Katrina Coverage

From "Missing in Action":
Louisiana ranks third in the nation in the number of indicted officials per capita. Just the past generation has seen a governor, an attorney general, a federal judge, a state Senate president and a swarm of local officials convicted of assorted crimes.
Police Superintendent Eddie Compass didn't say why he suddenly resigned. But it comes after his department announced that about 250 New Orleans police officers - 15% of the force - could face punishment for leaving their posts without permission during Katrina.
Before Katrina, New Orleans was a crime-ridden city with a murder rate 10 times the national average. Only one in four murders result in a conviction, largely because retaliation against potential witnesses is common. Yet New Orleans had only three cops per 1,000 residents, a ratio less than half that of Washington, D.C.
Some of the officers who did not desert their posts actually stayed and joined the looters. In an MSNBC report aired shortly after Katrina hit, Martin Savidge, reporting from a Wal-Mart being looted, interviewed police officers claiming to be arresting suspects even as those cops loaded shopping carts with merchandise...
Mike Brown may deserve criticism for his performance. But given the corruption and malfeasance in the Pelican State, and the lack of preparedness and chaotic response of local officials, his observation that "Louisiana was dysfunctional" may not be far off the mark.
Note that one of the reasons those cops left there posts might be because they never existed in the first place.