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I'm not going to stick up for the cops in New Orleans. The hundreds that simply abandoned the city at the time they were needed the most are scum. The broke their oaths.

My impression of the New Orleans cops is that they had one primary mission -- protect the tourist areas and attractions so that the bucks kept rolling in. The rest of the city was little better, if any, than Nuevo Laredo.

Undoubtedly there were crooked cops in New Orleans. Heck, the whole city and state government is corrupt. It's an institution.

Sadly, I think the real story isn't so much that cops looted, raped, and ran off the job. It's that the majority stayed on and did the best they could in a horrible situation.

It's that the majority stayed on and did the best they could in a horrible situation.

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The majority of police fled their posts. The minority stayed.

Many New Orleans police officers have quit, saying they weren't going to risk their lives fighting looters, AP quoted a Louisiana state police commander as saying.

Sadly, I think the real story isn't so much that cops looted, raped, and ran off the job. It's that the majority stayed on and did the best they could in a horrible situation.

I agree with you and I do think that the majority are at least 'trying' to do a job. The fact is that this city and it's police force has a long and sad history of cynical corruption from simple kick-backs to violent felonies --- one that locals often 'winked and smiled' about when asked and said that's just the way it is in New Orleans --- local 'flavor' and all that crap.

The problem with that "Big Easy" attitude is that when the s**t really hits the fan, you can not count on the creeps with badges to stick around while the 'good guys' have to ask themselves why they should risk all for a system that rewards the crooks better than the good guys.

Look at any 3rd world hell-hole, and you see the same damn system and attitudes that has run NO for ever. More money in NO for sure than in Somalia, but the same damn attitude prevails.

It's far past time for people to realize that official corruption is not just about the money they take. In the grand scheme of things, the money is trivial. It is that the corruption itself destroys any higher sense if duty and honor which creates situations where innocent people die needlessly. We must stop treating official corruption as a joke or a financial crime. It is really a crime that rips the fabric of civilization.