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."
"They ran out of ammunition"
During the Y2K scare, people invested in gold, generators, food and water. Not me, I bought ammo. I am still good to go.
Flash would have done a better job than "chief" Bumpass Compass.
I simply ain't buying this one. It sounds like that I may have more ammunition in my closet then they had in the whole city. They couldn't ask for a military air drop of a few cases? Something stinks with this story.
"...his officers held their ground without food, water and even ammunition in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."
Where the hell did the ammo go? They sure as hell weren't shooting at anyone!
Where's that Pic of Barney Fife?
Sorry, folks, but this statement just boggles the mind. And the MSM hasn't picked-up on it?
I got an e-mail about two men going into NO to get their stuff. They were carrying guns when they came up on two cops and the cops didn't even go for theirs. It was surreal obvious looting and people carry loot and the cops standing around with two armed men they didn't know. They asked the cops about where thy were going and the cops said he had no clue and no radio and asked for ammo. The cops only had a few rounds between them.
I thought the e-mail was a hoax and deleted it. Evidentily it was not a hoax.
Cop One and Cop Two?
If only two stayed then they deserve even more praise.
Excellent video.
heh. I spoke with some who got their news solely from the MSM -- they'd never heard of the Governor of NO. Never heard the name or even any mention of the Governor's actions or inactions.
And the truth is, the NOLA officials did NOT provide for the NOPD. Wouldn't declare martial law; used them for search and rescue. No gas, no declaration pre-Katrina for assistance by the National Guard. No gas, no food, no boats, NO BUSES.
But a couple of shots of people wearing NOPD uniforms looting. Maybe they were NOPD, maybe they weren't.
Has anyone positively identified the two NOPD looters by name, as actually having been NOPD? I haven't read that yet. Anyone hear any reporter ASK the Chief directly if he'd seen the video of those two female "nopd" looters?
The chain of command to the NOPD was **virtually*** non-existent.
Second, these cops were on "active duty". Therefore, it would have been OUT of their job to have LOOTED, no? Common sense "survivalism" be damned, if you are still "active duty" and now being hit for not having looted stores for ammo.
3rd. Two cops going to Las Vegas. NO possibly has a contract with a "care facility" in Las Vegas. I don't know whether this is so or not.
I do know that when nurses and others in the "helping/protection" lines of work have problems, there's a policy, and a place, specific places where they are supposed to go to.
Looters took them.
Amen to that, but those were the ones that performed IN SPITE of the lack of leadership.
WOW! Thanks for the video.
That was funny, sad, and pathetic at the same time. I wonder if these 2 cops will be wearing the shoes on their free weeks vacation?
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Never heard of the term 'self-sufficient' apparently.
Well, when the first official bit of business is sending all its cops to "Sin city" and its first unofficial bit of biz is having a "gay pride" celebration instead of a celebration of thanks to the good Lord for being alive, yeah, I'd say a LOT of bad karma.
NO P.D. - How very appropriate considering the context :)
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