QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES
Means "Who Polices the Police?"

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

New Orleans probes possible police looting

The police department has launched an investigation into whether officers participated in the giant looting spree that overtook the city after Hurricane Katrina, a spokesman said today.

News reports in the aftermath of the storm put officers at the scene of some of the heaviest looting, the Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District. Some witnesses — including a Times-Picayune reporter — said police were taking items from shelves.

"Out of 1,750 officers, we're looking into the possibility that maybe 12 officers were involved in misconduct," police spokesman Marlon Defillo said.

He rejected the use of the term "looting," but said authorities were investigating "the possibility of appropriation of non-essential items during the height of Katrina, from businesses."

Click here for the rest.

For all the good work the the NOPD did during the Reign of Chaos in the week after Katrina, this comes as no surprise: New Orleans cops have a well deserved bad reputation. My older brother, a cop-loving, far-right Republican who lived there for a time in the 90s, once warned me about police in the Big Easy, "If you get mugged, don't call the cops; they're liable to push the criminals out of the way and finish the job for them." Maybe Nagin will treat reconstruction as an opportunity to clean up New Orleans' "finest."

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$