I wonder why the ACLU hasn't chosen to contest this abuse of civil liberty?
How I might be necessary is easily proved. How many other business owners might be necessary is equally assumed.But the bigger question is;
" Why does any person reentering New Orleans need to prove any thing other than residence?"
I, as small "l" libertarian, I have difficulty understanding what legal authority any governmental entity has to exclude any legal resident from their residence.
This exclusion has, in my humble opinion. caused irreparable harm to many many residents who needed to rebuild their lives after the Katrina induced levee failure.
5 comments:
" Why does any person reentering New Orleans need to prove any thing other than residence?"
This is martial law being declared well in advance of any worst-case scenario. That's about the only reason why I can think they would weed out returnees by how "necessary" they are AFTER the worst has happened.
I guess if you can't help with rescues or keeping the peace, you're just a parasite, even if you do have an address here.
No-one will keep us away from our property again. With all of the repairs and improvements, I'm not going to let the place sit alone just to be looted by certain "first responders".
And this is the reason some will not leave for the next storm.
Anyone who has never been barred, by government troops, from returning to their home cannot imagine how it felt. It sucked big time.
Parasite? Bullshit. Our civil rights were violated. Any able bodied person could have returned to help clear and clean their neighborhood - not to mention saving the lives of others.
This is a sore spot with me.
I'm not a business owner, but I understood earlier re-entry for business owners in 2005. But only up to a limited point, a very limited point -- a day or two to inspect inventory if lack of police manpower meant that renewed looting was a fear. Instead business owners were allowed back into my neighborhood for almost a month while residents were kept out -- for their own safety. I guess only business owners were assumed to have the common sense to watch out for dangling power lines. Had they said that access was limited for the safety of repair workers, it might have made sense. Instead, we got the condescending, "for your own safety."
If safety considerations ever mean access needs to be limited for an indefinite period of time, common decency demands that residents at least be allowed "look-and-leave" days. Common sense would suggest that the best time to have those days would be while national guardsmen and visiting law enforcement personnel are still in town to help out. Instead, a couple of days after RITA, while the mayor was still saying "for your own safety," I went to the 17th St. canal and saw not just NOPD keeping people out, but La. state troopers, guardsmen and about a dozen policemen and troopers from other states. I thought to myself, if there's a good reason not to have look-and-leave days while these extra people are here, I'd like to hear it. I was willing to give both the mayor and the governor a second chance after they were both overwhelmed during the crisis, but I realized then that our democratically elected mayor has the mindset of a boss who thinks that bosses shouldn't have to explain their decisions. I've always said that I decided I couldn't vote for Nagin in December of 2005 when I realized that there was absolutely no effort to put the city's limited resources where they would do the most good. That's true at a rational level, but at emotional level I think I made that decision that day in September.
And I can only wonder how much extra damage was done, if only in the form of ruined possessions, by the spread of mold during the time when people were kept out of their homes.
I was able to "sneak" in much earlier than any official opening. Our "raid" occurred only a few days after the Superdome was evacuated.
As a Business Owner I was allowed back "early". I had already secured my business. I hired a crew to clean out my house and begin the process of reclamation. I wasn't supposed to be in my neighborhood. I had several law enforcement agencies visit me at my home during that time and not one of them asked for anything more than my identity or asked us to leave.
Nagin, in a rare fit of courage and good sense, actually seems to have stood up to FEMA nincompoops who wanted him to delay allowing any residents back due to unrealized fears of disease, lawlessness and environmental catastrophe.
I was amazed every time I came back in how many people were here and the breadth of their apparently sanctioned activities.
The monumental stupidity and inequity of the policy was readily apparent.
Allowing people back sooner might have helped many more people renew their commitment to New Orleans.
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