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Waiting for help, group of N.O. officers keep a lonely vigil

Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2005/09/03/waiting_for_help_officers_keep_a_lonely_vigil/

Loyalty binds them to victims
By Brian MacQuarrie

NEW ORLEANS - Across from the mass human suffering at the fetid convention center yesterday, before a convoy of Humvees finally delivered hundreds of National Guard troops to this crime-ridden intersection of dashed hopes and mounting anger, a city police officer touched his finger to his eye and began to cry.

''I'm going to stay here till everything's done," the officer said. ''I love this city."

Until the troops arrived at midday, the police officer and five colleagues had been the only round-the-clock security for the convention center, where a few thousand displaced residents had languished for five days without food, water, medical attention, and the transportation that federal and state officials had promised them.

In the morning, when the police officer cried, he spoke caustically about the supplies that had yet to arrive for the storm victims, and the lack of food and equipment for the officers. Whatever they needed to eat, the officer said, they had taken from the looted stores around them. The officers asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from the department...

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2005/09/03/waiting_for_help_officers_keep_a_lonely_vigil/

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