Reply With Quotesounds more and more like the city of New Orleans should just be sealed off and left alone. it would be more then tough to try to concentrate on your duties while you lost your home and have a family who needs you and no place to go.
I thought this was pretty interesting...
September 4, 2005
Law Officers, Overwhelmed, Are Quitting the Force
By JOSEPH B. TREASTER
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 3 - Reeling from the chaos of this overwhelmed city, at least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked away from their jobs and two have committed suicide, police officials said on Saturday.
Some officers told their superiors they were leaving, police officials said.
Others worked for a while and then stopped showing up. Still others, for
reasons not always clear, never made it in after the storm.
The absences come during a period of extraordinary stress for the New
Orleans Police Department. For nearly a week, many of its 1,500 members have had to work around the clock, trying to cope with flooding, an overwhelming crush of refugees, looters and occasional snipers.
P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police, said most of his
officers were staying at their posts. But in an unusual note of sympathy for
a top police official, he said it was understandable that many were
frustrated. He said morale was "not very good."
"If I put you out on the street and made you get into gun battles all day
with no place to urinate and no place to defecate, I don't think you would
be too happy either," Mr. Compass said in an interview. "Our vehicles can't
get any gas. The water in the street is contaminated. My officers are
walking around in wet shoes."
Fire Department officials said they did not know of any firefighters who had
quit. But they, too, were sympathetic to struggling emergency workers.
W. J. Riley, the assistant superintendent of police, said there were about
1,200 officers on duty on Saturday. He said the department was not sure how many officers had decided to abandon their posts and how many simply could not get to work.
Mr. Riley said some of the officers who left the force "couldn't handle the
pressure" and were "certainly not the people we need in this department."
He said, "The others are not here because they lost a spouse, or their
family or their home was destroyed."
Police officials did not identify the officers who took their lives, one on
Saturday and the other the day before. But they said one had been a patrol
officer, who a senior officer said "was absolutely outstanding." The other
was an aide to Mr. Compass. The superintendent said his aide had lost his
home in the hurricane and had been unable to find his family.
Because of the hurricane, many police officers and firefighters have been
isolated and unable to report for duty. Others evacuated their families and
have been unable to get back to New Orleans.
Still, some officers simply appear to have given up.
A Baton Rouge police officer said he had a friend on the New Orleans force
who told him he threw his badge out a car window in disgust just after
fleeing the city into neighboring Jefferson Parish as the hurricane
approached. The Baton Rouge officer would not give his name, citing a
department policy banning comments to the news media.
The officer said he had also heard of an incident in which two men in a New
Orleans police cruiser were stopped in Baton Rouge on suspicion of driving a
stolen squad car. The men were, in fact, New Orleans officers who had
ditched their uniforms and were trying to reach a town in north Louisiana,
the officer said.
"They were doing everything to get out of New Orleans," he said. "They
didn't have the resources to do the job, or a plan, so they left."
The result is an even heavier burden on those who are patrolling the street,
rescuing flood victims and trying to fight fires with no running water, no
electricity, no reliable telephones.
Police and fire officials have been begging federal authorities for
assistance and criticizing a lack of federal response for several days.
"We need help," said Charles Parent, the superintendent of the Fire
Department. Mr. Parent again appealed in an interview on Saturday for
replacement fire trucks and radio equipment from federal authorities. And
Mr. Compass again appealed for more federal help.
"When I have officers committing suicide," Mr. Compass said, "I think we've
reached a point when I don't know what more it's going to take to get the
attention of those in control of the response."
The National Guard has come under criticism for not moving more quickly into
New Orleans. Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, the head of the National Guard Bureau,
told reporters on Saturday that the Guard had not moved in sooner because it had not anticipated the collapse of civilian law enforcement.
Some patrol officers said morale had been low on the force even before the
hurricane. One patrolman said the complaints included understaffing and a
lack of equipment.
"We have to use our own shotguns," said the patrolman, who did not want to
be identified by name. "This isn't theirs; this is my personal gun."
Another patrol officer said that many of the officers who had quit were
younger, inexperienced officers who were overwhelmed by the task.
Some officers have expressed anger at colleagues who have stopped working. "For all you cowards that are supposed to wear the badge," one officer said on Fox News, "are you truly - can you truly wear the badge, like our motto said?"
The Police and Fire Departments are being forced to triage the calls they
get for help.
The firefighters are simply not responding to some fires. In some cases,
they cannot get through the flooding. But in others, they decide not to send
trucks because they are needed for more serious fires.
"We can't fight every fire the way we did in the past and try to put it
out," Superintendent Parent told a group of firefighters on Saturday morning
at a promotion ceremony in the Algiers section of New Orleans, a dry area.
Even facing much more work than could possibly be handled, he said, it was
important for him to take time out for two promotion ceremonies.
"The men need reinforcement," said Mr. Parent, who put on his last clean
uniform shirt for the ceremonies elevating 22 officers to the rank of
captain. "They need to see their leader and understand that the department
is still here and not going to pot."
sounds more and more like the city of New Orleans should just be sealed off and left alone. it would be more then tough to try to concentrate on your duties while you lost your home and have a family who needs you and no place to go.
sounds more and more like the city of New Orleans should just be sealed off and left alone. it would be more then tough to try to concentrate on your duties while you lost your home and have a family who needs you and no place to go.
So true!
This may not even be true, there are loads of "creative writing " pieces floating around lately chock full of mis and dis-information. Be careful of what you buy into. A good resource is the associated press and some of the major news outlets but a good percentage of what they are reporting is second hand and hear say as well.
They are also the lowest paid PD in the USA......
if memory serves me correct it is 13 an hour
Kilr,
they would be lucky if they made 13 an hr. they like my son who works in ARK.are the lowest paid in the nation.NOPD is the real deal it gets down and dirty there real quik !
the Brothers in Blue are responding to them as we speak. Today caravans of Texas LE rode up into NO with food,clothing, weapons, ammo & money for the Brothers.
back up is coming and on the way. Texas Parks & Wildlife(game wardens) have many officers and their air boats there. as do Texas DPS(state police).
Local PD's and SO's are putting together Task Forces to respond.
Other states are responding also.
NYPD is sending troops & funds !
Fraternal Oder of Police Officers has a web site where you can volunteer service or whatever you have to offer. our problem locallly is getting per mission from the sheriff or chief to go with the rising problems we have from the tide coming out of La.the I 10 corridor is swamped with problems.
if you or anyone wants to open their home to a LE or his family.
CLEAT Combined Law Enforcement Agencies Texas has a web site as does TMPA Texas Municipal Police Officers Association.
Hook a Brutha up !
sounds more and more like the city of New Orleans should just be sealed off and left alone. it would be more then tough to try to concentrate on your duties while you lost your home and have a family who needs you and no place to go.
A novel idea. Let's build the refineries in your city. I'm sure you won't mind plummeting real eastate values and more hazards for your children? We can always jack up the prices of all the imports that come through New Orleans this past 180 years too? Rum, Vodka and a host of other alcohols could stand another 300% or more hike? What the hell, you can afford it. We'll also have to raise the price of gasoline about, oh... I'd guess 3,000 per cent? We have to pay to have that crude moved to your crappy desert. Let's see, that would put about 2 million more minimum wage workers on the street nationwide? What the heck... you can just pay more taxes to go with the spiraling inflation you just created. I'm sure a fine upstanding citizen like yourself wouldn't mind housing the 200,000 or so indigents that go with the importation industry? Darndest thing. Whenever the market rises they over hire and when it plummmets they immediately lay off creating one of the largest layers of indigent living in the nation. Darn those sassy southern republicans. Maybe we can build the projects at the lake where you boat? Not only will they have a beautiful view, but you can deal with their gang violence, hostility, and resentment everytime you go boating. That would be nice wouldn't it? Did I mention what an insentive, spoiled little piece of crap you are? What the hell... we can get into that later.
Poster X, your boyfriends must be well endowed for you to flow that much BS.
Does this only apply to police officers not showing up to thier jobs or does it apply to everything?
I would say to the whole situation, i have listened to fox on XM solid for the past 4 days and they have constantly retracted this n that and come back with other info that was solid. Communications are sketcht at best down there so everything coming out of there is suspect at best. Aside from the obvious stuff like the severity of the catastrophe.
New York City is crime ridden and draws poverty like a magnet. Let's get rid of that piece of crap. Chicago is very high maintenance and has had a history of crooked cops and organized crime. It needs to go. The entire state of California needs to be nuked. It's devoured too many billions of tax dollars with their silly riots and pesky little earthquakes. I'm tired of carrying their asses. Florida needs to go. Don't those people know they are in hurricane alley? Why should we have to constantly funnel them billions to rebuild? Maybe the terrorists could toss a dirty bomb there and save us some trouble? Who else should we punish so you elitist assholes can finally be happy?
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