Was this Bay St. Louis home demo justified?

BAY ST. LOUIS, MS (WLOX) -
Imagine pulling up to your property prepared to work on your Katrina damaged home and discover it's no longer there. For one Bay St. Louis couple , that's just what happened four years ago.
They say demolition crews destroyed their home and hauled off the pieces without notifying them. They say their home was a victim of the city's property clean-up process.
They filed a lawsuit seeking monetary compensation, but say resolving the issue is moving at a snail's pace.
Arthur Bice said he spent the first two years after Katrina working on weekends to repair his storm damaged house. But one October weekend back in 2008, he received the shock of his life.
"I drove up preparing to work on it and looked around. I thought I was on the wrong street for a moment and realized that the house was gone," Bice recalled.
He said he had no idea his house was on the blighted property clean-up list. He said he never received a notice from the city that their home was slated to be demolished.
"I'm not sure why they selected this house to tear it down. Across the street, there's a house that they haven't even touched. It was obvious I had been working on it because there were tools inside, scaffolding, the yard had been cut. I was maintaining the property. It was very obvious somebody was working on it."
City Attorney Donald Rafferty told WLOX News, the city complied with state and local laws when it went through the property clean up process after Katrina. And he denied the Bices' claim that the city was stalling the legal process.
"I'd love to take this up in court and that's not happening either. So far they are being really slow," explained Bice.
The Bices say four years is long enough. They say until the issue is resolved, a full recovery from Katrina will never come for them.
"We did build another house that's away from the water, but this was our dream. This is where we wanted to live on the water with our boat. All the things we lost in the storm we were wanting back again."
The Bices' attorney told us he's been waiting on the city to turn over essential evidence in the case for more than two years.


Just who in the hell died and made these city officials King, God, and Fuhrer of anything? I have seen these stories time and again and I am sick of it. I am a homeowner and I own the home that my grandmother bought in 1969, after Hurricane Camille, one half of a block off the beach in Biloxi and I can't imagine what I would do if this were me.  If it were my house I would raise 9 kinds of hell in Biloxi and Jackson until the day I got my say in court. I would put as much political pressure as I could muster on getting the point across that a home is a castle and private property shall not be destroyed.

I am of the old school beliefs that a home is a man's (or women's) castle the ownership of land and/or buildings on said land should not be stolen without due process. We have a lot of these things happening nationwide. The government does not know best. Though yes we do have a lot of eyesores down here you would think that they would at least give somebody a court date before tearing something down. What about this mans tools that he lost? What about any possessions that he had salvaged during Katrina that he still had in the house? How would these city officials losing their homes with priceless family photos still inside that were flooded yet they were trying to get them restored? What if this was an 80 year old home that his great grandparents built with their bare hands and he was trying to restore it to what it was before Katrina?

The Government doesn't care about you or your possessions and this proves it. Not only should these politicians be removed from office but they should have criminal charges pressed on them.

I am disgusted in reading this.

Anthony Allen
Biloxi, Ms
The Southern Conservative

Internet Privacy

Internet Privacy.... This is the biggest contradiction in terms that I have ever heard. We are connected in ways that everybody has access to everybody else with the stroke of a few keys. ISP's have contracts with government agencies to monitor what you do in the name of preventing terrorism. Every computer is networked to the next computer WORLDWIDE. So how can you protect your privacy online? YOU CAN'T!!!

As some of you may know I am a reformed computer hacker. I remember when I first got the internet thinking to myself that this is the window to the world. I can connect to anybody anywhere in the world with just a few keystrokes. I can bounce from New Orleans to Chicago to Munich in a matter of seconds and see live web cams of the streets of those cities. What an amazing tool this is. I was hooked.

I too thought about safety online. How can I protect my activities? How can I stop myself from getting into trouble with things that I was doing? The answer is simple. With a simple piece of software that can be downloaded on your computer called a Trojan Horse everybody can access your files, folders, browsing history, etc. With another program called a Keylogger everybody can copy every keystroke that you make for retaining your passwords and other secure data.

The simple answer to protecting your privacy is to keep all of your sensitive documents on a stand alone computer. This requires you buying another computer and not connecting it to the internet EVER. Yes I know that can get to be expensive but it is the best security that you can hope to have. You can not get a Trojan to access your files because there is no internet for remote accessing. Keyloggers will work if someone is physically at your computer but they can not access them via the internet.

Oh by the way when I say a stand alone this means no Ethernet wire hooked up no wireless card (even the ones you have to push a button to turn on are no good). No networked printer. This is the safest and most secure way to keep valuable electronic media to yourself and keep important documents out of the hands of hackers.

Just a friendly tip.

Anthony Allen
Biloxi, Ms
The Southern Conservative