Civil Rights - You Have the Right to Create Chaos

NOPD is under federal investigation for their actions in the days after Katrina. Apparently there is a question as to whether citizen's civil rights were violated during that time. The police stand accused of murder and harassing people after the storm, violating their civil rights.

My response: I beg your pardon? A few dozen COPS are under investigation? They were the baddies? Have we simply completely overlooked the "citizens" involved? I was very much in the thick of things post-Katrina. Rescue helicopters had to abort operations at least twice because the "citizens" were firing guns at the helicopters, as well at fire trucks, National Guard and police vehicles. As I rode in the back of a military truck on several occasions, we had to make our way around the THOUSANDS of "citizens" who were looting businesses, stealing whatever vestiges of civilization remained. At the Superdome for three days, we had to care for at least three pre-adolescent girls who were raped by the "citizens." My house was looted by "citizens."

The police had no contact with the outside world or their superiors. None of us did. We were living in a post-apocalyptic nightmare, trying to survive. There was no law or order to keep, the "citizens" had seen to it that anarchy was the order of the day. None of us knew when or if help was going to come; for all we knew the rest of the world had written off New Orleans as lost and gone.

I ask you, what would you have done? When you fear for your life because of the angry, lawless "citizens" who outnumber you ten thousand to one, when they pick you out of the crowd to terrorize you because of the uniform you wear, how would anyone react?

Why are we not investigating the "citizens" that created the situation? It seems that the citizen's instruction manual for an anarchic city (provided by the feds) must read: "Do whatever you want. Loot, rape, pillage, kill - anything you want. If any duly-appointed law enforcement use any action to stop you, we'll have their head on a platter. This is your civil right."

The news article makes post-Katrina New Orleans sound like NOPD opened fire in a hospital ward full of children. There was nothing sterile or clinical or innocent about any of the circumstances or the "citizens" during that time. The investigators were obviously not here in New Orleans. I have a love-hate relationship with the police, but they are not the ones to be blamed for their actions during that disaster. It is the "citizens" who created the situation requiring NOPD's actions.