Sunday, February 05, 2012
   
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 In the frantic days after Hurricane Katrina, a command circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters, according to present and former members of the department.  It's not apparent how widely the order was communicated.  The accounts of orders to "shoot looters," "take back the city," or "do what you have to do" are fragmentary. It remains unclear who originated them or whether they were heard by any of the officers involved in shooting 11 civilians in the days after Katrina.
 Five years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, the city's mayor said Thursday that its recovery will take at least another five years. Katrina and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico brought the Louisiana coast "to its knees," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) told those attending a luncheon at the National Press Club. The city's transformation will be slow and dependent on resources, but Landrieu said there will be more immediate transformation in the city's safety, schools and job market.
As time runs out on the administration of Mayor Ray Nagin, he sat down to talk about life after being Mayor of New Orleans for eight years.  Nagin is reportedly considering work as a paid disaster-recovery consultant, and talks about corruption in his administration, the embattled New Orleans Police Department and his inability to win political support for his initiatives.  Read what he thinks about this and more and see photos and video at the link.  

LAProgress

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