Disintegration of New Orleans police slowed response: guard commander

AFP ^ | Sep 3, 2005 | Staff

[cgbg]

During the Y2K scare many of us learned that the first rule of personal survival, before buying the first supply, was to make sure you live in a low density area full of other self-reliant people.

Because if you are surrounded by stupid and short-sighted neighbors you will be in great danger no matter how well you prepare.

Anyone who lived in the New Orleans bowl violated this first requirement.

[Clive]

I have always thought that there ought to be a text entry box for a sub-headline. The poster would be obliged to use the original main headline but could either post his own sub-headline in the second box or use the newspaper's sub-headline.

[pollyannaish]

Oh well. That was fun while it lasted.

[Howlin]

We don't take kindly to people casting aspersions about our forum and moderators 'round these parts.

[cgbg]

This reminds me of the typical COPS episode:

"Officer, why are you cuffing me. I didn't do nothing. What did I do?"

"Well, you are driving a stolen vehicle. You have a stolen gun in the glove compartment. You have a crack pipe full of crack and an ounce of crack in the front seat and stolen tools in the back seat. Your license plate is stolen. You have five outstanding warrants."

"But officer, I didn't do nuttin'. This is my girlfriend's car. She let me borrow it. Those warrants are for someone who looks like me. "

:-)

[AmericaUnited]

I saw on CNN one NO police officer PUBLICLY BLAST his fellow officers who had fled, calling them COWARDS and unworthy to wear the badge, because they swore to protect and serve the people of New Orleans and did not. It was great. Shocked the Commie Network aired it.

[Tunehead54]

Need some help?

---

;-)

[tkathy]

They were too busy looting to bother with saving lives.

[beyond the sea]

A collective group of people just cannot possibly be this stupid.

DNC

[maryz]

Saw this on another thread (Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting, from the Washington Post):

Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.

The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

[livius]

Congratulations on your nephew! Even a bad force has a lot of good, dedicated officers.

One of my daughters is a police officer, and she said that to her, from a distance, it looked as if morale had probably not been very good in the NOPD even before the hurricane. Low pay, a crime-ridden city with (probably) political restraints on police activity, and a police department that had had some horrible scandals in the past - this doesn't make people very committed to risking their lives.

Also, do you know if the Mayor had actually ordered the use of force, or were the police only allowed to shoot if they were about to be killed themselves? If they didn't have protection from above in the chain of command, they would have been up on murder charges had they killed any of that scum.

[rudy45]

May I ask: what is so hard about following reasonable rules regarding titles of articles?

[Zeroisanumber]

Yes and Louisianan has had at least a century of corrupt Dems running down that state.

Louisiana has had a century of corrupt everything running that state. Remember a few years back when the choice for governor came down to the mobster or David Duke?

[SE Mom]

"Now get off your asses and let's do something and fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country," the mayor said in remarks aired on CNN.

---

I am convinced the mayor thinks the above sentence is "leadership".

[Tunehead54]

Good find! Reminder bump. ;-)

[DH]

What are the penalties for law enforcement officers who abandon their duties during a situation like this?

Simple. If you are white you are fired. If you are black, nothing.

[Dad yer funny]

well , I wonder when a bipartisan commission will be empaneled [a la 9/11] , and now with Rehnquist's passing the bolsheviks will really be hoppin' mad[feigned of course] but oops,with all these BIG stories, it appears that AirAmerica and Eliot Spitzer can just play footsie ,... what a confluence of events!!

[moehoward]

Can I watch?

[Dahoser]

The Mayor should have gotten off his bleep and done something.

Leave the mayor alone. He was being oppressed by George Whitey Bush and could not execute his brilliant plan to overcome Katrina's effects. The man beat him down. Just ask Jesse, Al and the rest of Klan with a Tan.