I lived thru the LA riots after the Rodney King case. There were buildings burning in all four directions from my apartment. Looters everywhere--and I didn't live in that bad a part of town.
The difference is that after about 3 days the NG showed up and order was quickly restored when men with M-16's started walking down Sunset Blvd. That is not happening here, I suspect for two reasons: (1) even under the best of circumstances, it takes a few days to move a bunch of NG troops into a city and we are just getting to the point where, if conditions were ideal, the NG would be able to move into and take control of the city; and (2) The logistics of getting them into New Orleans is a nightmare--Los Angeles was dry and had freeways coming into town. NO has no access except by air and boat--although getting boats in is probably very dangerous as this is not charted water.
I met a soldier in Starbucks...he is heading to Egypt. He told me the Louisiana Guard is in Iraq. He says there is not many soldiers left to help...he was stationed in South Georgia. I am sorry to say the libs may be right. We don't have enough soldiers to protect the homefront.
"I lived thru the LA riots after the Rodney King case......The difference is that after about 3 days the NG showed up "
I was there too during the riots. What really made people settle down was that they realized that when they burned the post office down, they couldn't get their checks.
Once a way to distribute the checks was announced, everyone settled down.
The NG probably helped, too, but I clearly remember the lines of people lining up in orderly fashion to get their checks.....people who mere hours before were rioting amidst total anarchy.
So just announce you are gonna hand out checks.....they'll all settle down.