- NEW ORLEANS, United States
(AFP) - A top New Orleans police officer said that National Guard troops
sat around playing cards while people died in the stricken city after Hurricane
Katrina.
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- New Orleans deputy police commander W.S. Riley launched
a bitter attack on the federal response to the disaster though he praised
the way the evacuation was eventually handled.
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- His remarks fuelled controversy over the government's
handling of events during five days when New Orleans succumbed to lawlessness
after Katrina swamped the city's flood defenses.
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- The National Guard commander, Lieutenant General Steven
Blum, said the reservist force was slow to move troops into New Orleans
because it did not anticipate the collapse of the city's police force.
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- But Riley said that for the first three days after Monday's
storm, which is believed to have killed several thousand people, the police
and fire departments and some volunteers had been alone in trying to rescue
people.
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- "We expected a lot more support from the federal
government. We expected the government to respond within 24 hours. The
first three days we had no assistance," he told AFP in an interview.
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- Riley went on: "We have been fired on with automatic
weapons. We still have some thugs around. My biggest disappointment is
with the federal government and the National Guard.
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- "The guard arrived 48 hours after the hurricane
with 40 trucks. They drove their trucks in and went to sleep.
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- "For 72 hours this police department and the fire
department and handful of citizens were alone rescuing people. We have
people who died while the National Guard sat and played cards. I understand
why we are not winning the war in Iraq if this is what we have."
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- Riley said there is "a semblance of organisation
now."
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- "The military is here and they have done an excellent
job with the evacuation" of the tens of thousands of people stranded
in the city.
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- The National Guard commander said the city police force
was left with only a third of its pre-storm strength.
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- "The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is
that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian
police force in New Orleans," Blum told reporters in Washington.
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- "Once that assessment was made ... then the requirement
became obvious," he said. "And that's when we started flowing
military police into the theatre."
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- On Friday, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin denounced the
slow federal response as too little, too late, charging that promised troops
had not arrived in time.
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- "Now get off your asses and let's do something and
fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country," the
mayor said in remarks aired on CNN.
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- Blum said that since Thursday some 7,000 National Guard
and military police had moved into the city. President George W. Bush on
Saturday ordered an additional 7,000 active duty and reserve ground troops.
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- Blum said any suggestion that the National Guard had
not performed well or was late was a "low blow".
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- The initial priority of the Louisiana and Mississippi
National Guard forces was disaster relief, not law enforcement, because
they expected the police to handle that, he said.
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- The police commander was unable to give a death toll
for New Orleans.
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- "We have bodies all over the city. A federal mortuary
team was supposed to come in within 24 hours. We haven't seen them. It
is inhumane. This is just not America."
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- Riley said he did not even know how many police remained
from a normal force of 1,700.
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- "Many officers lost their homes or their families
and there are many we have not heard from. Some officers could not handle
the pressure and left. I don't know if we have 800 or thousands today."
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