call this afternoon for medical and rescue personnel willing to volunteer for deployment to assist operations in the gulf coast. They are looking for both people to deploy to New Orleans and other areas in the path of hurricane Katrina, and for people to deploy yo hospitals in neighboring states recieving patients from the devastated areas.
I signed up, put my name and info into their registry. I'd like to go to where the damage actually is, but we'll see what comes up.
I think I'll make some calls tomorrow anyway, see if there are any Red Cross groups, or church rescue groups, from this area getting mobilized to go down there.

I know I am needed at home, my 91 year old grandmother just broke her wrist yesterday and I was on scene to dress her wounds and splint the wrist for the two hour trip to the hospital. But, I also know that everyone else is capable of taking care of things at the ranch for a couple weeks, and I feel totally useless and purposless sitting here watching Mississippi and Lousiana fall apart on the television.
I want to be there - I want to be "in the shit" - I want to help.

As bad as I want to go down, I also know that I have no idea what I'll be getting myself into, but that I need to be prepared for more than a campout. If I go down the first thing I'm going to buy is some body armor. I'll worry about expanding my medical kit, and maybe getting a good equipment vest, after I've got kevlar wrapped around me. Probably after I stock up on ammunition too. I think I know which one of my rifles will fit easiest into my duffel bag.

"Well I'm standing by a river
But the water doesn't flow
It boils with every poison you can think of
And I'm underneath the streetlight
But the light of joy I know
Scared beyond belief way down in the shadows
And the perverted fear of violence
Chokes the smile on every face
And common sense is ringing out the bell
This ain't no technological breakdown
Oh no, this is the road to hell" The Road To Hell - Chris Rea