LAT: Hundreds of Police Officers Missing in New Orleans (and may be dead)

[DeepModem Mom]

NOTE: As I was posting this article, Lou Dobbs was asking NYC's Bernard Kerik on CNN about reports that hundreds of NO police officers "simply walked away from their jobs."
:mad:
I'm afraid, as Gene Hackman said to Willem Dafoe in "Mississippi Burning," when the three civil rights workers' empty car was unearthed: "They're dead. They're dead."


Hundreds of Police Officers Missing in New Orleans
Bush vows to step up federal response.
By Julie Cart, Edwin Chen and Scott Gold, Times Staff Writers

NEW ORLEANS — Hundreds of police officers are missing and many may be dead from Hurricane Katrina, according to a top police official, who in an interview today also said that the population of the city may sharply drop because of the storm.

Deputy Police Supt. Warren Riley said about 700 of the city's 1,600-officer force was told to stay home until the storm passed so that they would be available to be deployed wherever they were needed.

Between 400 and 500 officers remain unaccounted for and many are feared dead, though some are believed to have walked away from the job, he said.

Riley said that survivors would have likely called the department to say that they are alive or to explain their absence. He declined to speculate about how many officers may have perished: "One is too many."

"We don't know how many officers are dead," he said. "We don't know how many officers drowned. That's a fear of ours."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-090805katrina_lat,0,7918762,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Lochloosa]

1. I was skeptical of the "walk away from their post" comments when they

first came out. How many were trapped in their cars or their houses?


On Edit: Deep Modem...do you ever sleep..:boring:

[Carni]

7. Those men and women are dead

And instead of being painted as heros they have been painted as deserters -- it sickens me.

[DeepModem Mom]

17. LOL! I do at night in my time zone -- but I break up my day...

by checking in frequently, and posting, on DU.

[kestrel91316]

18. I heard 200 walked away in the early days ....................

I can't say as I blame them. I think the rest of the missing DID stay home as they were told, and drowned. Or died of dehydration on rooftops and in attics waiting for help.

[iconoclastic cat]

2. First responders always get the shaft, thanks the DHS bungling!

:grr: :(

[OKthatsIT]

10. dont you think the police might have guessed

how many dead there could be..or how toxic the job would turn out to be to their health?

Sean Penn should have worm fishing gear...he didnt need to wade in that nasty water, why did he do that?

[OKthatsIT]

11. also...they might have decided to get their family away from harms way.

wouldnt you?

[preciousdove]

3. 2000 postal workers missing and a lot of the men evacuated from NOLA

From earlier posts on DU.

[jkappy]

4. 9/11 numbers vs. K numbers

The earliest numbers to come in on 9/11 were in the 6-8 thousand range. With each passing week and month, they declined to just under 3,000 dead.

It seems as if the reverse will happen here. Hide the numbers as long as you can and let them out slowly because Katrina can't take all the blame you know.

This news is pretty astounding--esp if you add this to all the missing postal workers (the latter perhaps, in part, in error). And then add in the 10,000 thot to be dead in NO. The final number may take just as long as the final number in 9/11---in both cases, the Bush Admin benefits (few knew about the final number in 9/11 and few will know the final number here as the story recedes from spotlite)

[flamingyouth]

5. Geez, on 9/12/01 and so many police officers were missing

Did anyone dare accuse them of "walking off their jobs???" How crass and utterly unforgivable. :grr:

[damntexdem]

6. Why those deserters -- they just floated away from their posts.

If 500 died of 700 told to stay, I suspect that in future disasters, such orders will not be obeyed. Of course, this flood was so rapid that many couldn't escape even when they had the means.

[OKthatsIT]

8. Marriott Hotels is missing 2500

[OKthatsIT]

9. could be evacuees, though

[aquart]

13. Evacuees have phoned in.

The working poor don't miss work. It's too damn hard to come by. Marriott has found hundreds this way. So has the post office. That's why they're so concerned about the ones they have NOT heard from.

[Olney Blue]

12. They were told not to evacuate?

If these police officers died by drowning, its just too sad....

:cry:

[aquart]

14. Responsible cops stay on the job. Ours did, and died on 9/11.

That will tell you that these officers stayed, too, waiting to relieve the ones who were on watch thru the storm.

[Olney Blue]

15. I was skeptical of the dissertion story all along.

It was really touching that NYC firefighters went down to reciprocate for the help from NO firefighters in the 9/11 aftermath.

Sometimes I don't know how our country can bear all this sorrow.

[gademocrat7]

16. Lou and Bernie to go investigate what happened

they need to wade in the contaminated water and look for the truth as to the whereabouts of the missing New Orleans policemen and women.

[daleo]

19. Hundreds of police officers missing, feared dead

Likewise for two thousand postal workers (another post)? This seems to imply a death toll that is stunning in magnitude.

[DeepModem Mom]

20. It gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. nt