Rescuers, Going Door to Door, Find Stubbornness and Silence
Col. Terry Ebbert, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security, said Sunday that he expected that nearly everyone would be removed from the city by Tuesday, as rescuers made block-by-block searches. He said he thought there were fewer than 1,000 residents left in the city. "We're going to remove them," he said.
Captain Bayard said he was reluctant to force anyone to leave against their will. If a boat capsized in a struggle, police officers and evacuees could drown or be subjected to disease, he said. But if ordered to remove residents, he would do so, he said.
A volunteer rescuer, Morgan Lopez, said he and colleagues had all but forced four people from a home at Dwyer and Bundy Roads on Sunday, where a sea of raw sewage had reached the steps of the house.
Tourists tell of their terror in the rubble
The family of a British hurricane victim told last night how she and her boyfriend were in fear of their lives as they scavenged for food while the authorities operated a shoot-to-kill policy against looters.
Tourists were forced to rummage among the rubble for food while dodging gangs and law enforcement sharpshooters. At the same time the American authorities were said to have blocked consular officials from entering New Orleans three times.
“At first it was the gangs they feared, but now it could be trigger-happy cops. I do not think the police would help, even if they were to approach them. Now the military are involved it is martial law.”
Yesterday he said troops in the Superdome had told Britons to use sharp objects such as scissors or tweezers to protect themselves from gangs.
White House shifts blame
9/4/2005 8:39 am source: The Argus
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat. Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move was comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.
Outside New Orleans, frustration boiled over among the boatmen who spontaneously left their homes in central Louisiana to rescue stranded residents in the first hours after reports of flooding hit the airwaves. For the past two days, many have been turned away because of security concerns in a city that had turned violent and chaotic.
The decision to employ active-duty ground troops and Marines was particularly significant given the administration's initial desire to limit ground forces largely to Guard units. Regular military troops are constrained by law from engaging in domestic law enforcement. By contrast, Guard troops, which are under the command of state governors, have no such constraints.
Members of federal law enforcement agencies are in the city, he said. More than 200 Border Patrol agents have been sworn in to reinforce New Orleans police, and state police officials said hundreds of law enforcement agents from other states are expected in the coming days.
DoD Briefing on Ongoing National Guard Response to Hurricane Katrina
Went in with police powers, 1,000 National Guard military policemen under the command and control of the adjutant general of the State of Louisiana, Major General Landreneau, yesterday shortly after noon stormed the convention center...
Martial law has not been declared anywhere in the United States of America. The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans.
That's starting to be a significant presence. That's 14,000 active force on top of what will be 40,000 National Guardsmen, that's 54,000 people. So there's very firm and forceful law enforcement. We have not suspended any laws. In fact they have invoked some emergency powers with curfews and all those type of measures. In some states the order has been given to shoot to kill.
On a normal day they should have 1,500 paid officers in New Orleans, give or take. Some people have said it's 1,650. It's in the rough order of 1,500-man police force, and I think the mayor told me they're down to less than 500.
Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”
“I never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.”
“This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.” [Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion] said. “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”
Troops Arrive in New Orleans With Shoot-To-Kill Orders
[President Bush] is scheduled to visit the affected region, and to ensure his safety, 300 members of the Arkansas National Guard have been deployed.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco says that the guardsmen are allowed to open fire on "hoodlums" taking advantage of from the devastation by Hurricane Katrina." These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets," Blanco says. "They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will," she adds.
Minutemen Civil Defense Corps starts Secure Our Borders Operation Early
More than 100 U.S. Border Patrol agents have been reassigned from Arizona and New Mexico to aid Katrina victims. As released by Department of Homeland Security yesterday, Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) agents are en route to the area affected by Hurricane Katrina to provide security and law enforcement support during the evacuation of the Super Dome.
Minuteman volunteers will be immediately deployed to the southern border with Mexico to assist with border security in order to fill gaps in border security as U.S. Border Patrol reassigned to disaster relief duty.
Martial law has been declared in the disaster stricken areas and the Border Patrol along with thousands of National Guard personnel have been mobilized to enforce the rule of law.
Homeland Security Press Conference
Assistant Secretary McHale, Defense Department: For the past 125 years, approximately, it has been the public policy of our nation, reflected in numerous statutes, but most particularly the posse comitatus statute, that our active duty military forces ordinarily do not engage in law enforcement activity. And under truly extraordinary circumstances... the President does have the legal authority to make certain declarations and use the active duty military to restore civil order.
General Blum, National Guard Bureau: This is, not as it has been erroneously reported, martial law. It is not that at all. This is helping a police force that is overstretched with this extraordinary challenge that it's facing. So we are bringing law enforcement officers from around the country... We are never in charge. The military is not in charge...
Admiral Whitehead, Coast Guard: I should also mention that since the topic is law enforcement, that the Coast Guard is unique among the Armed Services in that we are both a member of the Armed Services, but by statute, the Coast Guard are -- Coast Guard members are also law enforcement officers... And we have very broad authority, essentially, as well.
Clarification of martial law on NOLA.com
The state Attorney General's office on Tuesday sought to clarify reports in some media that "martial law' has been declared in parts of storm-ravaged southeast Louisiana, saying no such term exists in Louisiana law.
But even though no martial law exists, Gov. Kathleen Blanco's declaration of a state of emergency gives authorities widespread latitude to suspend civil liberties as they try to restore order and bring victims to safety. Under the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act of 1993, the governor and, in some cases, chief parish officials, have the right to commandeer or utilize any private property if necessary to cope with the emergency.
It also gives authority the right to compel evacuations... The law gives mayors similar authority, except they do not have the right to commandeer private property or make provisions for emergency housing...
EMT's held hostage in New Orleans hotel
8/30/2005 source: New Hampshire Union Leader (cached)
Lancaster resident Jennifer Frenette had a brush with martial law yesterday in New Orleans.
When Hurricane Katrina finally passed through the city, she and others who had been virtual prisoners in the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel decided to go outside for some fresh air.
A police officer told them if they didn’t go back inside, they’d be arrested. They went back inside. “It’s martial law. They’re being extra cautious,” she said.
She said there was a certain irony to the fact that hundreds of EMTs in New Orleans were confined in hotels under martial law, unable to do the jobs they are trained to do.
No one is being allowed into New Orleans
8/30/2005 source: WWL-TV
Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish under Martial Law. No one being allowed into New Orleans.
Who declared martial law?
Mainstream television is screaming martial law today but they are not saying who declared it.
Martial law means everyone in New Orleans has lost their constitutional rights!
There's nothing about martial law being declared on the home page of the White House, FEMA or Louisiana.gov. The New Orleans web site is down.
So, who declared martial law!! --posted by Greg Ericson
