9/16/2005

Guns used to stop crime in New Orleans 4

The Economist magazine writes:

AFTER boarding up their windows and just before they fled, many New Orleans shopkeepers paused to write "Looters will be shot" on their premises. Some felt more detail was required. Painted on the front of Oriental Rugs on St Charles Avenue are the words: "Don't try. I am sleeping inside with a big dog, an ugly woman, two shotguns and a claw hammer." To the right is an update, added a few days later in the same hand: "Still here. Woman left Fri. Cooking a pot of dog gumbo." . . .

That would include the French Quarter, where Finis Shelnutt has been guarding a building he owns since the hurricane hit. There's a restaurant on the ground floor, a piano bar above and caged doves watching Mr Shelnutt sip sparkling wine at a table on the sidewalk.

"Just got my phone charged, thank God," he says. His taps are running again, albeit at low pressure, and the looters left him alone because "I have a very large gun." He marvels at the senselessness of the plunder that followed the deluge. . . .


Thanks to Gregory Pejic for providing this to me.

For some earlier discussions see here, here, and here.