Re: An apology to Alan Palmer
- From: alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Alan)
- Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 09:53 +0100 (BST)
In article <dhnnpa$c34$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, 1c3m4n@xxxxxxxxxxx (Iceman) wrote:
> x-psoted to smdh
>
> I owe you an apology Alan. I took you at your word, but with an American
> understanding of it. Teh Wurd? "Engineer".
>
> I should have thought about some here who like to call themselves engineers,
> who are in the trades much like you when you were an electrician.
Liceman, I am a fully qualified engineer, and I have the papers to prove it, but
I can make far more money working with my hands than sitting in an office. As
for those pumps in New Orleans...hey I can fix a marine pump with my eyes shut.
> It also clarifies to me why you accepted a job as a delivery driver, etc.
I accepted a job as a delivery driver, because it allowed me to earn a living,
while taking my kids with me, and give them a home education. And hey, my
eldest daughter returned to school to get GSCEs and came top of the class.
Hey *Liceman* read this story from a *Policeman* in New Orleans:
Valley News
A city gone mad: New Orleans after Katrina, through the eyes of a policeman
by Rebecca Marshall Farnbach
9/30/2005 6:39:25 PM
Nothing in Sean Kevany's previous life prepared him for the chaos of the streets
of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the breaching of the levees. Not his
military training, his combat experience nor his prior experiences as a New
Orleans police officer gave him any tools to cope with the "world gone wrong" in
the aftermath of the disaster.
"Everyone was in survival mode, even the police officers," Kevany says.
Kevany, now feeling clean and safe while visiting in his parents' Sun City home,
lived an enviable life up until the hurricane raged its warfare of wind and
water on the city. He has always loved sports, especially soccer and bicycling.
He amassed a huge personal library to whet his appetite for traveling to exotic
locations. He also collected vintage Marine Corps recruiting posters and owned a
toy soldier collection once valued at $50,000. But, from what his landlord tells
him, those things are history, thanks to the breaking of the levee just a few
blocks from his home.
"From the outside everything looks fine," his New Orleans landlord told him by
phone. "But inside, it looks like a bomb went off -- and, it smells horrible."
Forty years old, single and standing at an athletic 5-feet, 11-inches, Kevany
graduated from high school in Torrance, then he entered the US Marine Corps. He
trained at Twenty-nine Palms and served with the Light Armored Vehicle
Battalion of the Second Marine Division during Operations Desert Shield and
Storm.
After returning to the US, Kevany signed on with the New Orleans Police
Department and spent his first few years on bike patrol. "I loved being on the
bike patrol," he says, grinning. When that program ended, he served on street
patrol and in the Intelligence Division as a detective. In 2003 he joined the
Homeland Security Division of the force.
"We photograph graffiti to see who is in town and what they are up to. We watch
anarchists, antiwar people, White Supremacists, Black Panthers and anyone who
might be ready to cause some trouble."
Sitting in his parents' Sun City home near a box of jeans, socks and underwear
donated to him from his sister and her coworkers, he started his story of the
devastation of New Orleans.
"I lived only a few blocks from the levee. So close that a lot of times after
work I would go home to change and take a run down the street and dive into Lake
Ponchartrain to have a swim before running back home."
When he left for work Sunday, August 28, at 6 p.m., he wore his uniform and,
because of the pending storm, carried three days' worth of food, clothes and
water and a pair of hiking boots.
Kevany believed the prediction that the storm would miss the city and the pumps
would handle the three feet of anticipated flooding.
After arriving at police headquarters, he monitored radio frequencies and kept
an emergency log for FEMA officials.
"We lost power early on Monday. The computers went out and the emergency
generator was only working on and off. Radio and cell phone reception wasn't
happening. There was only one radio frequency and everybody was using it. We'd
get a message about an officer in trouble and just when they were giving the
location, someone else broke in and interrupted, so we wouldn't know where to
rescue the officer. It was frustrating."
On Monday at 8 p.m. he was eating Campbell's Soup in a Cup at his post, the
first food since leaving his house the day before, when a fellow officer gave
him grim news: "The levee broke."
On Tuesday, Kevany, along with fellow officers, had been at their posts for two
days with no sleep and little food. Water deepened around the police
headquarters building. It was waist-deep on the first floor. "To give you an
idea of
how deep that is, the street was 10 feet below the first floor."
When they were ordered to evacuate the building, Kevany thought it was wrong. He
reasoned the building could withstand flooding. He was safe on the third floor
of a five-story building and, if necessary, they could be rescued from the roof.
"I wanted to stay. We had food and water supplies. And, I wanted to protect our
7,000 rounds of ammunition."
The officers were asked to leave all their belongings behind when they boarded
the boat. Kevany carried his gun, a spare pair of shoes, a camera, water and a
military ready-to-eat meal. He could hardly believe it when the boat dropped
them at the Broad Street Overpass. That is where the prisoners were released
from the city jail.
"This was not good and I wasn't going to stay.
A five-ton military truck came along. An officer aboard asked, "Do you have a
gun?" Kevany's positive response was his ticket off the Broad Street Overpass
and into a scene that resembled a "bad '70s movie about surviving the
destruction of a city."
Without written memo or voicemail or radio communication, information was
distorted every time it was repeated. "By this time rumors were running rampant.
We were told the French Quarter and the business district were on fire. We
heard there was looting and death and hostages and that snipers controlled the
city. We were heard that an official from a nearby parish went down in a blaze
of gunfire and glory, shooting pistols from each of his hands."
Kevany went with 15 officers to patrol Canal Street. They deterred looters but
couldn't arrest them because they didn't have a place to hold them. The officers
tried to get people off the streets and checked identification of drivers. Many
didn't match the vehicle registrations. "It looked like a whole group of people
had gotten keys for vehicles in parking garages and were helping themselves."
Now at almost 48 hours on the job with no break, Kevany witnessed something he
could barely believe. "It looked like officers were taking looted goods from the
criminals and keeping it for themselves." And, they were doing it in the face of
cameras that would spread the images for the world to see.
Three of them separated from the others. Kevany and his associates kept
self-appointed posts guarding Magazine and Canal Streets. "There were a lot of
police and police vehicles in the streets, but there was no communication or
organization. None of our training prepared us for this. We always counted on
having radios working.
"I smelled some chicken cooking at a relief area near Harrah's Casino. I tried
to eat it, but it was already spoiled."
He hailed a truck carrying National Guardsmen from West Louisiana, and when
asked if he had a gun he was welcomed aboard with his Glock 22. They picked up
elderly and disabled people who couldn't get out. He personally rescued
at least 20 people.
"I saw this lady leaning on a car. She was heavy and couldn't walk. There was no
way I could carry her, so we found a shopping cart. She leaned over it and I
supported her until we got her to a bus, he said. "We were wading in
chest-deep water. It was nasty water. I couldn't see through it. I was worried
about germs in the water and what it was doing to my skin. We kept bumping into
things we couldn't see, like street medians and overturned shopping carts, and
banging our legs up.
"It was hard for short older women to keep their heads out of the water. Mix in
some panic and you can get a sense of what we were dealing with. At one point I
saw these two small dogs paddling in the water with no place to go. They needed
help. They weren't going to make it without help, but animal rescue people just
weren't there. I remembered an office building not too far away. The windows
were blown out and it was flooded, but the countertops were dry. I grabbed the
dogs and threw them in the building.
"When I went back a few days later, the dogs were still there. I don't think
they'd had anything to eat or drink. I saw some people rescuing animals and told
them where the dogs were."
He went on three rounds of rescue operations before giving in to his fatigue and
hunger. "I made it to city hall. It was dark and I heard shooting. It is all a
blur after that. I rode to the police headquarters and answered phones in the
emergency operations center. We got some crazy calls from people asking us to
rescue them from 18 inches of water. I told them to just walk through it. I took
other calls, like the one from a young caller asking us to help an older person
get out. I told them to help her themselves; that we didn't have anyone to send.
"My captain told me to go to a room in the Hyatt Hotel to get some sleep.
Because there wasn't any electricity, the elevators didn't work and I had to
walk up 11 floors to my room. People were sleeping on the floors everywhere.
Babies were crying. I went to the room and the bed had already been slept in. It
was hot with no air conditioning, well over 100 degrees. I couldn't sleep.
"Whenever I saw a phone I would pick it up to see if it worked. I kept contact
that way with my parents and friends in Lake Charles.
"It was Wednesday, September 7, when I told my captain I needed to get out of
the city. After being at work for nine days with little sleep or food, I didn?t
want to be in this world gone mad.
"I stayed in Lake Charles with friends for a few days before coming out here.
When I left important papers in Lake Charles I had no idea they would have to
evacuate for Hurricane Rita."
If Kevany could live life over, he would skip the events of the last month. He
liked life better working as a bicycle cop.
What he will do now? He scratches the ears of his parents' dog. "Maybe animal
rescue?"
Now in that story there is one line that may be of personal interest to you, so
like President Bush, I'll repeat it to drive home the truth.
"We photograph graffiti to see who is in town and what they are up to. We watch
anarchists, antiwar people, White Supremacists, Black Panthers and anyone who
might be ready to cause some trouble."
*White* *Supremacists* ???? Isn't that *you* ?????
*Big* *Brother* has been watching you, all the time you *thought* you were
living in the land of the *free* and now the *Policeman* tells you so.
Alan, son of Nemesis.
?Our own soldiers are returning contaminated with depleted uranium and
now they?re fathering children that are horribly deformed because they?ve
been contaminated with radiated material,?
Peter DeMott
"I don?t believe that Mr. Bush is a Christian. Christians believe in the
prophets, peace be upon them. Bush believes in profits and how to get a piece of
them."
Mr George Galloway.
http://www.mrgallowaygoestowashington.com/
http://www.respectcoalition.org/
The Church of Nemesis
http://www.veloceraptor.free-online.co.uk/protector.html
Nemesis The Goddess of Divine Retribution
http://thanasis.com/modern/nemesis.htm
Firebird - Fighing For Women and Childrens Rights.
http://theoriginalfirebird.blogspot.com/
Nemesis News
http://lordcerneabbas.blogspot.com/
http://www.planetarybillofrights.org/
The Hymn of Nemesis:
Nemesis, winged balancer of life,
dark-faced Goddess, daughter of Justice,
You who restrain with adamantine bridles
the frivolous insolences of mortals,
and spurning the destructive violence of mankind
drive out black envy!
Beneath Your unceasing, traceless orbit
is spun the grey fortune of man
and unnoticed You walk in his tracks,
you bend the neck that is proud.
Beneath Your arm You ever measure out life
and ever do You lower Your eye to Your bosom
as You control the scales in Your hand.
Be gracious, blessed dealer of justice,
Nemesis, winged balancer of life.
Nemesis the deathless Goddess we sing,
Victory with slender wings, all-powerful
infallible, and the assistant to Justice,
You who in displeasure at the pride of men
carry it down into Tartarus.
.
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