Storm-Wracked Parish Considers Hired Guns

[Rose Siding]

ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. -- Maj. Pete Tufaro scanned the fenced lot packed with hundreds of stark white trailers soon to be inhabited by Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Shaking his head, he predicted the cramped quarters would ignite fights, hide criminals and become an incubator for crime, posing another test for his cash-strapped sheriff's department, which furloughed 206 of its 390 officers after the storm.

Tufaro thinks the parish has the solution: DynCorp International LLC, the Texas company that provided personal security to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and is one of the largest security contractors in Iraq. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency approves the sheriff's department's proposal, which would cost $70 million over three years, up to 100 DynCorp employees would be deputized to be make arrests, carry weapons, and dress in the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Department khaki and black uniforms.

"You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between us and them," said Tufaro, who developed the proposal.

But while the plan is for the DynCorp employees to eat and live with the other deputies in the same trailer camp, the hired guns would earn "significantly more" than the $18,000 annual salary of an entry-level deputy and the $30,000-a-year salary of a seasoned officer........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301777.html

[sattahipdeep]

1. Another texas firm gets a cush deal n/t

[tanyev]

2. And the federal neglect after Katrina accomplishes its mission.

[Scurrilous]

3. Who wants to bet...

...that shortly after Maj. Pete Tufaro eventually retires from the St. Bernard Parish sheriffs department, he lands some cushy job with DynCorp. :thumbsup:

[Rose Siding]

5. Why not? FEMA was paying Blackwater $950 a day per employee

Republicans can't be trusted with money. I don't know Tufaro's politics, but he's over a barrel now:

snip>
Money dried up so fast after Katrina hit that Sheriff Jack Stephens, an imposing, 6-foot-4-inch New Orleans native, took out a loan of more than $4 million on behalf of the department, which he says he would be held personally responsible for if he left office before its repayment. "It is what I had to do," he said.

[pitohui]

22. this entire parish was completely destroyed

this is a blue collar and small business owner homeowner's type parish completely destroyed, all the towns destroyed, the homes, the businesses, it's beyond belief, the tax base completely wiped out in a day

these people need protection while they get their lives back

now why the $950 per employee per day couldn't go directly to st. bernard parish to hire some good people who lost their businesses and are in need of jobs, well, that's another issue

but they deserve police protection of some kind, in many areas predators are frankly just going in and taking building materials etc. when the homeowner is away, which is often, considering lack of electricity and other perks of modern life most people take for granted

this is the parish that was abandoned completely by FEMA and refused any aid in the first days of the storm, causing some mounties from canada and vancouver in particular to have to rescue people off the roofs of their homes, including several people i know personally, because our usa federal gov't couldn't be arsed to rescue them, and these are white middle class people, if this got any real media play and joe blow in peoria ever realizes that his middle class white ass is going to be abandoned just as quick as anybody in the 9th ward, you'd see a shock to the middle class sense of entitlement like you wouldn't believe, but the media is happy to play cover-up and make a point that only those "others" were abandoned

[DrDan]

4. isn't this why we have a National Guard????

oh yeah - I forgot

[Kailassa]

6. $70 MILLION to protect a parish from "the unwanted".

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more productive to help these people settle somewhere permanently, in decent accomodation and with accessible employment?

At least in the days of slavery most people were regularly fed, and knew they belonged somewhere. So many people these days are treated worse, and with more contempt, than even the slaves were.

The neocons are not only evil assholes, they are fools.
They are despoiling the country they live in.
Even my cat knows not to make a mess of his own home.

[MadMaddie]

14. In addition...wouldn't it be cheaper to use the town citizens

to rebuild their town...then they become a part of the solution not part of the problem!!!

[pitohui]

23. the (many towns of st. bernard parish) citizens are rebuilding

i am not sure what the comment about slavery was meant to get at, st. bernard is an overwhelmingly white parish, despite the hispanic-sounding names, they do have a group of islenos (canary islanders) but for the most part their make-up would be described in any census as white, blue collar working in the sugar refinery, oil refinery etc. or else owning a small business be it plumbing or automotive

they have a strong family ethic and do not move far from each other, so you had huge extended families where everyone lost their home, my husband has met a colleaque whose family lost 30 homes

they were not slaves, nor are they unskilled people, they have the skills to work together and come together as family to rebuild, and they are doing just that

the entire parish, not just one town, but many towns were completely destroyed and some areas contaminated with oil too boot, there is lack of electric, lack of services etc. so many people have to live elsewhere, then drive in during daylight hours to work, until they are able to get trailers so they can stay there full-time

while they are not there, thieves, and i do not mean small-time gangbangers, i mean professionals (and likely unethical contractors) come in and steal building materials, etc. that is delivered to a site for rebuilding

some contractors are so beyond belief that they will even steal the landscaping, i'm talking abt stealing the trees right out of your lawn

the folks of st. bernard are not "part of the problem," they are part of the solution, more salt of the earth you will not find

yes, there are bad apples in every bunch, probably even in your community! but they deserve protection

i just feel there are more cost efficient ways to provide that protection than blackwater

[saigon68]

7. up to 100 DynCorp employees would be deputized

At $1,000.00 to $1,500.00 a DAY

Good thing they don't need to feed anyone or provide Prescriptions in that county.

Why not just hire these mercenaries all over the country. To control "THE GREAT UNWASHED"

[jus_the_facts]

8. they'll just get *washed away* with the residents this hurricane season...

....happy job hunting. :nopity:

[sandnsea]

9. This is outrageous

The way to rebuild a city is to bring back the employees, especially the cops. If they lived with the citizens, for a change, they would create a community which is the best thing that can happen towards keeping the peace.

Did somebody say this Tufaro was bad news last year, I can't remember but I know people said some of these officials are major asshats.

[uppityperson]

10. Bring back the National Guard

This is a good mission for them. This DynCorp thing sounds bad on many levels. How about using the National Guard for this? They are military, true, and this would make it look more militaristic, but making the mercinaries look like StBernardParishSheriffs is just wrong. Mercinaries in New Orleans. Oh my.

[pitohui]

24. this isn't new orleans, this is st. bernard

Mercinaries in New Orleans.

just to point out a factual error in your post here

i agree the national guard should have been brought in to help st. bernard parish and that they should still be there defending the people as they move back and try to rebuild

instead, FEMA gave the excuse of not hearing any communications from st. bernard parish (the entire parish was destroyed and unable to communicate for many days) as excuse for not sending the guard

many people, some i know personally, were rescued by canadian gov'ts such as the city of vancouver, those folks would be dead if they'd waited on the nat'l guard which never came

[Nickster]

11. Ok, my head hurts. They fired 206 of their trained officers.

My back of the envelope math says that the 206 officers, if they all got the high end, 30k a year would cost about 6.2 Million a year. So the sheriff decides he can't afford that, but can afford to get 70 million over three years for hired contractors. Contractors that will have badges, guns, police uniforms and arrest rights. How is this better than re-hiring the original staff?

[pitohui]

25. there is no money in the budget, the entire parish is broke

i think you just don't get it

st. bernard parish was entirely wiped out, i don't think a residence survived w.out major damage

there is no tax base for the sheriff to hire anyone

therefore he has no choice but to take on this offer from FEMA, like it or not

[Nickster]

27. Then why not make a request to FEMA to get the money needed to hire back

his own guys? Seems like simple math to me. Or hell, have the unemployed police create their own security contracting firm and contract to FEMA. If I was the sheriff, I'd be thinking of ways to keep my men employed. Just saying.

[pitohui]

28. the sheriff has made MANY requests of FEMA

and FEMA has made many excuses

i don't think you understand the situation, FEMA has gone out of its way not to help the people of theis parish and to make every excuse to deny them assistance, do i exaggerate, not by much, these people had to be rescued by freakin canada because FEMA refused to help the sheriff

the sheriff has made many many many many many requests and it all goes back to what gene taylor said FEMA can screw up a one car funeral

in this case i will presume FEMA is screwing up on purpose, FEMA bills state of louisiana 25 percent of what they spend, every expense they can inflate means more money back in their pocket extracted from the state and more money for the federales to steal

can't see blaming the sheriff for this one, sorry, FEMA has treated him like a red-headed stepchild since the first week when they claimed not to notice that st. bernard had been completely flooded and in desperate need of help

this is why people had to be taking off the roofs by freakin city of vancouver, because FEMA apparently did not notice that da parish was underwater but canada could see it all right on their maps

[Occulus]

12. Corporate police would get a bullet from me instead of compliance.

They ARE NOT POLICE, do NOT deserve police powers, and WILL NOT be recognized as a valid authority.

They DO deserve to be shot if they try this.

[Blue_Tires]

15. +1

[pitohui]

26. oh christ

just stay out of da parish then

these people deserve something and if that is all FEMA will provide, what is the sheriff to do?

there is no tax base, the entire parish -- many many towns -- utterly destroyed

the sheriff has no budget because there is no one to tax on a local basis

therefore he must go along w. the federal suggestion no matter how shitty

we would ALL prefer locals to get these jobs, we would ALL prefer to see our nat'l guard here (esp. local troops from louisiana and mississippi who would rather help out at home than in iraq in our time of trouble) but guess what?

st. bernard parish is one parish (county) in one of the poorest states in a nation that doesn't seem to give much of a crap about us except as a source of cheap oil

at some point you have to take what help you can get even if you know some GOP asshat is stealing half the $$$

[Occulus]

32. If they have no budget, why the corporate police

when we all know ACTUAL police get paid quite a bit less?

Say it with me: corporate powers must never be granted civil authority.

Now say it again: corporate powers must never be granted civil authority.

Say it until you believe it: corporate powers must never be granted civil authority.

If they try, they deserve to be eliminated. Period.

edited to add: I would prefer no police over corporate police power.

[pitohui]

33. read the article, because this is FEMA (federal)

FEMA will give them this, it is not giving them direct payment to hire their own men

you can bet your booty sheriff stephens would rather have his own men around him who have been through the fire

what you would prefer is irrelevent, and what theoretical chants you would like to chant are irrelevent, you haven't been to hell and back like these people, you haven't seen your entire county destroyed and EVERY home in it destroyed

the people deserve police protection, rather than shitting on the powerless person (sheriff stephens) the shit should flow uphill to FEMA


if i am starving then i am in no position to say i'm a vegan when FEMA comes around with a bowl of chili

[Marie26]

38. Why do you think FEMA is

so eager to provide the parish w/Dyncorp mercenaries, of all the many, many requests that FEMA has denied?

Some info about Dyncorp's history:

"Outside the Law" - Salon investigation into Dyncorp's involvement with sexual slavery in Bosnia. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/06/26/bosnia/index_np.html

In 2002, Dyncorp was sued in US Federal Court on behalf of 10,000 Ecuadorians for spraying toxic pesticides, including an Agent Orange variant, onto farmers & Indians.
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Lawlawsuits/Lawsuitsregulatoryaction/LawsuitsSelectedcases/DynCorplawsuitreColombiaEcuador

In 2001, Dyncorp mistakenly shoots down a plane containing American missionaries in Peru -
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0602-02.htm

Dyncorp security rebuked for "aggressive behavior" while guarding Karzai in Afganistan - http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11574

Despite all these problems, in 2004, Dyncorp received over $2.4 Billion in Defense Dept. contracts.
It was awarded a $500 million dollar contract to run the police force & prison system in Iraq. As a private contractor, they're not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibits torturing or killing prisoners.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,935689,00.html

Dyncorp is very, very bad news. I suspect that they're basically a front group for some of the more unsavory CIA/Pentagon activities. Would you want a company like this to have the authority to act as a police force in the US?

[Kailassa]

39. There was an old woman who swallowed a horse.

She died, of course.

[Marie26]

41. Umm.

What do you mean?

[Kailassa]

42. From a song about a cure that was worse than the disease ...

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.
I dunno why she swallowed that fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly -
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a bird;
How absurd, to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly -
Perhaps she'll die

There was an old lady who swallowed a cat.
Imagine that, she swallowed a cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die

There was an old lady who swallowed a dog.
What a hog! To swallow a dog!
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat...
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a goat.
Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat!
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog ...
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow.
I don't know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat... She swallowed the goat to catch the dog...
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat...
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird ...
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I dunno why she swallowed that fly
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a horse -
She's dead, of course.

[Marie26]

43. Appropriate

It's beyond cruel how they're forcing a bankrupt parish to accept their Pentagon mercenaries, while refusing to provide even basic services. FEMA is making the police dept. swallow a very bitter pill because it knows they have no choice. For anyone who's bored or curious, try googling DynCorp + Pentagon - you'll be there all day. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Dyncorp+pentagon

Everything you never wanted to know about Dyncorp:
CorpWatch profile - http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=18

Public Integrity - "Outsourcing the Pentagon" cache - http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:frahPPSr010J:www.publicintegrity.org/pns/db.aspx%3Fact%3Dcinfo%26coid%3D003242013+pentagon+outsourcing+dyncorp&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

Tons of proxies & subdidiaries - http://sec.edgar-online.com/1999/03/10/16/0000030770-99-000009/Section34.asp

Dyncorp IT subsidiary creates computer networks for the DOJ Voting Rights Act implementation (hmm), Pentagon Accounting (that lost $2 trillion), Post Office, FAA, NOAA, virtually every branch of federal government. NSA outsourced 750 employees in 2001 to CSC/Dyncorp in $5 billion dollar contract. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11124

It just goes on & on. This company, like Halliburton, has become a way for the Admin. to outsource the government to corporations w/o oversight or federal regulations.

[Kailassa]

46. These companies Are the government, now. n/t

[saigon68]

13. Kick

[Clara T]

16. Storm-Battered Parish Considers Hired Guns (DynCorp may replace police)

Storm-battered parish considers hired guns
Contractors in Louisiana would make arrests, carry weapons

ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. - Maj. Pete Tufaro scanned the fenced lot packed with hundreds of stark white trailers soon to be inhabited by Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Shaking his head, he predicted the cramped quarters would ignite fights, hide criminals and become an incubator for crime, posing another test for his cash-strapped sheriff's department, which furloughed 206 of its 390 officers after the storm.

Tufaro thinks the parish has the solution: DynCorp International LLC, the Texas company that provided personal security to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and is one of the largest security contractors in Iraq. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency approves the sheriff's department's proposal, which would cost $70 million over three years, up to 100 DynCorp employees would be deputized to be make arrests, carry weapons, and dress in the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Department khaki and black uniforms.

But while the plan is for the DynCorp employees to eat and live with the other deputies in the same trailer camp, the hired guns would earn "significantly more" than the $18,000 annual salary of an entry-level deputy and the $30,000-a-year salary of a seasoned officer.

For DynCorp and other private security companies, the post-Katrina Gulf Coast, like Iraq, is a land of opportunity. Hired shortly after the storm to protect several New Orleans hospitals, its first domestic security job, the Texas firm has earned about $14 million from work in the Gulf Coast since Katrina, not all of which has involved security.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11800942/

[xultar]

17. Didn't I see that in a crappy 80's movie, RoboCop where the cops

were owned by a corporation that was also the government? Weren't they called DynoCorp or something.

[MadMaddie]

19. Funny you should mention that...

yea....I think you are right.

More American jobs outsourced....organizations like Dynacorp don't respect the law and the will make up their own laws to the detriment of the people in the parish....

[Mandate My Ass]

21. You got that right

These mercs are not there to protect and to serve, far from it.

These people shoot "undesirables" and I'm sure they will be granted full blanket immunity ahead of time. Additionally, they make six figures, so Bush can use tax dollars to kill citizens of the US without questions ever being asked.

[Crayson]

40. Terminator

Maybe you're thinking of CyberDyne in Terminator, but with the rest you're pretty right.

Wasn't it OmniCorp or something in RoboCop?

[saigon68]

18. This is a dupe

[saigon68]

20. DUPE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2165718

[pitohui]

29. the threads are properly merged now

looks like all the comments have been placed in the one thread where all can follow the discussion

[saigon68]

31. Thanx

[pitohui]

35. oh i'm not the one -- thank the mods!

thanks, guys!

[phusion]

30. he thinks highly of these evacuees, no?

"Shaking his head, he predicted the cramped quarters would ignite fights, hide criminals and become an incubator for crime, posing another test for his cash-strapped sheriff's department, which furloughed 206 of its 390 officers after the storm."

[pitohui]

34. it is a reality that some people react badly to stress

a day or so ago a st. bernard man living in a trailer w. his 76 yr old mom was arrested for beating her over a 2 day period and sticking a gun in her mouth and pulling the trigger -- twice (fortunately the gun either wasn't loaded or didn't go off, not clear on that)

for the most part, these are good people, but some people in a disaster of this size, having gone thru a horror like this, break apart

these people saw their entire community destroyed and had to be taken off the roofs by canadians for their very lives, losing everything except the clothes they stood up in

and, yes, they are not used to the lack of privacy that comes w. suddenly living several families to a rental house or living in a FEMA trailer, when they used to own good-sized single family houses

the people deserve police protection and a police force, not platitudes

the overwhelming majority of people you meet from chalmette and elsewhere in da parish are v. strong and have a great attitude but not everybody can be that strong

[phusion]

36. you're right...thanx n/t

[Marie26]

37. kick. nt

[brentspeak]

44. Notice that FEMA won't help this parish...unless

the parish agrees to allow DynCorp mercs help in the policing.

Which will result in DynCorp pocketing $70 million. More Bush cronyism that has looted our national treasury.

[Marie26]

45. ...and also allows them

to go around the "Posse Comitatus" law prohibiting military troops from being used as a police force.