New Orleans police chief defends force where up to 200 'cowards' have dese

[bemildred]

Not since The Spartans at Thermopylae have a group of people displayed such courage under pressure as the New Orleans police department, the force's chief said last night at an emotional press conference. Only a few cowards, Eddie Compass said, had quit and run.

The outburst invoking loyal heroism, delivered with Jesse Jackson at his side, came in the wake of news that two of his officers had killed themselves and up to another 200 had apparently gone absent without leave. They were said to have been alarmed and dismayed at becoming a target of snipers and looters. One of their number had been shot, not fatally, in the head last week.

"All you could find was a few cowards," said Mr Compass, rounding on the media. When asked how many "cowards" he was referring to, he replied: "We don't know the numbers, we're doing a roll call now."

Mr Compass has become increasingly angry at rumours that his officers were fading under pressure. This was his first public rebuttal of the charges of mass desertion.

Guardian UK

[MO_Dem]

1. I can't help but wonder

how many of those "cowards" might have been intimidated and run off by some FEMA people. I mean, if FEMA actually cut phone lines, they might have done even more and worse things.

[bemildred]

3. I consider it very premature to dump on the rank and file.

I can't say this fellow gives a good account of himself here though.

[JanusAscending]

7. Did you ever stop to think

that they may have becomes victims themselves? Perhaps trying to get their familys out of harms way? They can't even communicate with each other down there! Could it be that they were shot by one of the snipers? I don't blame the Cheif for becoming indignant!! Why don't we give them all the benefit of doubt before making condemnations?? Give me a break, and them too!!! Did anyone watch Countdown tonight? It's on again right now!! (sorry, I meant this for the previous post to yours!!)

[bemildred]

8. Yes, I did stop to think that.

Did you not understand "very premature to dump on the rank and file"?

[JanusAscending]

9. Please read my edit! Sorry

n/m

[bemildred]

15. OK. nt

[MO_Dem]

11. I'm not condemning anyone except FEMA

I guess I wasn't very clear. Instead of quotation marks around the word coward, maybe I should have said "so-called cowards". I don't think enough is known yet to make such judgments on the actions of any of the policemen. I find it puzzling that immediately after 9-11, all first responders were lauded, but now there seems to be some immediate negative judgment on the first responders in New Orleans. I don't think it is fair at all. And, I may premature in my condemnation of FEMA. If it turns out I am wrong about FEMA, I will gladly admit it.

[JanusAscending]

14. Very good,

This makes sense!! Carry on!! About this time of night, I start having to re type every other word I write!! It's getting to all of us!

[Peace Patriot]

22. See this thread listing all of FEMA's crimes in this disaster, if you are

inclined to believe that your condemnation of FEMA is wrong:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4660874

The police chief is trying to deal with a Karl Rove disinformation campaign. It's just awful--AWFUL-what the Bushites are doing. Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible!

Instead of being there with help--including psysh help, and R&R, for people who have lost their city...

Instead of comforting these exhausted people, these people who have gone through hell...

Instead of APOLOGIZING to these people, and to the people of NO--and LA, and Miss., and Ala.--and to the American people...

I can hardly express the revulsion I feel for this criminal gang in the White House, or the pity I feel for this poor man, who is trying to recover from their ruination of his city and his people, their DELIBERATE ruination, their murderous neglect...words fail me.

[Child_Of_Isis]

23. I heard that some died in their homes.

They had stayed behind to prepare for the next days shift. I think they will find the "deserters" dead.

[beam me up scottie]

16. I don't know.

I kind of like him after reading this:

Mr Compass has become increasingly angry at rumours that his officers were fading under pressure. This was his first public rebuttal of the charges of mass desertion.

"I'm a street cop, not a bureaucrat, but if I wasn't a street cop a lot of officers would have been killed," he said. "We did not lose one officer in battle."

Describing conditions for his officers in New Orleans, he said: "We were sleeping on the streets. I had the same underwear on for five days."

He's definitely a street cop!
You'd never hear a politician say anything as truthful as that!

[Mnemosyne]

2. Those poor cops have been through total hell, it's

no wonder some have broken under the pressure.

[Old and In the Way]

4. I wonder how many might be victims of Katrina?

I'm amazed that even the NOPD are so quick to assume all of these people fled. I'm sure some did, but I wonder how many may have died during the hurricane?

[shraby]

6. Those cops live in that area. How many left

to evacuate their families because the government wasn't?

[Old and In the Way]

10. True......but I'd expect those to return as soon as they got their

families secured. Would they simply quit? I don't know, seems very odd.

[Rose Siding]

5. There is only one certain coward

[JanusAscending]

12. And again, proving that a picture is worth a thousand words!

Most excellant!!

[beam me up scottie]

13. Ding ding ding !

Let's make sure noone forgets it.

[NorthernSpy]

17. at one point, the rumor was that 2/3rds of the NOPD had quit...

Which I personally found pretty unlikely.

What was never explained was how anyone would actually know that 2/3 of the NOPD had handed in their badges at a time when communications were down -- as others who have been monitoring the "quitter cop" rumor have pointed out.

And come to think of it, wouldn't you have expected the mainstream media to have viewed the "quitter cop" rumor -- with its obvious subtext being the belief that most New Orleans police officers are cowardly and willing to break their oath -- as kind of slanderous?

[Dr Fate]

18. Perhaps some of the "cowards" drowned.

I dont like that word when you dont know all the facts.

[bemildred]

19. I REALLY did not like him using that word. nt

[Dr Fate]

20. Some of them could have died saving lives or enforcing laws...

...this is an unfortunate choice of words, to say the least...

[Dogmudgeon]

21. Chief Compass was overwrought

I saw his interview. The chief was clearly running on rage, disorientation, exhaustion and emotional agony.

I can't hold this against him. New Orleans became Hell for most of the week, and he lived in it, cut off from the rest of the world by a group of bumbling idiots with too much power and too little accountability.

None of us can imagine what survival there has been like. The stories which will be told in the next year will make our collective hair stand on end and give us nightmares for weeks.

Eddie Compass is a better man than I will ever be.

--p!