Somewhere down the line there will have to be a commission formed to document exactly what happened here. What's happened in NO with the looting and lawlessness is actually pretty mild given the circumstances.
But, if it's true, the desertion of 2/3 of the police force is dumbfounding.
I did find an article profiling the NOPD and here are some excerpts:
---It is in the dual interests of fairness and pragmatism that a law enforcement agency should reflect the community it serves. Aided by a federal consent decree, NOPD is almost there. New Orleans is now 70 percent nonwhite; NOPD is 54 percent black -- up from 40 percent in 1994, when Richard Pennington was sworn in as the city's fourth consecutive African-American police chief.---
Here is a particularly interesting observation about the forces new makeup:
---In the past, NOPD cops typically came from local neighborhoods with blue-collar backgrounds, often upon discharge from the military. Since 1997, however, the promise of higher pay has attracted recruits nationwide. The new recruits are arguably better educated than their predecessors and come from more middle-class backgrounds. But will that make them more effective than native cops in our unique neighborhoods? Moreover, today's young recruits bring a "willing-to-relocate" career ethic that has already proved unsettling to a department that seeks a stable workforce.---
I guess the new force was "willing to relocate".
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2001-07-17/commentary.html
Isn't it, though? Also, I've read that N.O.'s crime rate is either 5 x or 10 x above national average. A good plan would have taken that into account and the Guard would have been brought in, ARMED. My understanding is that initially, even with all the widespread reports of looting/shootings, the Guard was sent in UNARMED. And that falls under the idiot negligent Gov. Blanco.