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Home Front: Economy
New Orleans cops ordered to stop looting
2005-09-01
Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission Wednesday night and return to the streets to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile as the city plunges deeper into chaos.

"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas — hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The number of officers called off the search-and-rescue mission amounts to virtually the entire police force in New Orleans.

Amid the turmoil Wednesday, thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items.

Looters also chased down a police truck full of food. The New Orleans police chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use.

Managers at a nursing home were prepared to cope with the power outages and had enough food for days, but then the looting began. The home's bus driver was forced to surrender the vehicle to carjackers.

Bands of people drove by the nursing home, shouting to residents, "Get out!" Eighty residents, most of them in wheelchairs, were being evacuated to other nursing homes in the state.

"We had enough food for 10 days," said Peggy Hoffman, the home's executive director. "Now we'll have to equip our department heads with guns and teach them how to shoot."

At one store, hordes of people from all ages, races and walks of life grabbed food and water. Some drove away with trunkloads of beer. At one point, two officers drew their guns on the looters, but the thieves left without incident.

One young man was seen wading through chest-deep floodwater, carrying a case of soda, after looting a grocery store.

Police officers were asking residents to give up any firearms before they evacuated neighborhoods because police desperately needed the firepower: Some officers who had been stranded on the roof of a hotel said they were being shot at overnight.

"It's really difficult because my opinion of the looting is it started with people running out of food, and you can't really argue with that too much," Nagin said. "Then it escalated to this kind of mass chaos."

Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she has asked the White House to send more people to help with evacuations and rescues, thereby freeing up National Guardsmen to stop looters.

Bob Mann, an aide to the governor, said dozens of law officers are being brought in from around the country and Canada to help stop the looting. Officials said they hope the 4,000 National Guard troops already in New Orleans, who have been engaged in search and rescue, will be available for police actions.

"We will restore law and order," an emotional Blanco said at a news conference. "What angers me the most is that disasters like this often bring out the worst in people. I will not tolerate this kind of behavior."

John Matessino, president of the Louisiana Hospital Association, said he had not heard of anyone breaking into the hospitals, but he added that thieves got into the parking garage at one hospital and were stealing car batteries and stereos.

New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. At one point, officers stranded on the roof of a hotel were fired at by criminals on the street.

Authorities said an officer was shot in the head and a looter was wounded in a shootout. The officer and looter were expected to survive.
Posted by:Dan Darling

#11  No thing is worth the saving of a life.

In a situation like this, pack up a few irreplaceable photos and critical papers (insurance contracts, passports, birth/wedding certificates, Social Security cards, property tax form, a list of bank and investment account numbers). Pack the wife, kids, two changes of clothes and at least three days of emergency supplies in the car*, AND GET THE HELL OUT. While I understand the motivation to stay and defend your property, there are things that aren't worth doing. Great-aunt Suzie's anti-macassars may be terribly sentimental, and may even be worth a great deal under normal circumstances, but which would your wife rather have: the anti-macassars or you? For that matter, given the odds that if you stay to protect them, she'll likely end up with the one stolen and the other dead -- will she thank your Heaven-bound soul for the effort?

*Yes, and guns and ammunition, too, if you are so inclined. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-09-01 22:37  

#10  Header: New Orleans cops ordered to stop looting

If the governor was doing her job, this would have read "New Orleans cops ordered to shoot looters."
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2005-09-01 13:43  

#9  Whatcha gonna do?
Posted by: Chris W.   2005-09-01 12:56  

#8  How many more people are going to ride out the next one because they don't want their property looted and know that local government doesn't give a crap about it?

Now's the time to formulate a plan of action for the next event, because it's going to happen again. Decide what to take and what should stay, invest in a trailer of appropriate size, and be ready.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-09-01 11:10  

#7  Something about LA law that..

Thanks. Now I'll hear that theme song in my head for the rest of the day....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-09-01 11:06  

#6  How many more people are going to ride out the next one because they don't want their property looted and know that local government doesn't give a crap about it? How many will ride out the next one becasue they're going to loot and know that government isn't going to do anything about it? How many will die because we're saturated with bleeding hearts who enable animal behavior?

All the scum sucking ACLU types are doing is by playing the 'o'poor people just trying to survive' rant, are setting up higher death counts in future disasters. Shoot the damn looters. Since you have no jails, to reason to arrest. Since you have no medical facilities, no reason to treat them. When the word is final that you will 'Die for Nikes', looting will stop. Then people will believe they can leave their property and others will know its best not to stay to loot. Lives will be saved.
Posted by: Slereger Slitle6846   2005-09-01 10:06  

#5  Are the cops being told to stop looting, or stop looters? Given what I read yesterday about that cop joining the looters in taking DVDs I have to wonder...
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats   2005-09-01 09:08  

#4  If you want to get a handle on how to deal with this, read about the aftermath of the 1900 hurricane in Galveston, TX. An army general very publicly hung about 90 looters and said he'd hang a lot more if he had to. The looting stopped. Quickly.
Posted by: mac   2005-09-01 06:04  

#3   I think they already declared it ... again. Something about LA law that someone was explaining to me the other day.
Posted by: Dan Darling   2005-09-01 02:53  

#2  Is that martial law on the horizon?...
Posted by: mojo   2005-09-01 02:25  

#1  Cops having to be told to stop looting, that just boggle the mind. That can also be taken 2 ways. The NOPD is and has been so dirty for so long no one will pay attention to them. The City government it's self has these same issues.

That is why shoot on sight orders have always been made in past disasters of this nature. Things get out of hand and snowball into total anarchy. This is a huge disaster right up their with the 1902 SF earthquake. People better wake up.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom   2005-09-01 01:19  

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