Arresting People Who Stay to Protect Their Property During Disaster

Good law, for basically the same reasons others have noted.

The thing is that in the end, the government is responsible for the well-being of its citizens. EVEN FROM THEMSELVES.

I mean, are we really okay with a newspaper headline that says "300 people dead from the Hurricane, but these people all felt they could've ridden the hurricane out so they're acceptable deaths".

 

Why go to all that trouble when, as Republicans have shown, you just hook people on talk radio? Well, on second thought, I guess that only applies to the angry, balding, sexually insecure losers looking to make a fast buck in heating oil futures.

 

As I said I've got some mixed feelings about this. Personally I think if people for whatever reason want to risk there lives trying to face down a disaster then they should be allowed to. I'm not sure government should save people from their own foolishness. The practical problem though is that rescuers cannot do that and are professionally and ethically obligated to do what they can to rescue even the stupid who think they can fight a forest fire with a garden hose or ride out a 20 ft. storm surge.

 

That's a great idea with endless possibilities and practical application.

By expanding upon the diminution of civil liberties begun under W we can pro-actively identify and remove unpatriotic Americans from our more progressive thinking society.

Once the bar coding is implemented at birth, conservatives will marvel at the increased efficiency while they await re-education camp assignment.

 

Bar-coding? Get with the times. RFID tags will be much more efficient.

 

Even better! Welcome to the machine.

 

The machine is non-partisan, it will consume all with the same voraciousness.

 

They are officially Republican but moderate in their views.

 

This has less to do with police busting down doors and hauling people off while being call racists for not evacuating and more about liability. What it amounts to is the city/government will not be held liable for not being able to rescue the idiots who choose to stay behind.

 

So does this mean tour first responders are finally get a break during hurricanes and don't have to rescue people that stayed behind?

 

Im not sure why you're asking me that question. Im not FEMA.

 

By the way, FEMA's not a first responder...

 

The major problem with this law besides the gov. taking over more of our lives is the evacuations that someone has already mentioned. How many people died because of false hysteria during Rita, because there weren't enough roadways for all the cars. That was a hurricane everybody knew wasn't coming here and they still had ME. They are so bad at predicting these things now and go for the most glamorous city everytime when making predictions that this law will hinder, instead of protect people. Sitting on the road with no food, gas, or water for 3 days is not the answer. Forcing people to do so will only make it worse. It will be bad again after Ike. It will be like the Katrina effect with Rita. People will be scared of the next one now. No rescue workers were put in danger during Ike because they stopped going in, and let whoever was left ride it out. Just another reason to harass and arrest people is all it is, more control for the control freaks. Its my land and my life, Let me be.

 

Not really. You live in America where we all have agreed to a certain set of rules in our social contract whether you acknowledge it or not. People will try to save your sorry self, either before or after or even sometimes during. And the traffic issue has been thought through as much as possible and I doubt you'll ever see Rita-type jams for something that cna be seen beforehand, like a hurricane.

And by the way, plucking people off of rooftops with helicopters is incredibly dangerous. (We've already had two major helicopter accidents this year and it's not even much of a fire season.) It's a testament to how good the US Coast Guard really is that they are able to do the volume of work they've done in recent years with no major accidents.

The low level flying and hovering is dangerous enough, but again, you place huge uncertainties in the form of untrained, stressed out people in that environment and you don't know who will freak out when. Odds are it won't be someone who was just stupid, but instead will be someone who thought it was their right to be stupid and has their entire political belief system tied up in justifying their stupid decision.

 

Well done

 

Rimrocker, I don't know how close you live to the coast or even Houston. I do not know whether you have ever been through a hurricane or evacuation, but you really seem to have no clue about what went on here or during any hurricane. Why are we supposed to believe that these evacuation routes that couldn't handle just the people who evacuated during Rita will suddennly hold everybody in a timely manner? Do you know anybody who died during the Rita Evacuations? I know at least 3 that were not actually counted in the statistics I am sure, Just because it was older people who I am sure they chalked up to something else. I can assure you the number of people who died during that evac is much higher than what they say. Covering up their Gov. created disaster. Also, what good did it do to evacuate everybody from a safe spot into the direct path of the storm to sit in their car without shelter?
Also, they did not and will not have to rescue my sorry self. They quit going in well before the storm actually hit. If you were close to the situation you would understand this. They did not resume rescues until after the storm and most people were either safe or dead by that point. The worst had passed.
As far as making it safer and keeping people out after the storm again, you really have no clue. Have you ever heard of Ike lung or any of the other ailments from the storm? This is the direct result of them not letting people back in even though it was safe to do so, because many were living just fine on the island at the time. Holding people out directly related to millions more damage to their property, which they will never get back, and their health.
It is easy to judge from afar about stuff you really have no clue about just because you are all about Gov. control and we have to regulate all those sorry selves. You let something come in and destroy what you have worked for and will not get back and then tell me how you feel about the Gov. controlling how you handle the situation. Until then your argumant is invalid, because you are clueless. You are just preaching the company line.

 

How can you complain about the danger and liability these folks are putting on the responders in by being stubborn, while at the same calling for MORE police/fire/ems to put themselves in harm's way to arrest them? If the safety of the wiser/innocent is really what you are worried about, shouldn't you be advocating the "fxck them, they can fend for themselves" approach?

This thread reminds me of this video:

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I was wondering what you meant by no liability, if it meant our cops and firemen would finally get a break. I didn't mention anything about FEMA. How did they get in the picture?

 

No doubt a lot of mistakes were made and Rita was in part a man-made disaster... I'm not defending that at all. However, you're making the mistake a lot of people do... you're taking your personal experience and applying it to every future incident while using your political philosophy to buttress your position.

In the disaster response business, it's a given you'll make mistakes, but you try to learn from them and not repeat them. Google "rita" and "lessons learned" and you'll come up with numerous links like this...

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1781922

and this...

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/hurricanevacuation/