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With Hurricane Rita gone, the mayor picked up where he left off with his plan to reopen New Orleans, inviting people in one largely unscathed neighborhood to come back Monday and "help us rebuild the city.
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New Orleans mayor asks residents back again
September 26, 2005
BY JULIA SILVERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS Advertisement
NEW ORLEANS-- With Hurricane Rita gone, the mayor picked up where he left off with his plan to reopen New Orleans, inviting people in one largely unscathed neighborhood to come back Monday and "help us rebuild the city."
A line extended out of a Winn-Dixie supermarket as locals stocked up on ice, milk and other staples in Algiers, the first New Orleans neighborhood officially opened by Mayor Ray Nagin.
At a Texaco station, owner Mohammed Mehmood returned to find damage both from the storm and from looting. His gas pumps were vandalized, his computers did not work and his ceiling was about to collapse.
"I have immediate problems...
http://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricane/neworleans26.html
Sept. 23, 2005, 10:43PM
THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
New Orleans police can't disarm evacuees
Return weapons to law-abiders, judge demands
By BILL WALSH
Newhouse News Service
Hurrican Katrina
NEW ORLEANS - Gun rights groups won a temporary restraining order Friday preventing police in New Orleans and a nearby parish from confiscating people's firearms when seeking to evacuate residents.
U.S. District Court Judge Jay Zainey ordered the New Orleans Police and St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office to stop taking weapons from law-abiding people and return any they already took in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
In documents filed in federal court in Baton Rouge, La., New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Police Chief Eddie Compass and St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain deny ordering the confiscation of firearms.
But news reports quoted Compass as saying that only law enforcement officials would be allowed to have firearms and Deputy Chief Warren Riley as saying, "We are going to take all the weapons."
Wayne LaPierre, president of the National Rifle Association, said his group documented 30 to 40 cases of people having their weapons taken away after Katrina hit Aug. 29.
"In many cases, it was from their homes at gunpoint. There were no receipts given or anything else at a time when there was no 911 response, and these citizens were out there on their own protecting their families," LaPierre said."The worst thing about it is that it was at a time of complete collapse of the government's ability to protect people."
In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, there were widespread reports of looting throughout New Orleans. At the outset, the city ordered the police to ignore looters and focus instead on search and rescue. But within days, crime spiraled out of control and police were directed to restore order.
To gain control of the situation, Gov. Kathleen Blanco issued emergency power orders, which allow the authorities to regulate firearms. But the suit alleged that law enforcement officials overstepped the bounds by taking guns away in violation of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3367515
washingtonpost.com
New Orleans Police Keep Public Trust, Private Pain
Stress, Homelessness Afflict Many on Force
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 12, 2005; A01
NEW ORLEANS -- They sleep on the concrete sidewalk or in their cars. They scavenge for food from abandoned stores and cook by fire. They wash the laundry by hand and leave it to dry on lines hung from lampposts.
This is what life has been like for New Orleans police officers since Hurricane Katrina tore apart their city nearly two weeks ago.
The Wal-Mart Supercenter on the riverfront, looted in the storm's aftermath, is the new headquarters -- and for many, the new home -- for the 103 officers of the 6th District, which includes the city's historic Garden District. Their station house, as well as those of the 3rd, 5th and 7th districts, was flooded.
In the days before the hurricane, the police force numbered 1,750. After Katrina, officials could account for only a few more than 1,200. No one knows whether the missing are dead, injured or just could not face the horror of the work.
During the worst of it, when people were drowning in their homes and dying because of a lack of basic necessities, two officers put guns to their heads and killed themselves. Two hundred quit. An estimated 70 percent of the force is now homeless.
Officer Dave Lapene, 25, a former Marine who served in Iraq during the invasion, is among them.
"The feeling is similar to being in Iraq," said Lapene, whose house was destroyed. "But when you realize that this is your home, you know it's not right. It's worse. When you're overseas the motivation is to get back to something. Here, we don't have anything to go back to."
Local officers have been criticized for not doing more to evacuate people before the waters rushed in. From their point of view, however, they struggled desperately to do all they could. But it was not enough.
Until Thursday, when the first batch of officers was allowed to take a five-day vacation, the force had been working nonstop for 11 days. They watched people urinate on themselves because no bathrooms were available, they saw babies die of starvation, and they pulled dead bodies from the Superdome and convention center.
To other rescue workers, the victims were nameless strangers. To New Orleans officers, they were neighbors, friends, family members.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/11/AR2005091101460_pf.html
