Law Officers, Overwhelmed, Are Quitting the Force

NYtimes ^ | September 4, 2005 | JOSEPH B. TREASTER

[Jet Jaguar]

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 3 - Reeling from the chaos of this overwhelmed city, at least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked away from their jobs and two have committed suicide, police officials said Saturday.

Some officers officially told their superiors they were leaving, police officials said. Others worked for a while and then stopped showing up. Still others, for reasons not always clear, never made it in after the storm.

The absences come during a period of extraordinary stress for the New Orleans Police Department. For nearly a week, many of its 1,500 members have had to work around the clock, trying to cope with flooding, an overwhelming crush of refugees, looters and occasional snipers.

P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police, said most of his officers were staying at their posts. But in an unusual note of sympathy for a top police official, he said it was understandable that many were frustrated. He said morale was "not very good" after nearly a week of deprivation and danger.

[gpapa]

They were relieved of duty before the storm hit, to go back to their homes and make sure their families got to safety. To be sure many had damage to their homes and probably some had missing family members. That does not excuse those who simply walked off the job or just tossed their uniforms away. I am sure the firemen, who did not walk away from their stations, have similar tales to tell about their own families.

[Rokke]

Nice post. I guess you missed the New Orleans police officer on CNN yesterday condemning the officers who walked off the police force at the first sign of trouble. I'll take his word for it. He seemed to know what he was talking about.

[Mrs Zip]

ping

[KneelBeforeZod]

"Please, where are the boot licking "police are never wrong" Freepers now?"

are there any? Seems most of the threads say all cops are constitution hating scum, except when they are killed by thugs, then they are heros.

[Diddle E. Squat]

You slandered half the police force, I doubt that is what that officer was saying. 200 of 1500 have walked off. All of them who haven't are heroes. 200 is not "almost as many" as 1300, even if some of the missing also walked off (some could be drowned.)

My response to you is not based on a single post, you've been trashing a lot of people doing their job down there in hell. Enough.

[Rokke]

Oh yeah. I remember you. You were the guy saying Sheperd Smith was accurately describing what was going on in New Orleans despite denying relief efforts he himself had filmed earlier in the day had never happened. I slammed Sheperd Smith and you took personal offense. I believe you were about as coherent then as you are now.

Here is what I stated in my post on this thread in its entirety..."Some of the police officers in New Orleans have been heroic. Truly incredible. But it appears almost as many were a disgrace to law enforcement. And despite all of them serving under obviously terrible leadership there is NO excuse for the scenes of those two "police" officers looting Walmart. When all is said and done, the inability of the New Orleans police department to maintain a cohesive command structure in the earliest stages of this disaster will explain a lot of the mess we've seen over the last few days." Here is what the assistant superintendent of police said regarding the officers who walked off his force..."Mr. Riley said some of the officers who left the force "couldn't handle the pressure" and were "certainly not the people we need in this department." Sounds like he didn't think much of them either. Here is what one of his heroic remaining officers said of the men who walked off...""For all you cowards that are supposed to wear the badge," one officer said on Fox News, "are you truly - can you truly wear the badge, like our motto said?" Sounds like he's not impressed either. The assistant superintendent says he doesn't know how many officers he still has still working for him. The article says "at least 200" have walked off the job. Other reports put the numbers much higher. One officer said there are fewer than 800 police officers currently remaining on duty. By contrast, the fire department says they don't know of any of their members who have quit.

So let's sum this up...I have trashed Shepard Smith and the police officers that walked away from their duty.

Now please go find someone else to stalk.

[Knitebane]

Well, how about listening to someone that lived in the area for several years?

I went to school at Tulane University in the mid-eighties. One of the first things we were told in freshman orientation was to always have the number for campus security on hand any time we went out on the town. That way we could call and have security come be a voice of reason if ever picked up by NOPD. There is a long tradition of NOPD picking up students and not letting them out unless paid off. NOPD figured that students were good targets since they are technically residents, thus not hurting the tourist trade, and reasonably well off, since they can afford to go to college.

Later, in the early nineties, I was stationed at what is now called NAS JRB New Orleans, down in Belle Chasse. I was fortunate enough to live in Marrero, on the West Bank in Jefferson Parish, rather that subjecting myself to the vagaries of the brutal, corrupt and vicious New Orleans city government.

Harry Lee, the eternal sherrif of Jeff Parish, is the image of the typical southern county sherrif, just writ large. He keeps the criminal element under control, mostly by restricting their activities to the bad parts of town where they can be kept an eye on. Jeff Parish runs on the good-old-boy system, and that can be kind of hard on military folks that are only temporary residents, but as long as you stayed out of trouble, Harry's boys would leave you alone.

I spoke to a neighbor that worked on the HR staff for the NOPD. They were given access to sealed juvenile criminal court records for the police officers.

Why? For assignments. They had to be sure to put officers with other members of their own gangs to prevent police officers from shooting each other in their own precincts.

I was never so happy to see a place getting smaller in my rear view mirror.

[sine_nomine]

To serve and protect, until the hurricane arrives.

I would like to see much better police work everywhere.

[skr]

I hope we won't forget those who did stay may have lost their own homes, are working in a toxic sewer, are seeing corpses of men, women and children and some have even been shot and shot at by those they are trying to help. The police who deserted have much to answer for.

[Getsmart64]

The cops in NO were just part of the social experiment...and proof that it has failed...

[greasepaint]

Everyone here is missing the point.
My understnding is that some NO officers are
on the take.

Many had their livlihoods destroyed -->
the business they were shaking down, flooded,
the drug dealers they are protecting will likely
be arrested in the sweep, etc.
What would you do?

[mdmathis6]

So after only 6 days we find out who the shirkers are and who has the stuff to carry thru...though I will acknowledge that soem have lost whole families or have become bitter towards the animals that have become emboldened in NO.

[Neanderthal]

"NO PD was known across the country among other PD;s that it was one of the worst and most corrupt police depts. BTW, the regulations were the police officer HAD to live within the city limits.

I think Chicago has the same "city limits" law.

[Lion Den Dan]

The cops who ditched their uniforms and kept their police cars should be put in jail.+++++++++

Aren't they as heroic as the punk who stole the schoolbus and drove it to Houston? Let's see, grand theft auto, interstate transportation of===. I guess the cops aren't as hig on the list as they did not get to the interstate transportation part.

[hershey]

From Jesse's point of view, it doesn't matter what color the cops are, they're clearly all racists. Quitting before rescuing people of color? Good grief. Let's not lay any blame on thugs shooting at the cops.

[GEC]

Compare to Iraqis.

What is the bail rate in a war zone?

If these people had stayed on the job, how much lawlessness could have been prevented?

[hoosierham]

The police officers certainly did not have their livelihoods destroyed unless you mean the bribes were their income! Police officers are paid by the agency which certainly has not gone out of business;the city will have federal aid to pay the police and other city workers.They may have lost homes,cars,friends,and family but that is mostly because the city officials failed to plan for a disaster or use available resources. The city officials had years and plenty of money to have plans using all available transportation to move the residents and could have had rotating stores of supplies in designated shelters.

What worries me is that few other city officials anywhere have a real plan to deal with their own likely disasters. Everyone wants to spend all the money now on fancy offices,new vehicles for the officials and leave shelter to a vague "the Red Cross will provide " .

[NittanyLion]

"When I have officers committing suicide," Mr. Compass said, "I think we've reached a point when I don't know what more it's going to take to get the attention of those in control of the response."

It's official. There isn't one competent, responsible person in a leadership position in all of New Orleans.

[muir_redwoods]

I blame Bush. He drove the unemployment rate down to where these cops figured they could find another job somewhere else. If they had been trapped by Jimmy Carter's 12% unemployment rate they would have stayed on the job.

[No Surrender No Retreat]

Morning UJC,
Some police are sometimes wrong , but not all. The one(s) who quit because they were overwhelmed, were Losers anyway.

They took an obligation to "Protect and Serve" and failed in upholding their oath. In reality, they had no business being a law enforcement officer in the first place.

I detect you have a dislike or possible hatred for police or authortity? Please remember there will always be some bad apples in the bushel per any career field.

In closing, would you enjoy living in the anarchy that took place in NO, without any law enforcement to Protect and Serve????????????
"When the mob mentality rules, we have anarchy"
NSNR-LM