Crossing The Line

[Atrocities]

A good friend of my Dad's lived just outside of NO (New Orleasn) for nearly 30 years told us today that that his family, specifically his sister, who stilled lived there were the victims of an illegal police action that made them the criminals in the face of simply being in their home protecting what little they had following Katrina.

They had plenty of food, water, and were on dry land. They had a generators, gas, and a strong desire to stay at home and help their neighbors rebuild. Unfortunetly one day, following the break down in law and order in the city and surrounding areas, the police came knocking, not to help them or see if they needed any help, but instead to treat them like they were the criminals. They were all handcuffed, sat on the ground and watched under arms, while police illegally searched their home for firearms, ammo, and gasoline. Legal firearms, ammo, and supplies owned by law abiding people. The police didn't have a right or need to do what they did, but they did it anyways. They took their guns, ammo, food and gasoline and threatened to arrest the family if they resisted. They left these people with no means to support or defend themselves. They had no choice but to leave.

After Bill told us about this I honestly thought he was over exagerating and said no way, not here in the US. That is just some crackpot rumors and half baked truths. I will admit that I had heard stories about this but never anything concrete. He told me to look into it and I would be shocked. Well I did and I came acrossed a web site that had some very intereting videos. Give Them Back (An NRA website).

I don't know what you think of the people who make up the NRA, and I rightly don't care, but regardless of your views about those people, their website is a shocking eye opener.

While it certainly is not news worthy reporting, the evidence that they put forth is damning. The police did come through and did illegaly act against law abiding people who's only crime was their desire to keep what they had.

It is a sad, no a very sad example of what could go wrong in the face of a natural disaster. While I think the police were acting to protect the greater good, they ended up acting against it. When you beat an old women in her kitchen because she has gun, an unloaded one, when your are illegally in her home, there to take her things from her, then you no longer are serving and protecting. You have become the very thing that you swore to protect people from.

While I was not there and have no clue as to what those poor folks faced overall, I do know that even if the police were acting in what they thought was a right way, it wasn't and it should be condemed.

It just seems so sad that something like this, something that you would expect to occur in a third world, was openly ordered here in the US by New Orleans politicans. My God, if they can do it New Orleans, then they can do it any where.

No matter where you stand on the topic of Katrina and the aftermath, the thought that a police force can come into your home without a legal right and take your things without legal cause, is just simply frightening. It turns the police, a force that we look to for protection, into a group of jack booted thugs. The crime waves were mostly in the city, so what right did the police have in going out to the rural areas to confescate peoples supplies, firearms, and other? None, they were simply easy targets to be taken advantage of. This is indeed a very sad and scary glimps into what would happen when peoples constitutional rights are set aside and the law breaks down.