Posted on 09/05/2005 9:54:00 PM PDT by Lorianne
NEW ORLEANS -- Life wasn't supposed to end this way for Sgt. Paul Accardo. Alone in chaos.
He wrote a note telling anyone who found him who to contact _ a fellow officer. He was precise, and thoughtful, to the end. Then he stuck his gun into his mouth and ended the chaos wrought by a hurricane.
Accardo was one of two city cops who committed suicide last week as New Orleans descended into an abyss of death and destruction caused by Katrina. He was found in an unmarked patrol car on Saturday in a downtown parking lot.
Back when life was normal and structured, Accardo served as one of the Police Department's chief spokesmen. He reported murders, hostage situations and rapes in measured words, his bespectacled face benign and familiar on the nightly news. He had an almost priestly air about him.
"Paul was a stellar guy. A perfectionist. Everything had to be just right," recalled Sgt. Joe Narcisse on Monday. He went to police academy with Accardo and worked with him later in the public affairs office.
Uniform crisply pressed, office in order, everything just right on his desk. That was Accardo.
"I'm the jokester in the office. I'd move stuff on his desk and he didn't like that," said Capt. Marlon Defillo, Accardo's boss. "He was ready to call the crime lab to find out who messed with his desk."
Order, justice, humanity, efficiency, decency. Accardo epitomized all that, and more, Defillo said. Maybe, Defillo reckoned, he killed himself because he lost hope that order would ever be restored.
A public information officer, the captain said, turns the senseless _ murder, rape, mayhem _ into something orderly for the public. "It's like dominoes scattered across a table and putting them in order."
But in New Orleans for the past week, the chaos seemed endless.
Like the rest of the Police Department, Accardo worked hard and long days _ sometimes 20 hours. He waded through the mass of flesh and stench in the Louisiana Superdome. He saw the dead in the streets.
On the streets with Accardo, Defillo remembered how bad his sergeant felt when they were unable help women stranded on the interstate and pleading for water and food. One woman said her baby had not had water in three days. Accardo wanted to help, but there was nothing he could.
He even wanted to stop and help the animals lost amid the ruin of New Orleans, Defillo said.
Unable to stop the madness and hurt, Accardo sank into depression.
Narcisse remembered being on the telephone with him, complaining and going on about the flooding when his old police academy buddy cut him off mid-sentence: "Joe. Joe. I can't talk to you right now." Not because he was tied up in a meeting, but because he couldn't handle it, Narcisse said.
"It was like you were having an awful conversation with someone who died in your family," he said.
Accardo _ who lost his home in the flood waters _ looked like a zombie, like someone who hadn't slept in year, Defillo said. But so did all the others on the department and the captain said it didn't cross his mind that Accardo might kill himself.
"We kept telling him, 'There's going to be a brighter day, suck it up,'" Defillo said. "He couldn't shake it
Bush's fault!!!
All joking aside, though, how horrible and senseless.
Bet you he did not believe in God.
How do you make sense of that?
I thought the same thing. Atheists do not do well in fox holes or flooded out shells of civilization.
Sad, but should he have been a cop?
Id rather have him as a banker, or something else where he watched money.
God Bless Him For Caring Too Much, and Forgive Him For Losing It.
What the hell does a belief in God have to do with him committing suicide? Also, a pretty callous comment for someone who lost everything.
Ever heard of Masada?
I am not sure there is a parallel, unless Officer Accardo was one of the cops that were under siege in the police station, surrounded by snipers (which he wasn't.)
How the hell did this guy ever get on the force?
The point inferred by others is that a belief in God keeps you from committing suicide. I don't agree with the officer killing himself but there are plenty of examples of pious people who kill themselves. To infer he is an atheist is callous and uninformed.
Masada is a very good parallel.
What's this disconnect between religion and humanity?
Well, for one people who have a strong faith are never "alone." This man apparently thought no one could understand or help him cope with his pain.
I bet he was a democrat too.
I bet he didn't agree with every single aspect of all my views and personal opinions, and that's why he blew his own head off...
Tragic, but sounds like his issues went beyond Katrina's influence.
I think he was a type A personality as they say in psychologial jargin.
Well, take my example of Masada. Why would all of those religious people kill themselves? To rob the Romans of their victory or to save themselves the suffering to be inflicted including the killing of their kids in front of them? No one knows so we can only speculate. Perhaps this officer, who lost everything, didn't want to face the suffering of what he had lost and would lose further.
I don't agree with the decision but the assumption that he was an atheist is pathetic.
Agreed--how awful to know the people you work with are crooked as the thugs in the street. To know some of it could have been avoided....how overwhelming and gut wrenching. How awful to not have the ability to pray for the peace of the Lord to cover that ache....prayers for his family.
Sounds like a classic case of Asberger's, to me. Sad. They are often the brightest ones.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.