Posted on 01/24/2006 9:04:11 PM PST by caryatid
It's at least the 26th time so far this year, that Lake Charles Police respond to a call at Lakeview Motel where FEMA pays to house people displaced from the hurricanes; people like Stacy Arceneaux and her mother Charlotte Broussard. The frightened women who live here have this notice on the door: "Identify yourself, do not disturb, gun in room."
Arceneaux says, "I will shoot you if I do not know who you are, period. If you look at my family wrong, I will shoot you."
"I'm expecting a bullet to come right through the walls. There's a bullet right here through this window. They tape it up. There have been drug deals out in the front, knocking on our doors and our walls all night long, cussin' us out, threaten our lives. If you all find us dead, you know who did it," said Broussard.
Stacy's daughter Ashley & her small son come here too, to visit and bring good and supplies. But after several weeks the women are beside themselves. "They're going to kill us," says Broussard. "When I come outside it's, 'I'm gonna kill you *itch and shoot you. I walked to management office a while ago and that's how the police department wound up here and made another bust, right next door to us," says Ashley.
"This is what I run around with in my room (shows .45 caliber pistol) and I've got a .17 caliber sitting up there. That's what we're living with. When my child comes to visit me I've got to walk outside and meet here with a .17 gun," explains Stacy. "What's wrong with this picture? There's a problem with this. (shows .17 caliber pistol.) This is what I have to greet my child outside with so she don't get messed with by crackheads. I got a grandbaby. I can't even see my family. No, I'm not living this way. I can't take anymore. I'm worried about my mother. I can't go to work, I can't get a job. I can't do anything. I can't leave her in this. I can't leave my mama in this mess."
"There's a condom laying out, a used condom laying outside my door that's from next door because they're trading sex off for drugs. And they're screaming obscenities in the parking lot on how, 'if you do this to me for a rock," says Stacy.
"I was a taxpayer, paid taxes and worked in this parish, Calcasieu parish, for 40 something years. I want to know what's going to be done. We need a safe place to live," says Broussard.
Stacy says, "I need a decent room for me and my mother to stay that feels safe. That's what I need right now."
Lakeview owner Jay Patel admits they have a problem with crime and have hired security. He says they are working hard to get rid of trouble makers and make it a safe place to stay.
A spokesman for FEMA says applicants can switch hotels as long as they call and get an authorization code. Lake Charles Police say they met with FEMA concerning conditions at Lakeview. We'll have more on this story.
I don't 'feel the need' to own a pistol in this caliber, but I seriously considered buying the .22 I bought for my son Christmas present in .17 cal.
Ammo cost and nostalgia are what finally decided it for me. So, Lurker Jr. got himself a nice Youth Model Henry .22 lever action rifle last year.
Granted, I sure wouldn't pick this round as something I'd use for self defense in this ladys situation, but hey...she's got a .45, too.
Anyway, kudos to this woman for having the fortitude to stand up to the scum menacing her.
Haven't seen you around for a while. It's nice to talk with you again.
L
It surprises me that so many people lack any kind of...I don't know if it's survival instinct, or a type of ambition maybe?
---I agree and it is sickening.
They are from the Lake Charles area, the same place they are now.
I was a taxpayer, paid taxes and worked in this parish, Calcasieu parish, for 40 something years.
Lakeview owner Jay Patel....
It seems that at least half of these kinds of motels are owned by Indians who give their last names as Patel. In the Dallas area it makes it hard to keep up with who is and who isn't when trying to enforce things.
Exactly. Why doesn't she just pack up, leave, find a church willing to help her, and GET A JOB. Then she could find a decent place to live and not worry like this. Seems to me that there were many offers of jobs and housing for people to take advantage of and many of those offers were not accepted. She doesn't have to stay! She's got no one to blame but herself. I know legal immigrants who could hardly speak English who are on their own now after a couple years.
"There is no way to tell if the "evacuees" causing the trouble are from the Lake Charles area [Hurricane Rita], or if they are from New Orleans [Hurricane Katrina]; but, the story seems to be the same wherever they go ... crime, drugs, prostitution, sex for drugs and other anti-social behaviour."
My college age daughter and I were watching something on TV the other day about the FEMA abuses. I told her to study hard and get a good job because she will be paying for these losers and their descendents when she is 80 years old. At least they'll get to vote in Chocolate City no matter where they're sucking off the taxpayers.
SIGH!
Thank you, CajunConservative, for posting more information here. I have no solution to the chronic criminality described. I can only wonder why these folks are still at large in the world. We do not need more laws on the books ... we do need to enforce the ones that are already there.
As to rodent problems, they are not limited to FEMA sponsored housing. I myself had a persistent mouse visit me last Spring. In an effort to deal humanely with my unwanted guest, I attempted to have a "dialogue" with the mouse and to explain to her that she really must stop terrifying my poor cat. That failed; so, I did everything in my power to find where he/she was coming in. She outsmarted me every time. Finally, as a last resort, I stopped at the nearby hardware store and, at minimal cost, purchased a readily available product [a small cardboard box with poisoned grain in it]. After I carefully placed the bait in an area unaccessible by my overweight kitty, I waited patiently. I never saw or heard my "guest" again but, after a few days found that the box of poisoned grain was empty.
There can be no doubt that some of the folks in FEMA sponsored hotels really have not, yet, been able to find other accomodations. I really do realize that housing is scarce to non-existent in some areas.
I do believe, however, that many of the folks who are still in FEMA sponsored hotels [five months after the hurricanes hit] are simply avoiding self-responsibility ... just as they avoided self-responsibility for years before the hurricanes struck. It would appear that someone who lacks gumption enough to get rid of a rat ... well, what can I say? Has the rat outsmarted them? The rat may have sought refuge from the hurricane, too. We can poison the rat. We will have to find a more humane solution for the other unwanted guests.
I suspect, when all is said and done, that we simply have a group of self-responsibility averse, chronic help-rejecting complainers. Perhaps FEMA can go into the hotel/motel business and thereby relieve the benighted owners of those establishments of all responsibility for, and headaches caused by, FEMA's chosen tenants.
SIGH!
HPD seem to be taking care of the problems pretty well...don't mess with Texas!
Thank you, shield. I am not certain that this is the more humane solution I was seeking ... but, I guess we can just let nature take its course ... and let God sort things out in the end. LOL
Yes, things get worked out one way or another.
That said, I know for a fact that there are many good folks from New Orleans who have had no choice but to relocate to Houston and other places.
I myself have been in communication with one extended family of N.O. evacuees. They have been very busy settling into what they describe as their "homes away from home" ... and are trying to "get on with their lives". These were good folks before the Hurricane struck ... and they are still good folks today. They are not part of the problem.
Their husband/father's remains have finally, after all this time, been identified ... they were finally able in mid-January to have a funeral Mass for their loved one. The anxiety of not knowing what happened to their loved one is finally over. They now, for the first time, are able to reach a point of accomodation with their grief and begin a new stage in their recovery.
All who read these threads need to remember that, as sarcastic as we may tend to be here on FRee Republic, these are real tragedies playing out in the lives of many good people. The ones we hear about [and scorn] are not representative of the many good people who are self-sufficient and decent folks who are trying to put their lives back together as quickly as they can. They need our compassion.
I agree.
Compassion in the form of Tough Love.
Clarification - Tough Love for the miscreants.
I understand, for example, that murdering someone in Texas is a bad idea.
You are so right. It has been reported that New Orleans is going to have a quota ... an actual number of prisoners that they will accommodate ... the rest ... felons all ... they plan to turn loose ... to roam the streets ... and prey upon the rest of us.
Thanks - note to self, read whole thread before adding my .02.
Source? I will personally make this into a major election issue, if need be. This is insane.
Well said, little jerimiah! Thank you.
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