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]

Katrina Gun Settlement Reached

City officials have agreed to return hundreds of firearms that police officers confiscated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, part of a deal to resolve a lawsuit filed by gun lobbying groups.

The settlement agreement filed Tuesday in federal court calls for the National Rifle Association and Second Amendment Foundation to drop their case if the city follows a plan for returning guns to owners who had them seized by police after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

Good on them. Kudos and congratulations. At the risk of sounding less than properly appreciative, here's hoping I lose a bet with myself about the press releases each group puts out...

UPDATE: Hallelujah!

The Second Amendment Foundation assisted NRA in the legal battle against Mayor Ray Nagin and the City of New Orleans.

That was the right thing to do. Now didn't it feel good?

[Via Straightarrow]

The Ignorance, It Burns

Comment posted under yesterday's GRE:

I wish I had time to properly fisk this -- first impressions will have to do.

With the power grid down, getting troops to mobilize -- and do so in any semblance of a timely manner -- becomes problematic in itself.  Plus, there simply aren't enough of them to secure the entire nation -- leaving, as  projected, most areas on their own. And under the scenario testified to by Admiral Rogers, foreign dangers requiring manpower are going to be heightened. Then we have the bipolar attitude toward "our sons and daughters" with shoot-to-kill orders, and then alternately citing and then disparaging the Oath Keepers concept.

This person evidently thinks under the martial law situation she describes (stereotyping me, I'm just too old and conditioned to imagine a man using that avatar), she will be free to move about -- where she gets the gas from, or how she safely navigates L.A. without a car, remain unstated, but fortunately, she won't need her shotgun to get there and back again.  It's not like scary rampaging mobs have ever paralyzed the city and terrorized and victimized targets of opportunity before. I guess she doesn't remember last time, although -- again, stereotyping me -- you would think someone from there who adopts a Korean screen name would at least have heard the stories that youth and/or privilege appear not to have heeded...

Note she's assuming triage centers will be eager to accept -- and feed and house-- "volunteers" of unstated qualifications.  Thank God you're here -- we need this coffee pot and cookie tray for the firemen filled up stat! More likely, we'll be talking about setting up a tent city within the Coliseum or some such, a la the hell that was the Superdome in Katrina, with no way to supply the refugees, or remove the stinking waste, or treat the injuries, or the disease -- and good luck deciding you don't like it and wish to leave.   First of all, where to?

Also note the automatic "progressive" distrust and paranoia in that "fair play turnabout": The question I posed asked if anti-gunners would maintain that position or engage in the LAWFUL activity of defending themselves and their loved ones. She automatically presumes it is conservative/libertarian gun owners who will turn into predators -- as we no doubt have in every riot situation I can recall, from Watts to Katrina. No "progressive" projection there.

The things such people need to believe. Now seems a pretty good time to reintroduce readers here to a three-part essay I've linked to before.

To restate something I've said before: I don't highlight trolls on occasion to feed them -- I do it because their own words do more to expose them than mine can.

A Matter of Credit

SAF has negotiated an agreement with New Orleans regarding the firearms seized from lawful firearm owners during and after Hurricane Katrina. The issue is pending before the federal court in the case NRA & SAF v. Mayor Ray Nagin.

Meanwhile, over at the NRA press release, we find:

NRA has negotiated an agreement with New Orleans regarding the firearms seized from lawful firearm owners during and after Hurricane Katrina. The issue is pending before the federal court in the case NRA v. Mayor Ray Nagin.

Do you notice the difference between the two?

Anything at all?

We're the Only Ones Got a Basketball Jones Enough

A former Houston police officer has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for stealing $166,400 and trying to steal more than $435,000 in American Red Cross funds for a bogus basketball camp that supposedly was held for children displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. [More]

"Only Ones."

For the children...

[Via Harvey]

GRE Round Up for July 15

Here's the latest from my Gun Rights Examiner colleagues:

Dan Bidstrup/Denver:

Wheat Ridge man faces attempted murder charges for using his gun

What are we to think? Last February, a Wheat Ridge, Colorado man named Robert Wallace, saw two men hooking his...Keep Reading »

Sean McClanahan/Des Moines:

West Burlington Mayor Trousil responds to NRA and IFC members

In the face of growing criticism over West Burlington's “Chapter 30” ordinance that bans the carry of...Keep Reading »

Dave Workman/Seattle:

New Orleans indictments further vindicate Bellevue group’s post-Katrina lawsuit

Five years ago, in the post-apocalyptic environment that was New Orleans following its devastation by Hurricane...Keep Reading »

I do hope you realize the importance of sharing these links and show these guys your support by doing so...?

While you're at it, be sure and check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

• Jesse Matthewson/Cochise County Libertarian
  
• Kent McManigal/Albuquerque Libertarian
• Kevin Wilmeth/Anchorage Libertarian
• Anthony Martin/Conservative

Rearming the Big Easy

People across New Orleans are arming themselves — not only against the possibility of another storm bringing anarchy, but against the violence that has engulfed the metropolitan area in the 19 months since Katrina, making New Orleans the nation's murder capital.

Good. I just hope they never let anyone disarm them again the next time.

I do have a beef with this. Vivian admits she's a new gun owner. I doubt the AP photographer knows much about them. I know her finger's off the trigger, but especially considering the inexperience of all involved, this story's feature photo belongs over at Xavier's.

I also gotta wonder how many of these new gun evangelicals will continue to support politicians that hate RKBA.

[Via Cousin G]

We're the Only Ones Bridging the Gap Between "Us" and "Them" Enough

A New Orleans judge on Wednesday dismissed charges against seven policeman accused of killing two people on a bridge amid the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Turns out not only did the dumb ass proscutor screw up, but:

Homicide detectives limited their extended probe into the incident to mostly police witnesses. The investigate report, which cleared the officers, based its conclusions, in part, on the statements of a man who was pretending to be a St. Landry Parish sheriff deputy, but who in fact turns out to be an impostor with a criminal record.

Physical evidence wasn't picked up by police right after the shooting. Instead, officers went back to the scene seven weeks later. At the same time, the police department allowed some evidence to be discarded, such as the rental truck used by officers after the storm, which they drove the bridge when they received a call about officers in possible distress.

Nothing to see here--just standard Big Easy "Only Ones" procedure.

[Via Cigar Rollers]

Meanwhile, Over at the Hog Butcher for the World...*

Seizing upon the controversy enveloping Mayor Richard Daley over Chicago gun violence and city policing, Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Wednesday he's holding discussions with his State Police and Illinois National Guard officials about any crime-fighting role they can play.

What, you mean the ban on handguns (except for aldermen) isn't working? And the only way we can ensure peace and freedom is to take another step toward martial law?

But don't worry--this isn't (technically) a violation of posse comitatus. That only applies when they've been federalized. Never mind that they serve in a dual enlistment capacity as reservists.

At the risk of crying Katrina, let me just observe that the citizen militia as envisioned by the Founders--you know, that anachronism that's "necessary to the security of a free state"--is nowhere to be found in this mix, and that's by design.

Which means we will neither be secure nor free. But plenty of opportunities to ratchet up the controls will sure present themselves.

[Via Mack H and Brian F]

*

GRE Round Up for August 27

Here are the latest offerings from my fellow GREs:

Sean McClanahan/Des Moines:
Race-based riots underscore the need for personal protection on the Iowa State Fairgrounds

Liston Matthew/Knoxville:
Harry Reid

Dave Workman/Seattle:
Five years later, no accountability for post-Katrina gun grab

Read and support these guys, will you? Share their links?

Also make these other Liberty-oriented Examiners regular stops:

• Albuquerque Libertarian
• Cochise County Libertarian
• Conservative
• Michigan Firearms

Captain's Log

• Notes
• Request For Arming Orders For Louisiana National Guard During Katrina

Oath-Keeping National Guardsmen Refused Katrina Gun Confiscation

Watch and listen to Sgt. May for yourself... [More]

I thought this merited a second Gun Rights Examiner column for today.

Share the link?

God Didn't Make the Little Green Apples...

...and Marines don't train in Indianapolis
in the summertime...

So they're just training for the Middle East, right? It would be tinfoil hat ridiculous to speculate on training for domestic deployments, wouldn't it?

I look at America's urban areas as tinderboxes ready to erupt. I look at the drive to disarm as many people in the cities as they can, I factor in things like rising energy costs and potential blackouts, the prospects of a long, hot summer, talk of food supply disruptions, anger, crime, racism, gang members in the tens of thousands, and even unexpected developments in the presidential race...and I'd be surprised if there aren't those in government assessing the same factors, plus ones we don't know about. In this environment, there are untold catalysts that could trigger a very bad sequence of events.

I'd be surprised if the one thing that doesn't scare the rulers more than anything is what will happen if they actually shoot any rioters--less than lethal tools won't stop armed mobs, and if multiple rioters are shot and killed, I believe rioting will spread to other cities...Or perhaps I am hopelessly naive, and there are some who would benefit from that...

That's the kind of thing that can lead to martial law--and I doubt Katrina-style disarmament bans will be covered under those circumstances.

Here's hoping this is just baseless hysteria, conspiracy kookiness, a misreading of signals, and that we can all look forward to a summer of love as our Hope prepares us for Change.

[Via Cornet Joyce II]

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

This is the first of several questions I have concerning Louisiana National Guard actions during Katrina, but we may as well start with the first one. [More]

That reminds me: has anyone ever identified the cowardly lard-ass CHiPs thug who assaulted Patricia Konie?

How Dare You Make It About Protecting Your Guns When We Make It About Taking Your Guns!

 Over the past few decades, this has meant transforming some of our most complicated and urgent social problems — crime, natural disasters, political instability — into a question of gun rights. [More]

Oh, like those weren't precipitated by gun-grabbers trying to deny rights when citizens needed arms the most...

Does she really want to hang her thesis on Katrina?

They really do hate the thought of anyone defending himself.

I wonder what Jennifer Carlson, or anyone at the WaPo for that matter, would be prepared to do about it if -- right now -- she heard shots followed by people screaming and running outside her office. Thank goodness billionaire owner Jeff Bezos would have more options!

[Via Michael G]

We're the Only Ones Back on the Job Enough

Cop in post-Katrina beating of teacher can get job back, appeals court rules [More]

What's a Louisiana "Only One" need to do to get fired and stay fired? Beat the crap out of an in-custody woman half his size?

No, that won't do it either.

[Via Matt S]

A Change of Heart?

There’s been a change of heart from Governor Bredesen about what is being called the Katrina Gun Bill.

I'd be interested to see just what doors the "minor language changes to the bill" open...

Lager? Isn't that a Kind of Beer?

H. R. 645

To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish national emergency centers on military installations. [More]

Huh.

You don't think they'll make them "gun free zones," do you?

I wonder if going there will be compulsory if where we live is declared "off limits"?

I wonder if you try to leave if you'll be stopped? Even if disease breaks out, or there's not enough food, or...

Oh well, I'll bet they've learned a lot since Katrina. I'm sure they're doing this for our own good.

Right?

[Via Tom Z]

GRE Round Up for July 13

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• Federal trial in New Orleans underscores SAF/NRA post-Katrina lawsuit

• House vote derails Obama administration gun reporting scheme

Kurt Hofmann/St. Louis:

• 'Gunwalker' scandal continues explosive growth

We're the Only Ones Elated Enough

 I think the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigations needs a new comms person. 27 years ago they found part of a body, no hands, no feet, no head. They found the head a year later. They just identified the remains, and posted, “We are thrilled to reunite Katrina with her family.” [More]

O, tidings of comfort and joy!

[Via WiscoDave]