I've been feeling the same disconnect. I think there were lots of rumors flying around in a stressful, scary situation like that, with no outside news. I'm sure they were some bad apples but some of the stories, particularly in the overseas media but also in our own, have been hysterically over the top. "Rapes!! Murders!! Mayhem!!" and then you see all the people being evacuated from the Superdome and they look like women, children, families, elderly...
There was an article yesterday in a British paper along those lines. He was hearing "Mad Max"-style horror stories about the Convention Center and then he went in there (while all the people were still there) and it was nothing like that. Just tired, hungry people waiting for help.
I'm sure there's been some crime but it seems to me some of the media has been broadcasting hysteria and rumor.
If it makes you feel better to think that the stories coming out of NO are hysteria and rumor, well, bless your heart. You need to just keep thinking that.
I heard the doc on the medical team say he refused to go back as his life was in danger.
Enough for me. I think some attracted the gangsters and others didn't.
And good people were there. Cowed by the thugs.