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.
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?"
Yes, the federal government, using their powers of omnipotence and omniscience, should have seen that New Orleans had a resource problem in terms of equipment, and should have known the officers would fold. Yep, that's the ticket. It seems more and more, we have a city and perhaps even a state that appears to have very poor management.
The saddest part, truly, of it all, is that instead of seeking to marshall the folks, bring them together, we have a mayor who racebaits and points fingers, a governor who breaks down, and singers who simply want to promote their album. Meanwhile, the people are not being served or helped. Truly, honestly, very sad. Sad that people have to suffer due to gross mismanagement. Sad that people cannot do anything but play political CYA. Even as folks are dying, some are seeking to save their careers. Terrible, horrific, tragic.
