from what i have been told, they entered every house just for that purpose. there are a couple of laws that would allow entry into a house during a natural disaster. the community caretaking doctrine is one that directly applies, as police can circumvent some laws in order to protect lives. as a justification, you're also protecting property. i wouldn't have a problem with that, but when i come to get my guns, i shouldn't have to do magic tricks to get them back, and you better be able to get it immediately when i show up. the fact that they're making people do magic tricks just shows you how f'ed up the new orleans police department is. the other issue is that the NOPD failed to take charge. the now ex-chief was incompetent. you have literally thousands of all different agencies doing their own thing with very little direction. no one knows who took what or what they did with it. they should have had a disaster plane. i'm not knocking the street level guys (at least not the ones who weren't out stealing cars).ElGato wrote:As I remember they were in the houses to search for bodies and folks that might be hurt.
i remember in 99-00, we had contingency plans for the millenium failures, far more people on duty than was even necessary, and back up plans in case our contingency plans failed, with more plans to back those up. we were over prepared. NOPD should have expected that this was a possibility and should have had some idea of how to handle it. their command staff just kind of sat back and let officers do their own thing. it was, and still is, a circus.
when the tornado hit downtown fort worth, it was very chaotic and the damage was extensive, but the response was very well organized.
i don't condone, in the least bit, entering a house for the sole purpose of collecting weapons.
to the NOPD's credit though, they do have more officers on death row than any other department.
