Criminal element and other concerns. long

[mamaprincess]

I was really, really defensive about many peoples concerns for their safety initially when I entered the katrina dialogues. I thought the criminal element was getting more coverage than the decent and traumatized citizens of the gulf states. However several of my Dis friends have really given me pause for cause. I am beginning to understand where they are coming from. After it's all said and done safety issues for all is a major concern. There is very little regulation and that needs to be addressed right away.

No we don't really know whom we are taking into our homes. If you are a father or mother anyone, yes you have to be concerned. The liability is on you. Conversely, no one knows who the people are that are volunteering their homes to the evacuees. Sure, by and large they are a wonderful group but there is going to be an element that takes advantage of the situation, just as the gangs did when there were no regulations and no one was watching over the rest of the law abiding citizens.

People are just going and getting evacuees. They dont know them, the evacuees dont know whom these people are either. I can bring a mother and child and choose to leave a male at the shelter because I dont know his background and I have children but they have desperate need of a place to stay. If someone appears kind most families will go to get out of those shelters.

We have a serious, serious pedophilia problem in this world and unfortunately this country. No one should be allowed to get near a child without having a background check but for this situation and because it's so drastic there are none and that frightens me. I signed up to volunteer at my shelter and so did many others. No one checked my background I could be a drug addict, I could have physically abused my children, I could be sadistic.

There is always that element that is waiting for an oppurtunity and thanks everyone for making me see the concern for safety in a different way. Even if it's just a few, even if the majority of us are in this for the right reasons there has to be regulations in place to protect everyone from oppurtunist. A few is to many, we've all been through to much we don't needany more trauma. Hopefully things will be tightened up for everyones sake.

My sister gave me a quote yesterday to take with me as we walk this path and it was,"Nothing can match the smugness of the safe reviewing the doomed" That applies to me and many others. I hope that I personally will never again feel that safe that I can discount and trample on the concerns of others.

what do you think will be done to put some sort of system in place to identify the dangerous element circling around this situation looking for easy pickings. It's all so over whelming I can't imagine how it will be dealt with.

My foremost concern is with the healing of the evacuees that have lost so much and I will continue to work everyday on their behalf but yes there are a lot of issues that have risen to the surface that must be addressed.

 

[Chicago526]

I had this thought myself the other day. You open up your home to a family in need, and they turn into the house guests from heck! Or worse, someone in the family is a criminal...

I never thought of it in reverse, though, that those that open up their homes might have other, less lofty, motives.

I guess it's one of those times when you just close your eyes and jump.

For those that open your homes, I guess you'll just have to keep a sharp eye on those you take in, and the same thing for those that need shelter in private homes, they should not automaticly trust their hosts. It's a shame, but that's what today's world is like.

 

[ducklite]

I agree, I think you need to be very careful, and expect the same scrutiny from potential houseguests.

Because my husband spends quite a bit of his time out of state on business, I've decided that I'm not comfortbale inviting unknown strangers into my home. I've made offers to friends and relatives that their relatives are welcome to stay with me--but in that case we are talking about people who are known to a degree, as opposed to total and complete strangers.

It's sad that we have to think this way. It really is.

Anne

 

[AllyandJack]

I also wouldn't be comfortable opening my home to strangers.

So, I donate money and food and clothing and hope it gets to the right place.

I admire the people who can do it, but I couldn't. Maybe it's because I grew up in the projects and have an innate distrust of people.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hugs to you, mamaprincess!

We are learning a lot from each other from this disaster, aren't we? Some of the lessons aren't very pleasant, but we are all becoming much wiser.

My mom actually mentioned the fact the other day that the evacuees have no clue who they are going home with, and it is every bit as dangerous to live with a stranger as it is to open your home to a stranger. Everyone needs to be careful.

There was a lady who drove here from another state, went to the shelter downtown, and tried for hours to find a family to take home with her. Nobody accepted her offer. My mom said "Well, for all they know she could be an axe murderer!" So it does work both ways! But I don't think they turned her down because they were scared, I think they turned her down because she lived really far away!

 

[becker1123]

Unfortunately, we do have to think of our safety first. If we don't we're just asking for more trouble where there already is Plenty to go around. I have been so moved by the many unselfish acts we have witnessed during this crisis. Many people have gone above and beyond to assist complete strangers. Usually it turns out alright, but it requires a lot of trust and faith, that will hopefully be returned in kind. We all just have to be smart about what we do and how we help.

 

[va32h]

Have you read any of the housing offers on nola.com?

Many people offering homes to "single mother" "women with children" or even just children.

I realize that people might feel safer taking in a mother with children, but by the same token, a murdering lunatic is also going to feel safer preying on a mother with children, you know?

And what on earth are people thinking saying they will take in orphans or other children? As if children are simply going to be handed over to strangers on the basis of a message board posting?

 

[kilee]

I think it is for this reason that most of the evacuee's are safer waiting until they are placed somewhere by the Red Cross, FEMA, or whomever it is that will be assisting them. It is awful when we have to think like this, but it's better to be aware than sorry later.

 

[Shanan]

I live in East Texas and we have numerous evacuees here. Tyler has around 3,000 evacuees in shelters and not including the people staying at Tyler State Park and the local hotels. The churches in the smaller towns in East Texas might have 30-70 in each church location - it just depends on the church facilities. A lady I work with was telling me about her church meeting last night. They are hosting 63 people in their church with beds, food, providing medical care and counseling. One of the local police officers who was a member of the church ran a basic background check on 20 people. He did this since several of the church members wanted to take families into their own house. Out of 20 random background checks, 18 had criminal records with 13 of the 18 having "very serious" offenses. During the church meeting, the church council started talking more about this when a member told the council that he was approached by one of the evacuees who wanted to buy some drugs. No the drugs were not prescription.
Since I am originally from Mississippi, I called the Mississippi Methodist Conference to get the address to mail my donation to them. I have seen the utter devastation in Mississippi and prefer my money to go to that particular area. I have donated supplies such as board games for the kids in the shelter, books, etc that was on a list requested by Salvation Army to provide entertainment to the kids in the shelters in Tyler. I would not take anyone unless it was someone I knew into my house. I certainly wouldn't take a stranger without running a background check due to my safety concerns.

 

[ksjayhawks]

I know some won't like to have me say this, but there is also no guarantee that a single mother, women with children, or even older children/teens do not have criminal records, have not been in trouble with the law, or are not associated with a criminal. Some people get a false sense of security with women.

To anyone who takes someone in, please, please, please have them checked out. Hopefully, they are giving their real name and that they have picture identification with them. Unfortunately juvenile records will not show up. And for those who say the juveniles couldn't have done anything too bad---yes, they can (I have subbed a lot at a juvenile detention center and in a school for kids on probabion and you would be shocked at what some have done!)

Your safety, the safety of your family and neighborhood must come first!

 

[mamaprincess]

Thank you so much for your responses. I hope our safety concerns are taken into account soon by the necessary authorities both for the evacuees that must depend on the kindness of strangers and for us who feel a need to lift some of the burden off of the shelters and help those who really deserve and need the help.

I also mentioned the point about women possibly being dangerous even though there is less a a probability, there is stil a probability. I was quite awakwned to the reality of the lack of background checks when I volunteered and was not checked out. NO one should be allowed to volunteer to be in the vicinity of children without being checked out. There is a gap on both sides that can allow some seriously dangerous people near innocent people. We don't have any real information we are all just playing the odds

It is so unfortunate that there are those that think in such a way as to see a crisis as an oppurtunity to excorsise their demons, but unfortunately, we have to also go where they may go in their thinking in order to keep them from succeeding in taking advantage and bringing even more tragedy as that oppurtunistic element succeeded in doing in the days after the hurricane in N.O.