Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Maybe. In New Orleans, down in the flood, the government called out the National Guard on looters. As was reported in the media.
|
The National Guard, used domestically, is just another part of your friendly neighborhood state government. All of us down there were on State Active Duty. Our Governors offered assistance to the local Governors. The various state Guard staffs coordinated overall operations, but "Big Army" was not running the show. I was being paid by New Hampshire, attached to (IIRC) Task Force Arkansas (NH is tiny), operating under the authority of the Governor of Louisiana.
Racist, overzealous neighborhood watch types might shoot you for visiting your dad and having skittles in your pocket (while black). But the troops have morals just like regular people. My unit made it through a year with rules of engagement so loose that we could kill anyone we felt like as long as we "perceived hostile intent" on the part of the dead guy. We were shooters and we went out every day looking for someone to kill. But none of the folks we ran into were actual bad guys,
except the ones inside our base. A few months after we got back, they sent us down for Katrina. Yes, we were loaded. No, I don't remember what our exact ROE were because it didn't matter. Who in their right mind is going to kill someone that might reduce Best Buy's marginal profit this quarter by stealing a TV that they can't use (no power) and has already been written off by the company? We were armed, but we weren't looking for people to shoot.
We had individuals riding along with cops to bulk up their numbers, we had individuals with radios posted at major intersections, we had squads patrolling neighborhoods. My squad occupied an abandoned medical center. Regular society had taken a big hit and wasn't working. We were a self contained bit of outside society that could demonstrate that overall society hadn't collapsed, distribute water and evacuate people who needed medical attention. All most people needed was a bit of hope until things got back up and running.
But
they didn't send anyone in, except the appropriate state governments. The next month we had floods in western NH. We didn't need people from other states and we left the weapons at the armory, but it was basically the same thing. I had two guys with me, manning an intersection.