please help - Baton Rouge area

[drthais]

I am putting this in LBN because it is an emergency
we need DUers to help get the word out
Baton Rouge and surrounding communities
have been flooded with refugees from New Orleans

this is not about food and shelter
this is about security
we need security personnel
state-national - military
we don't care who
looters are everywhere - in broad daylight
if we do not get help
citizens will be shooting anyone they don't know
please help spread this message
if anyone out there knows anyone
connected to police anywhere
please please see if there is additional security personnel
that can come on down here and help keep the peace
before this whole part of the state melts down

thank you

[Mnemosyne]

1. I'm so sorry drthais.

I have called and written my rep. I will continue to do so.
I wish there was more...
Please keep your head down and stay safe.

[seemslikeadream]

2. I will pass this on

so sorry

[TNDemo]

3. I am looking for info about Baton Rouge.

My daughter attends LSU and has a house near there. She and her boyfriend from New Orleans evacuated. They are now in Southern Mississippi with no power (generator for the freezer) but they have no gas and she has heard there is none in Baton Rouge. She wants to go home but can't get there. Tell me anything about BR you can and if gas is available. PM me if you want. Thanks for any info.

[crispini]

4. Good god.

:kick:

[Jacobin]

5. There are muggings in parking lots outside of Walmart in Lake

Charles today by refugees.

They are stealing people's shopping carts as they leave the store.

We are 200 miles west of New Orleans on I-10 near the TExas border.

The situation is utterly out of control in New Orleans and it is now migrating.

"Homeland Security"...."FEMA"...."President" Bush*....what a joke

[frankly_fedup2]

6. I'm from Virginia, and our state has sent a couple rescue squad

firemen groups down and the National Guard will not let them in because they say it is unsafe.

How crazy is that?

I will call my representative as well as Senators. I'm not sure if they are in their Washington Offices yet or still home but I will try both.

Call Randi Rhodes with Air America. She'll put it on the airways.

I wish there was more I could do to help. I cannot believe what is going on in this country?????

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. I was afraid of this...

With parts of the country facing gas shortages, and frustration with Dumbyass' incompetence, I fear that the violence will spread to places not even touched by the hurricane.

[OhioBlue]

8. I was thinking the same n/t

[pop goes the weasel]

9. worried about a friend

unarmed security guard, just volunteered to take on a week's duty in Louisiana. I know his being there means that an armed officer might be able to be deployed where needed most, but I am wondering if there should be any unarmed security at all any more there.

[kilgore65]

10. Same holds true for Jackson Mississippi

We have been deluged by refugees from NOLA and the atmosphere has been very uneasy here, with lots of 'drifters' roaming about. I am locked and loaded....

[NorthernSpy]

11. al Qaeda is watching

Don't you suppose they are? They must be. And just look at what they'll have found out in the last few days:

We simply don't do what is necessary to protect ourselves. We have no real plans, no real emergency infrastructure, and most of all no will to save ourselves from disaster -- even when we can see it coming from miles away and have plenty of time to prepare.

Socially, we are not a united country. We deliberately left our poor and vulnerable to drown without batting an eye. This was the outrage that made the looting both possible and inevitable. And the poor and vulnerable know it, and they arm themselves and take whatever they can get. It's every man for himself, on both sides of the class divide.

A major act of terrorist mass-destruction might well finish us off as a society. I'm trying not to exaggerate, but having seen what's going down on the Gulf Coast, I'm honestly afraid that we might not have what it takes to survive anything worse.

[olddad56]

16. al quida is no threat to our counrty, The Rove regime is the threat.

[wli]

20. Al Qaeda are CIA agents awaiting Bush's orders. n/t

[merwin]

12. kick

[peacebuzzard]

13. kick

[Oreegone]

14. I am ill

Yes, don't we just look like we are sitting pretty. We can't even take care of a natural disaster. This is so freaking sad. I am so shamed and embarrassed.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Yes but gays can't get married and that is whats important to Americans nt

[htuttle]

17. Found this link in the Shreveport Times

False rumors circulating of Baton Rouge trouble
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050901/NEWS/50901017/0/NEWS

BATON ROUGE – False rumors about massive disorder in Baton Rouge were circulating wildly through the state today, city officials said.

Possibly fueling the rumors was a massive police presence in downtown ordered by Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden as a precautionary measure to prevent any looting or shooting as has been going on in New Orleans. Police were on every downtown corner, some walking around with rifles at the ready.

(snip)

The mayor’s executive assistant was working to stop the widely circulating rumors of evacuees causing disorder in the capital city.

“They are not hijacking cars, there are no machine guns, they are not raiding Wal-Mart,” said Hampton Grunewald, executive assistant to Mayor Kip Holden. “The rumors have gotten worse today.”

The major police show-of-force surrounded the 5,000 evacuees from New Orleans who are housed in the Baton Rouge River Center convention center on the riverfront. Groups of evacuees were roaming the streets of downtown Baton Rouge, often stopping people to ask for money.

(more at link)

So, is this something you *saw*, or something you *heard*?

[jsamuel]

18. Thanks

[SacredCow]

19. There's been a lot of knee-jerk reaction....

Even I posted something earlier in the day about the courthouse workers being sent home due to vandalism. To a an extent, it WAS true- they were sent home, and it was due to security reasons, but there are questions now that had I known then, I would have abstained from posting.

Things are far from ideal here in BR; We're talking about a city that is likely to have grown in population by 40 percent literally overnight. There are bound to be serious, serious issues.

I'm taking the stance that most of the refugees from New Orleans are NOT behaving as such, and that a few bad apples are making them all look bad. However, I will not be victimized. The thought of having to make use of Senor Glock depresses me horribly, but I will protect my family.

:scared: