About Me
- Name: Sagepaper
- Location: United States
An only child and service-brat, I was born in Panama. We lived on Indian Reservations when I was two to four-and-a-half -- crucial years for social development. Culturally, I am a mixed-up White Eyes from Mescalero. I began college at fifteen, enjoying a luxurious seven years of rigorous liberal arts education. Since graduating with a B.A. in Psychology, I have avidly read non-fiction, adding enormously to my formal education. Disabled by Tourette's Syndrome and other conditions, I live in Atlanta's suburbia. My father and husband are both physicians, and share a consulting business. (I am very proud of what they do, but I mention their occupations because people cannot seem to move to another small-talk topic if I simply say I am disabled. They must be told an occupation, and will start asking about family members to get one.)
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Herein find essays, musings, Haiku, and other traditional poetry.
Monday, September 05, 2005
So Many rants, So Little Time
I am basically barking mad about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I know I am not alone in that. I would be appalled by the way New Orleans has dealt with this if it had happened five years ago. But it didn't. It happened after 9/11/2001. The survivors, and many of the dead, from all locations involved on 9/11 faced their sudden, no warning ordeal in a way which reflects the best parts of human character.
New York's Emergency workers knew they had chosen dangerous careers. It wasn't the last, dismal opportunity for a job. They went through rigorous testing to be accepted for rigorous training. They went through rigorous training, and then continued training. Most of them probably had a number of unsung counts of heroism before that terrible day.
When it came right down to it, act or flinch, they acted.
I cannot accept with a tranquil mind the fact that there are an unaccounted for 600+ New Orleans Police Officers. Of the thousand who have been counted, many are known to have left their posts to search for family, or to evacuate their families. At least they bothered to mention where they were going.
There are many known deserters. In Baton Rouge, officers stopped two men in a stolen NOPD squad car. They ran checks on the two men, and confirmed that they were actually New Orleans Policemen who had ditched their uniforms and badges.
Another officer said he left, and dropped his badge in the flood water on his way out of town. "To Serve and Protect." If the deserters care nothing for the people of their city, why was there not at least the fraternal bond among police officers? Two of New Orleans's FINEST committed suicide. They were not merely eulogized after their deaths; there was a paper trail of two extraordinary careers.
Civilian and military law are not the same. I do not know the finer points of martial law for civilians. Civilian emergency workers end up in an odd gray zone. I imagine it would be illegal to take serious action against the NOPD deserters. I'd like to see a law, though, that allows police officers to be shot for desertion during a state of emergency.
In the grand scheme of things, the cowards of NOPD caused as much harm as deserters in time of war. They diminished the number of able-bodied active duty; they endangered the lives of the comrades they left behind; they left the people they served more vulnerable; and they damaged morale greatly. Where else has a hurricane caused high-level police officials to take their own lives?
New York's Emergency workers knew they had chosen dangerous careers. It wasn't the last, dismal opportunity for a job. They went through rigorous testing to be accepted for rigorous training. They went through rigorous training, and then continued training. Most of them probably had a number of unsung counts of heroism before that terrible day.
When it came right down to it, act or flinch, they acted.
I cannot accept with a tranquil mind the fact that there are an unaccounted for 600+ New Orleans Police Officers. Of the thousand who have been counted, many are known to have left their posts to search for family, or to evacuate their families. At least they bothered to mention where they were going.
There are many known deserters. In Baton Rouge, officers stopped two men in a stolen NOPD squad car. They ran checks on the two men, and confirmed that they were actually New Orleans Policemen who had ditched their uniforms and badges.
Another officer said he left, and dropped his badge in the flood water on his way out of town. "To Serve and Protect." If the deserters care nothing for the people of their city, why was there not at least the fraternal bond among police officers? Two of New Orleans's FINEST committed suicide. They were not merely eulogized after their deaths; there was a paper trail of two extraordinary careers.
Civilian and military law are not the same. I do not know the finer points of martial law for civilians. Civilian emergency workers end up in an odd gray zone. I imagine it would be illegal to take serious action against the NOPD deserters. I'd like to see a law, though, that allows police officers to be shot for desertion during a state of emergency.
In the grand scheme of things, the cowards of NOPD caused as much harm as deserters in time of war. They diminished the number of able-bodied active duty; they endangered the lives of the comrades they left behind; they left the people they served more vulnerable; and they damaged morale greatly. Where else has a hurricane caused high-level police officials to take their own lives?
Posted by: Sagepaper / 11:16 PM 
Comments:
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I guess the horrors of this situation are just too much for a lot of people.
Why do they get into this line of work if they can't handle the stress?
Why do they get into this line of work if they can't handle the stress?
I have number of unpleasant thoughts about that. First, they somehow believe that horror is optional. Our men and women in uniform face far greater horrors and jeopardy. They understand that, by volunteering, they have foregone the option of sitting it out if they don't like the way things are going. I wish Emergency Responders, in time of Declared Emergency, did not believe their presense is optional.
With no evidence, nor even rumor, I suspect corruption. I think a sizeable number of police officers pursued that career for the "bonus pay." The Fire Department was steadfast, and less likely to earn pay-offs. Of those officers who stayed the course, I don't know how many were honest. I don't have the numbersfor the deserters, either. Regardless of how things worked in NOPD, Katrina certainly separated the men from the boys.
With no evidence, nor even rumor, I suspect corruption. I think a sizeable number of police officers pursued that career for the "bonus pay." The Fire Department was steadfast, and less likely to earn pay-offs. Of those officers who stayed the course, I don't know how many were honest. I don't have the numbersfor the deserters, either. Regardless of how things worked in NOPD, Katrina certainly separated the men from the boys.
I hope they have some way of recognizing the defectors when they try applying for new law enforcement jobs!
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