Monday, June 16, 2008

After the Flood

Strike teams searched flood fringe areas on both sides of the Cedar River on Sunday, finding flooded basements, collapsed walls and piles of debris.
Watch the confrontation with the homeowner at 1:58 into the video. The guy is on his porch, and the "Only One" orders him inside.

"I'll make sure you never come back here again" doesn't make sense in conjunction with the hastily added "until this is all over." Did somebody suddenly remember they were being recorded?

In fairness, I did get the following first-person observation:
It is interesting to note the response of Katrina victims that have been taken in by our community to this disaster. Prior to the current events I have met numerous Katrina victims and know that our city, along with many others, took in large numbers of these people, found them shelter, gave them money, etc... While sandbagging at many different locations I was never able to find a single Katrina victim with one exception. While sandbagging at Mercy Hospital we found three of them about a block away, sitting on their porch, watching all the volunteers sandbag. They refused to come and help. Figured being through one disaster like this they would like to help prevent another one and help save the community that took them in in the their time of need. Guess they have just gotten to used to the government and everyone else doing everything for them.
So it would be easy to hold out a snapshot of frayed tempers as representative of heavy-handedness. That's not my point.

My point is we should all be involved with our communities and we should have the leadership that involves us. And that includes the sheriff or police chief holding muster and training drills for We the People to act in our capacity as members of the militia.

Still, I can't blame "the authorities" overmuch, because if they did hold a volunteer event, how many of our countrymen do you suppose would show up?

[Via Dan S]

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

The video is apparently already gone..

Anonymous said...

Sledgehammers and crowbars, breaking in to houses. Teams of police and firefighters, looking, apparently, for injured or disabled people to evacuate.
An older resident objects to them smashing doors, I guess, the cop ORDERS him back inside, then whistles as though calling a dog to turn him around and repeat his message of "Want an escort out of the area?," and "Stay inside until I tell you to come out, and don't come out harassing anybody again."
Then the threat.
They had best keep that out of MY AO.

David Codrea said...

Ray , click on the blog post title link. The video is still there.

Anonymous said...

Why the hell do we need STRIKE teams to go around doing charitable rescue missions?

David Codrea said...

I think "Hit Squad" was already taken...?

:)

Anonymous said...

David,

What I didn't say very well was that when you go to the article and click the play button, it then advises you that the video is no longer availiable. Does it still play for you?

David Codrea said...

Yeah.

No idea what is going on.

Anybody else?

Anonymous said...

lucky sonofabitch, there are people who would have made sure that overbearing sonofabitch never left the porch.

GunRights4US said...

Watching that video of govt. "strike teams" just routinely breaking into homes really pissed me off!

Who the hell do these THUGS think they are! I would have gone to jail (or the morgue) right there if I had been the old gent on the porch. How dare you yell at me in my own yard for doing nothing more than questioning how this possibly can happen in America!

Oh man my right index finger has developed such an itch!

Anonymous said...

They keep calling the inspection crews "strike teams" as well, and I am getting sick of it. Almost all of the work done was not by government but ordinary people who just showed up to fill or throw sandbags. People showed up with water before the red cross (lower case intentional). Volunteers, both from the communities at risk and from other states, saw the need and pitched in.
These same people who showed they didn't need "their leaders" to tell them to fight the river are now refused entry into their own homes. They are told to wait until the homes are deemed safe and treated like little children who couldn't have survived the last few days without their "leadership". Homeowners were required to give up the keys to their homes to people they now don't trust in order to have them inspected. One community got fed up and stormed the checkpoints and sent the police running. That, btw, is not being reported.
I just saw the home I grew up in surrounded by water Saturday because of a levee failure. A levee that the corps of engineers (again, lower case intentional) refused to allow to be improved, thus showing their "leadership."
Yeah, I'd trust any of them the keys to my property.

Anonymous said...

Frustrations are high in Cedar Rapids
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/NEWS/80616003

The officers are just doing what they are ordered to do. The guy was an idiot for trying this, but threatening to shoot someone in order to "protect" them seems extreme as well.

There just isn't a place in this society for the independent citizen.

Anonymous said...

God how I wanted to see that gentleman kick that fascist thug right in the mouth and knock his teeth down his throat. Nothing would have pleased me more than to see a vile bully like that wailing and crying on the ground spitting out splinters of his own teeth choking on his own blood.

And people wonder why there is a serious tide of rising hatred against what passes for peace officers these days. They're nothing but a standing army, an occupying army, enforcing the evil, twisted will of tyrannical government.

Anonymous said...

Just more "isolated incidents."
Not QUITE the next New Orleans Katrina Krackdown. But, unlike with drugs and alcohol, our tolerance level is DEcreasing. That officer committed verbal assault.
I remember my first and only trip to Atlantic City. If you want to sit down in a casino, gamble or rent a room; there are no seats in hotel lobbies.
After a 20 hour day including bus trip, my grandmother and other women of the family were leaning against a credenza. A plaque said "Do Not Sit." A security drone came by and ORDERED THEM to move away. Arthritis? Who cares? "I'LL give you a place to sit down!"
If I were the person I am today, I'd have given him a place to LIE down right then. Sorry about the credenza, and the lamp, and the ashtray, and your teeth, buddy. Dignity and respect. If you want it, give it.

Anonymous said...

"The officers are just doing what they are ordered to do. "

That defense is no longer valid, and has not been for more than sixty years.

Anonymous said...

That LEO with the gun and badge is just a punk kid who knows nothing about the law or U.S. Constitution and wants to grow up to be a petty tyrant. The day is coming and I hope I live long enough to see it and take part in it!