Month: September 2005

I found the video I mentioned earlier. It shows a cop slamming a little old lady, no more than half his size, up against a wall in her own house and then jumping on top of her, then dragging her from her home. The quality of the video clip isn’t good enough to read the patch on his shoulder or see his face clearly, but hopefully people who saw the footage on TV might be able to identify him.

Quote of the day:

bq. Whenever the Legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any further Obedience…

John Locke (1632-1704)

Don’t Worry, We’ve Still Got the Third Amendment. Howard Kurtz has done a decent column about the restrictions on reporters covering Katrina. An excerpt: There have been other… [Hit and Run]

More on the government trying to interfere with the press, but apparently not actually barring them.

Here’s another story, from a commentor on this post:

bq. Here’s a depressingly depressing example of a forced evacuation of an old lady in New Orleans from a dry undamaged house: It’s video, choose US Evacuations Continues – 08/09. They trick their way in to her home, tell her she has to leave, jump on top of her when it turns out the little old lady has a pistol, get her outside (with no belongings), tell her she can’t go back inside and stick the weeping woman on the back of a truck heading away from her pretty nice home towards God knows where. The cops mouth sympathetic words, but what they have done is clearly far worse than leaving her alone, and if she winds up dead because of what they have done they won’t shed a tear.

Apparently the video isn’t available in the U.S.

It’s confirmed–soldiers and police are disarming people at gunpoint in New Orleans. I found this video from ABC News showing it, with one soldier even admitting on the air that he would shoot Americans. Aside from the Army, there are unidentified police agencies involved. There’s a story in the Washington Post mentioning U.S. Marshals.

As far as I’m concerned the police and military have openly declared themselves hostile to the American people. “Support the police, support the troops?” Support them from a tree with a rope around their necks.

To that stormtrooper from the video, I would say, “Try that in my neighborhood and this American will have no problem shooting you.”

Katrina Head-scratchers. Why did FEMA block Wal-Mart shipments of water to the New Orleans area?
Why did FEMA block fuel shipments to the New Orleans area?
Why did FEMA cut emergency communication lines from the New Orleans area?
Why wouldn’t FEMA let the Red Cross deliver food to the New Orleans area?
Why wouldn’t FEMA let the people in downtown New Orleans leave?
Why wouldn’t FEMA let others come in to deliver relief supplies or transportation out from New Orleans?
Why did it take the government 5 days to… [Antiwar.com Blog]

bq. The problem isn’t that FEMA botched rescue efforts — it’s that they PREVENTED rescue. They PREVENTED survival. They didn’t just “oops!” screw up — they actually CAUSED death by their actions, not through their lack of action. They have actually slapped sanctions on the city of New Orleans and are slowly finishing off any hold-outs. I wonder how many people will die getting shot for refusing to be removed from their own homes?

Little Platoons. Here’s another report of self-help and mutual aid in New Orleans. The story’s subtitle summarizes it well: “A community bands… [Hit and Run]

As one of the leaders of this group put it:

bq. “The thing about this here is they are embarrassed,” Sarge said. “They all know we did a better job than [the shelters] did. We took care of ourselves. We survived.”

Gun Confiscation Begins in New Orleans: “Only Police Officers Are Allowed Weapons”. Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered weapons, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here.

No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns, or other firearms of any kind, said P. Edwin Compass, the superintendent of police. ‘Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons,’ he said. [FirearmNews.com]

Wouldn’t want those peasants getting uppity when come around to force them from their homes at gunpoint.

Hurricane Katrina – Our Experiences [EMS Network]

An “escape from New Orleans” story. The authors are apparently Communists, which makes their story suspect, but many parts of it are supported by other news stories.

Is Skype in China risking compromising their encryption and anonymity model?. “Is Skype in China risking compromising their encryption and anonymity model?” so asks my Danish contact Torben Nyhuus after reading this article on Yahoo turning state’s evidence:

bq. Information supplied by Yahoo ! helped journalist Shi Tao get 10 years in prison

It is an interesting question. The Skype Partner TOM does have a different version of Skype. H’mmmm… [Skype Journal]

Given Skype’s closed source, it would be very unwise to trust it for encryption and anonymity in any case.