Posted on 09/05/2005 5:33:12 PM PDT by SmithL
BATON ROUGE, La. - Fed up with the criticism, New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said Monday that his officers held their ground without food, water and even ammunition in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"In the annals of history, no police department in the history of the world was asked to do what we (were) asked," Compass said with a mix of anger and pride.
Two police officers killed themselves. Another was shot in the head. Compass said 150 had to be rescued from eight feet of water and others had gotten infections from walking through the murky soup of chemicals and pollutants in flooded areas of the city.
Compass denied that police officers deserted in droves. Some officers had abandoned their jobs, he said, but he did not know how many. He said the department was doing a roll call.
At a news conference earlier Monday in New Orleans, Deputy Police Superintendent Warren Riley said between 400 and 500 officers on the 1,600-member police force are unaccounted for.
Some lost their homes and some are looking for their families. "Some simply left because they said they could not deal with the catastrophe," Riley said.
The officers still on the beat in the flooded city are being cycled off duty and given five-day vacations in Las Vegas and Atlanta, where they will be offered counseling, officials said.
Compass, visiting the emergency operations center in Baton Rouge on his first trip outside New Orleans since the storm hit, said New Orleans had police officers "who made the ultimate sacrifice for this city."
"We had no food. We had no water. We ran out of ammunition. We had no vehicles. We were fighting in waist deep water that was infected and polluted," he said.
Compass said the looting and criminal activity involved a small group of people preying on the weak after being thrust into evacuation areas with regular citizens.
As for reports that police stood by while women were raped and people were beaten, the chief responded: "Are you crazy? We did everything that was humanly possible to protect human life."
Without communication or lights, officers sometimes had to follow the traces of light made by fired weapons and physically wrest the guns from individuals' hands, Compass said. He said he did not know how many people were shot by police since Katrina came ashore.
When asked what he thought of federal and state officials' response to the storm, Compass did not offer criticism.
"I'm not a bureaucrat. I'm a police chief. Those type of questions I don't really answer," he said. "We needed more resources, but those resources didn't come."
I think a lot of them did that long before the hurricane struck.
I think the NYPD would beg to differ.
Chief Wiggum and Officer Barbrady would have done a better job.
We need to catch those two "chillin" in Vegas.
Eric Cartman could have done a better job.
Slidell did. Heard the Slidell sheriff this AM. They had a plan, had practiced, had supplies, shelter. THEY WERE PREPARED.
"... and, when you consider all the income they will lose from the local businesmen who will sell their dope, women and scams elsewhere, the New Orleans police have made a significant contribution. Sure, some graft, payoffs, kickbacks, gambling money, phantom payroll income will come in and trickle down, but oour officers will hurt.""
All else considered, let's remember that some of the missing cops may have drowned trying to do their jobs.
Sorry, I should have addressed my reply to'All' and not to you.
It makes you realize how tough...and special... the folks who serve in the military are. All branches of the military are down in the Gulf Coast, doing a tremendous job. No one is offering them a trip to Vegas. Some of them are battle-hardened, having returned from Iraq.
A special thanks to all who serve or who have served.
This story about the two cops who killed themselves stinks. Is anyone going to follow up on why they did it? When did this happen? Anything else in their lives which might account for suicide? Divorce? Bankruptcy? Indictment?
Absolutely. Those officers were true professionals. They were siphoning gas from every vehicle on the block, holding stores up at gunpoint, telling the sick and injured crying for help to write their names and SSNs on their own arms for ease of later identification and to tie their dead loved ones to trees -- all in the interests of the common good.
Step 1 - Shoot Bad Guys
Step 2 - Take their weapons and Ammo
Step 3 - Repeat Step 1
I think those 26 or so police officers in another coastal area that spent the storm in trees and then got to work as soon as they could climb down would probably beg to differ, too.
Chief Wiggum from "The Simpson's"
Leadership in action.
If the Chief is looking for some of his officers, he might check the Walmarts...we saw some of the N'awlins' cops on camera ripping off a Walmart!
The cops in N'awlins must be dumber than dirt...there they were; being interviewed by one of the local TV station's newsman and recorded on camera while ripping off a Walmart. LMAO
duhhhhhhhhhhh
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