Even if we have to kill you to do it.
We got an interesting perspective from a resident on the ground the other day:
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.[Via Dave Licht, Plug Nickel Times and Stephen S]
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.
Saw some of it on the news. The water is receding, but even on streets that are now dry again, police make residents wait to even visit their homes. Because they can. The homeowners stand there crying in sight of their houses.
ReplyDeleteQuestion authority. Storm checkpoints. Send a message. They've made theirs loud and clear. To an elderly resident: "Do you want me to ESCORT you out of the area? Then go inside and stay there until I tell you you can come out. And don't come out here harassing people or I'll make sure you dont come back. Uh, until this is over."
Protect and serve become disrespect and unnerve.
That old man had the last word, making the shooing motion at the cop again before he went inside.
"Homeowners were required to give up the keys to their homes to people they now don't trust in order to have them inspected."
ReplyDeleteJust noticed that sentence.
I've never, EVER heard of this approach before. Anyone?
That counts as pushing, and pushing hard and far.
In the Heartland of America. And the heartland is on its knees. Much of the corn crop is useless, and 1/3 of what survives is destined for ethanol factories, where more energy will be used to produce that biofuel than will be produced BY it.
Scammed, jammed and slammed from all directions, ladies and gentlemen.
"They have Red Cross, police department, fire department, and the people who they brought in -- the Marines and stuff, the National Guard -- have been excellent," she said. "They are keeping us out of our homes even though we're getting upset with them. We have no right because they're trying to protect us."
ReplyDelete"WE HAVE NO RIGHT because they're trying to protect us."
We have no right????? Whose home is it? Whose property inside? Whose life is it to risk? We have no right?????
A home looks ransacked? I wonder who did that? Who did I give the keys to?
Oh, poop!
Screw'm!
ReplyDeleteCarry a gun, work in packs during an emergency.
Force them out of the way.
C.H.
Maybe this will help open a few more eyes. I hope so we need all the help we can get when it all busts open.
ReplyDeleteThis just shows how important it is to take guns with you if you ever have to evacuate your home. Ironically, you won't need the guns during your hasty flight and absence from your home. However, you might need them to force your way back into your home.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many of the searched homes had valuables disappear during the inspections?
Anon,
ReplyDeleteYeah I was impressed by the same quote:
""They are keeping us out of our homes even though we're getting upset with them. We have no right because they're trying to protect us.""
AGAIN...
"We have no right because they're trying to protect us."
Contemplate that folks.
Any other rights you can think of that can be taken away for our own good?
If that doesn't send a chill down your spine I don't know what will.
"One community got fed up and stormed the checkpoints and sent the police running. That, btw, is not being reported." (which is what they do when called upon to display courage)
ReplyDeleteDavid, I know you do not tolerate calls to violence on your website, so I can comment no more on this particular thread. Let me just say those would be unmanned checkpoints if I wanted to go to my home.
To clarify: I'm not a resident of Cedar Rapids where these incidents have taken place. I live about 30 miles away and had several anxious days preparing for the worst with our own levee. It held where others did not.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a community in southeast Iowa that now is in a 60 square mile lake (and growing). The pictures from the air make me sick.
I saw the man in the truck on the local newscast, angry and frustrated at the cops who wouldn't let him pass. The checkpoint system started at noon on Sunday and people were encouraged by the media to go to the checkpoints and they would be escorted in after their homes are "inspected." Four hours later no one was allowed past and they were sent home.
This event with him trying to drive around them occurred Monday. I assuming here, but a second day of waiting around and being told "we know best", the guy probably snapped. I know I would have. But then I wonder how many snuck past the checkpoint while these idiots were occupied. I know I would have tried that as well. And I hope some of them had the guts to try it, too.
Straightarrow - in the newscast that interviewed this man on Sunday, he called for the crowd to rush past the checkpoint saying "there's more of us than them." It looks like no one joined him.
ReplyDeleteThe other community I spoke of, "assaulted" the officers on duty and they got to their homes. At that checkpoint, they were ordered to turn in their IDs. That makes sense. How can they prove they could be in the area without ID?
I understand the need for order, safety, etc., but I understand the risks of going into a possible dangerous home as well. As a free citizen I'm willing to accept those risks, unfortunately others are not. I threw sandbags on a leaky levee during more than one flood through the years and I don't want to be told I couldn't go back to the home I just helped save.
I never want to be the guy who told me that either.
Sorry, David. I didn't mean to hog your comments.
I just wonder why people feel a need to use the check points. There must be hundreds of other ways in if a person is willing to use a mountain bike, motorcycle, horse or walk. Police at a check point will have the demeanor of the idiots at TSA. Which would be a waste of time trying to reason with a robot.
ReplyDeleteAs far as giving the government agents keys to their homes they need to get pictures of themselves telling government agents that they do not want them going into their homes without a warrant. Of course the government will lie and say they are checking for gas leaks when all that needs to be done is shut off the gas at the transmission locations.
This situation shows just how sheep follow the led. But keep in mind, this is the midwest and the mind set is totally different than the western states. Whole different world in the west, thats why many people who are from the west do not like it in the mid-west, not even a little.
For one thing people don't drink water in the mid-west they drink "pop".
J(SiI): No need to apologize for hogging anything.
ReplyDeleteYour comments have been quite valuable and educational for us all, and I am grateful to you for them.
These Kinds of actions by FEMA/ Police are only happening in the bigger cities, that are getting national news coverage.
ReplyDeleteNot any of the smaller towns Like Dorchester on the Upper Iowa River.
Where a whole trailer park was washed away.
The Local police allowed residence to go in after the trailerhomes were pulled apart from themselves, and get what they could.
But not in CR?
avrJoe says, "For one thing people don't drink water in the mid-west they drink "pop".
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of non-sense.
Iowans work hard, and when we work we drink water.
Especially in the Hot Sun, haying or construction, etc.
After awhile you get sick of drinking water all day.
And since it's illegal to drink & drive. Give me a breath of fresh air ! Mountain Dew please.