[StBernard] The looters and intruders

[Westley Annis]

What happened to all the St. Bernard cops? AND if they are in the parish,
what are they doing? This is sad. 
Jen

	-----------------------------------------------------
	
	For those with two story homes, like me, every ti me I go back to
the 
	house, another set of would be looters have gone upstairs in the
hopes 
	of finding something to steal. This is happening every few days.
Like 
	they are going to find jewelry, guns, and televisions four months
after 
	the storm. They are so brazen that they leave the attic doors open
and 
	leave the drawers open for the little furniture that is left. 
	Fortunately, they don't take my cleaning supplies, which is all that
I 
	have left in the house. We now leave the drawers open so they can
see 
	we have nothing to take.
	
	I feel fortunate though, because many who have left anything,
including 
	their children's toys, have had it stolen. There are reports that
cars 
	are riding around all hours of night and there is no police
protection 
	to stop it. Until I have doors and windows, electricity, and a 
	telephone for a burglar alarm, I hesitate to do anything but tear
out 
	the downstairs. While we are concerned about levees, draina ge, and 
	debris removal, in my opinion, until we get the looting under
control, 
	how can we invest money to bring in construction materials and 
	equipment to rebuild? How do we bring in trailers and then leave the

	trailer unprotected while we do errands or go to work, or worse yet 
	sleep there and worry about encountering these scumbags on one of
their 
	midnight home tours?
	
	I don't think the message is going out that St. Bernard has a zero 
	tolerance policy on trespassers. Do we need to take up arms
ourselves 
	and start our own armed-citizen patrols to protect one another? This

	problem may be with the two-story homes for now, but as the
one-stories 
	are rebuilding, it will affect them, too.
	
	Don't put anything, no matter how little value, in a box that used
to 
	hold electronics, liquor, etc. People who have done that come back
to 
	find that the scumbags have open these boxes and dumped the contents

	creating a mess. Do they reall y think people are storing cases of
Jack 
	Daniels and Sony TVs in garage? They can't figure out that the old 
	boxes are just holding household items of no value.
	
	If anyone from the Sheriff's Office or Council wants to advise us, 
	please do. Maybe we need to do a "Spend a night in your house with a

	gun" to send our own message. Maybe it will take a resident or a
looter 
	being shot during a midnight encounter to bring this issue to the 
	forefront. I really hope not. This is not worth dying for. If we
don't 
	have the police resources, maybe we need military protection during
a 
	dusk to dawn curfew. I don't know the answers, just the problem.
	
	Corinne is being hit hard by the looters, but I suspect so are other

	areas with two-story homes.
	
	Deborah Keller
	3608 Corinne Avenue (so the world knows there is nothing there to
take)