A Very Ignored Katrina Affect
 

I didn't want to hijack the other thread, but Rat brought out a major point of anger many of us who live in cities that took in refugees from Katrina.

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/medi...exanonline.com

*Sorry the /quote thing isnt working for some reason*

The people who crashed the parties were found to have used a credit card issued by the Red Cross to purchase a taxii to get to the college apartements to crash them. They were supposed to be used for food/clothing/rent, instead were used to crash a party and kill innocent people.

Just a few of my buddies (5) in October were sitting in our apartement drinking listening to some music. 8 guys barged into our apartement and started going after our liquor, we told them to get out and they pulled a gun. We were lucky considering I was in the kitchen and quickly presented a knife and "convinced" them to leave. They were not local thugs, one of them was wearing a Red Cross t-shirt given out to the refugees.

Only a week later I awoke outside our apartement hearing "GET DOWN HERE NIGGER", and found myself trying to defend 2 girls (1 black) from about 10 guys I've never seen before 3 of them wearing a Saints shirt (generally a good indication).

In our apartement prior to Katrina I've whitnessed exactly 1 fight in 2 years. Within the past couple months it's exploded to at LEAST one a night. My truck has been keyed... twice. And someone attempted to light our upstairs neighbor's door on fire.

Who knows how much doesn't get reported, only two of the incidents the cops even paid attention to (the arson and stabbings).

I'm not sure how to feel about this. Yes I'm glad our city opened up and has donated an enormous amount to these people, yet at the same time I'm contemplating dragging my shotgun up here with some buckshot just in case.

You're well within your legal right to defend yourself in your house. I'm surprised and frustrated by all of this. I'm also very glad that you're telling people who may not know otherwise - like myself. If this is a big a problem as you suggest, than action must be taken. LA and the south are already rebuilding, and these people should be going home soon, but I know it will be a slow process. I would suggest reporting every incodent, and telling your local friends and family to do the same. If the police do nothing, contact the media. There has to be at least ONE relatively liberal media outlet around you who isn't afraid of being labaled "anti-Katrena victim".

Well things DO get reported. There has been numerous write-ins in the local and university papers by people like me. But the problem is Austin is VERY liberal, to the point of being self-blinding. For every person who writes in complaining about it, there are 3 editorials saying how we must understand the pleight (sp?) of those affected, and to understand that not all are bad.

So we're facing a city which are becoming ever-more pissed off, yet are immediately labeled racist if we state how it's time for them to leave.

Where would you send them?

Well if they're breaking into people's houses, pulling guns on people, and assaulting young women.. i would suggest jail and/or prison.

Do you wait till after they've committed a crime, or just brand the whole bunch as criminals from the outset?

See Nezmot it's thinking like that that has lead to the problem. Anyone who gets upset at what they were doing is second-guessed and/or labeled.

We were talking about those committing crimes. By your hypothesis we should allow crime to run rampant in cities because otherwise it'd be branding "the whole bunch as criminals from the outset".

Thankfully FEMA is cutting them off and they will either have to get jobs and/or go back. Crime has lowered and people are actually starting to act like college students again, instead of staying inside in order not to attract trouble.

No - I'm saying, if they break the law, treat them the same as you would treat anyone who breaks the law - don't single a group of people out because they've come from a particular area, race or situation. That's all. If a person commits a crime -they've committed a crime. It's simple. But I do see a lot of labelling going on that makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm responding to

Again - if someone commits a crime - they've committed a crime and are subject to the law of the land. Asking a group of people to move on because they are economically disadvantaged seems a little over zealous - even if they are more likely to commit crimes. The right way to deal with it is to put in proper policing - not to move them on to someone else's back yard.