Martial Law Attempt in Louisiana Echoes Ron Paul’s Warning

Louisiana State Officials Call for Troops on Streets

National Guard engaged in door-to-door gun confiscation during Hurricane Katrina

December 21, 2011

Infowars.com - Lawmakers in Louisiana are calling for National Guard troops to patrol the streets of New Orleans after a toddler was killed in a drive-by shooting. The last time troops were involved in domestic law enforcement in the state, they were used to confiscate legally owned firearms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.



Keira Holmes Gordon was caught in the crossfire of two separate groups of men in cars who were targeting another man stood near a B. W. Cooper Housing development on Sunday. The toddler, four days shy of her second birthday, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Citing soaring crime levels, state lawmaker Austin Badon Jr. told CNN he “wants the government to step and help control the violence,” by sending troops to patrol troubled areas, although he admitted that just “a select few people” were responsible for the crimes.

The CNN host makes clear that Badon is just one of several officials calling for National Guard troops.

“I have called on the Governor to bring in the National Guard,” said Badon, asserting that residents were “more comfortable” after seeing the Guard patrol the streets in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina.

“We are at war and when you’re at war, you have to bring in soldiers,” said Badon, describing the situation as “urban warfare,” and complaining about people who own guns.

A spokesman for Governor Bobby Jindal’s office said no request had been made from the mayor to send National Guard troops to patrol the streets.

Concern about military involvement in domestic law enforcement, which is a violation of Posse Comitatus, has surged in recent weeks as a result of a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act which allows Americans to be arrested and held in a detention camp without trial.

Presidential frontrunner Ron Paul has also repeatedly warned that martial law and gun confiscations could become widespread in the aftermath of a civil emergency.

“The call for military reinforcements is reminiscent of the city’s post-Katrina era, when thousands of National Guard and U.S. Army troops were mobilized and sent to New Orleans after reports of widespread violence in the days after the storm,” states the CNN report.

Indeed, Hurricane Katrina was hastily exploited by the federal government and local officials to conduct unconstitutional gun grabs, with National Guard troops going to door to door and confiscating the firearms of citizens who lived in high and dry areas and were largely unaffected by the hurricane.

Watch the video below, produced by the NRA, which documents how local authorities hijacked the state of emergency and sent armed troops to seize the firearms of law-abiding citizens at gunpoint, a shocking abuse of power that has never been properly accounted for.

Martial Law Attempt in Louisiana Echoes Ron Paul’s Warning

December 21, 2011

Infowars.com - Following the fatal shooting of a toddler in a crime ridden New Orleans housing project, a Louisiana state representative has called for what amounts to martial law.

Austin Badon contacted Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office Monday and asked that the National Guard be deployed. Jindal’s office said Badon was told that any such a request would have to come from the New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Under Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 of the Constitution, the National Guard – considered a state militia – is authorized to “execute the laws of the Union and suppress Insurrections and repel Invasion.” The Constitution says nothing about dispatching the military to fight domestic crime, a task usually undertaken by local law enforcement.

Since the National Defense Act (or Militia Act) of 1903, the federal government has worked to absorb the National Guard and take control of it away from the states. In 2007, the John Warner Defense Authorization Act moved to remove state governors as sole commanders in chief of their state’s National Guard during emergencies within the state.

On December 18, presidential candidate Ron Paul warned (see video below) that the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed recently by the House and now under consideration in the Senate will be used by the government to implement martial law. The bill would allow the military to detain Americans and prevent them from exercising their right to due process under the Sixth Amendment.

Deploying federally controlled troops in post-Katrina New Orleans is another attempt to circumvent Posse Comitatus and acclimate citizens to the presence of armed troops on the streets.

In August of 2005, New Orleans served as a beta test for FEMA command and control over state and local jurisdiction and autonomy. It was also used for gun confiscation. FEMA, as we have documented, is primarily concerned with “civil disturbance” and martial law, not disaster relief.

“This should be the biggest news going right now,” Ron Paul told Alex Jones as the House prepared to pass the NDAA bill. “It is literally legalizing martial law.”

He pointed out that the NDAA’s violations of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are remarkably not even discussed in the GOP presidential “debates” conducted by the establishment media.

Rep. Austin Badon no doubt is sincere about stopping violence – most of it a product of the federally-declared war on drugs – but calling for troops on the streets is obviously not the way to go about it.

Control of the National Guard has been federalized.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 strictly forbids federal troops from being deployed on American soil for the purpose of law enforcement. The one exception is provided by the Insurrection Act of 1807, which lets the president use the military only for the purpose of preventing rebellions. This is not the case in New Orleans. With the passage of the NDAA, the federal government will likely use the National Guard in any effort to round-up and intern U.S. citizens.

The federal government nullified this important firewall when it equated natural disaster – and epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident – with insurrection. It did this by modifying the Insurrection Act – not by constitutional amendment, but by passing legislation that violates the original intent of Article I, Section 8, Clause 15.

State governors were outraged and sent a letter to Congress protesting the “dramatic expansion of federal authority during natural disasters that could cause confusion in the command-and-control of the National Guard and interfere with states’ ability to respond to natural disasters within their borders.”