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October 27, 2005
Looting continues in New Orleans. . .
This pains me to report, but there still appears to be widespread looting going on in New Orleans, Police officials in the city are attempting to downplay the reports, but tonight I received word from friends and family who have attempted to return to the city that whole areas of the city are now the undisputed territory of armed gangs after dark, and even during broad daylight.
Rep. Alex Heaton, D-New Orleans, told Riley that looting was reported as recently as Friday on Maple and Oak streets, two principal commercial strips in Carrollton.Riley said a 200-member task force that recently formed to combat looting is focusing on largely uninhabited neighborhoods, not areas such as Carrollton, where a large number of residents have returned. But Riley said he would talk to 2nd District commanders about patrolling the two streets.
He said the task force has found it must allocate more officers to daytime patrols than when it began. With many neighborhoods vacant, looters aren't waiting for darkness to invade homes, he said.
It's been reported to me that armed gangs have also taken over Cato St. in the Uptown area of New Orleans, roving the streets openly armed and confronting homeowners and business people who attempted to enter the area to assess damage, clean out flooded homes and begin the process of rebuilding.
"They are entering homes with bedsheets, loading them up with our belongings and then hauling out the loot 'Santa-style' with the bundled sheets slung over their shoulders."
I've been reluctant to straight out say that Mayor Nagin's "look and leave" policy for many New Orleans areas simply isn't working, but I will now. Even with a heavy National Guard presence in the city, the reluctance of the city to integrate the National Guard troops into the city's 9-11 response system is making them ineffective. Additionally, many guard units placed under the operational command of the city and state officials have been switched from security duties to recovery and restoration tasks.
The city should have never attempted to bring residents back into the city without the resources necessary to manage the influx of residents spread throughout the city and without any orderly process of resettlement. It's an "every man and woman for themselves" mentality with only a minimum of order and security restored. When Mayor Nagin re-opened the city against the advice of Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, and without any plan for orderly resettlement, he set the stage for a new round of injustices to be visited on those residents who returned to reclaim their homes.
Mayor Nagin seems to be more concerned with getting a new football team (after attempts to shake-down Saints owner Benson were unsuccessful) than he is about the safety and security of New Orleans residents. The "mayor without a plan" has shown again his total and complete incompetance with regard to managing the city. Cell phone coverage in the city is spotty and land lines aren't any better, police response to attacks is non-existant unless such attacks occur in the French Quarter, Wharehouse or CBD districts, New Orleans East, Gentilly and Uptown are sporadically patrolled at night and requests for help are routinely met with "you'll have to call the National Guard". Of course the city hasn't integrated (by the city's choice) with the National Guard communication nets and there's no phone number familiar to New Orleans residents who need to contact the Guard when the police won't respond.
I don't find it surprising that the MSM isn't reporting on the state of siege in New Orleans and the city's inabilty to respond or simple apathy, the MSM in it's zeal to report carnage in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of the storm severly dropped the ball, they're embarrassed and afraid that they'll get the story wrong again; and of course, when Mayor Nagin still gets on TV and laments that "no one is helping" despite thousands of workers and billions of dollars flowing into the city with absolutely no accountability from Louisiana's NOTORIOUSLY corrupt officials and politicians, I almost don't blame them.
I do find it ironic that I had to resort to reporting from another of my former residence's newspapers, the Vail Daily (repuires registration) to find accounts of the looting that is still going on beyond those personally related to me by people within the city now:
I didn't find the looting surprising. The area is pitch black at night. There are mostly migrant workers in the area during the day. The area is mandated empty at dark. It's a thief's "made to order."
The mayor's "look and leave" is a major part of exacerbating the situation in the city. With drive times out of New Orleans stretching upwards of 4 hours, many neighborhoods are deserted well before dark and the looting begins when the clean-up workers make their daily retreat across the lake to campgrounds and temporary housing in Slidell, Mandeville and Covington.
The Times-Picayune (the New Orleans daily) is doing it's best at reporting what's going on within the city, but with a severly depleted staff and utilizing offices as far away as Mobile to produce the paper, much "on the scene reporting" has taken a back seat to official reports and press releases. The mainstream media is almost completely hands off, and so it seems, are the police.
Leaving New Orleans to be destroyed again, from the inside. AGAIN.
Martial Law was NEVER declared in New Orleans, all bluster by Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin aside, the National Guard has no real authority to actually fight crime in New Orleans. They can certainly chase looters away when they happen upon them, but there's no mechanism in place (by the city's choice) to utilize the resources the National Guard can bring to bear. Couple the hamstringing (again) of the National Guard, with a corrupt local government, a police force more prone to looting themselves than actually protecting and serving the citizenry, and haphazard and downright DANGEROUS approach the city has taken to resettlement, the future prospects for the city are looking bleaker with each passing day.
One can only hope that the MSM will lick it's wounds and begin getting back on the ground in New Orleans to report the situation. One can only hope that the National Guard will be embraced for the resources and manpower they can bring to bear in the area and one can only hope that Mayor Nagin will begin to "pull his head out" and begin actually managing the city he was elected to serve rather than simply whine and continue blaming everyone else for his city's mismanagment and disfunction.
You created this catastrophe Mayor Nagin by failing the first time, and unless you're ready to turn over control to those who truely want to help and manage the crisis, it's up to you to pull things together.
FORGET ABOUT BRINGING THE BROWNS TO NEW ORLEANS TO REPLACE THE SAINTS, FORGET ABOUT CASINOS, MARDI GRAS AND CONVENTIONS!!!
New Orleans needs basic services returned, rather than complaining that the money is going to run out in March, use the time between now and then wisely. Restore those services you can and for goodness sakes, ask for assistance from those in place and ready to assist rather than whine and cry about whether or not you have meter maids getting checks from the city while they wait out the recovery in Houston and Chicago. Those cities will worry about the people taking shelter there, YOU, MAYOR NAGIN need to worry about protecting the people and property still left in New Orleans, and those you enticed to return.
And face it Nagin, there's an election in February, and it's HIGHLY unlikely you'll even run, let alone win. So let someone else worry about March, you need to be worrying about today.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at October 27, 2005 8:48 PM
