NOLA cops hard pressed to cope -- No tolerence for looters?

An interesting story from AP's generally excellent Jim Litke....

New Orleans' Thin Blue Line Stretched Taut

By JIM LITKE
The Associated Press
Sunday, September 4, 2005; 7:33 PM
NEW ORLEANS -- There may be no better way to explain the desperation on the city's ravaged streets than this: In the past few days, two police officers took their lives with their own weapons and dozens have turned in their badges.

New Orleans' thin blue line is frayed at the edges.

Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley on Sunday identified two officers who committed suicide as Sgt. Paul Accardo, the department's spokesman, and Patrolman Lawrence Celestine. He called both "outstanding cops" and friends.

Asked how they died, Riley put a finger to his temple, then paused.

"Both of them," he said, shaking his head slowly. "Used their own guns."

Several dozen of the city's 1,600 police officers have failed to report for duty, and some have turned in their badges.

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Remember the wingnut's "shoot the looters" campaign and the President's promise of "zero tolerance for looting"? Well if you read all the way down the story you find some interesting information about how the cops in NOLA have been feeding themselves....
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On top of the burdens of law enforcement, officers have had to forage for food and water and even for places to relieve themselves.

"Our officers have been urinating and defecating in the basement of Harrah's Casino," Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said last week. "They have been going in stores to feed themselves."

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The obvious joke about some officers obeying orders to shoot looters a little too strictly would be in very bad taste, but then so is the on-going bullshit about how the people of NOLA turned into looting savages overnight because of the hurricane. People do what they need to do to survive. There will always be a few assholes who use others misfortune to fill their own pockets, in this case its a few thugs, usually its the Republican Party and Halliburton.