Exhausted New Orleans cops battle on
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NEW ORLEANS (AFP) - Hurricane Katrina left him with little more than his black SWAT uniform, but Patrolman David Harris has little sympathy for his 300 colleagues who fled New Orleans as the deadly storm targeted the city.
"They're cowards, if this were the army they'd be shot," he said, barely able to contain his anger.
The loss of 300 officers when the city needed them most, severely affected rescue and law enforcement efforts as New Orleans descended into lawlessness in the days after Katrina unleashed her wrath on August 29.
"People who you call friends turn their backs on you. They leave while we have killings, lootings and rapes, and when people need to be rescued," said Harris.
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"Some of us lost our houses, so the whole team moved into the school. We're tightly-knit, we're like a family," said Harris, as his colleagues nodded in agreement.
Working conditions have improved a little in the past days. "We now do 18 hours a day instead of 24," said Harris.
Earlier in the day his team was called in when a sniper fired on technicians repairing cell phone towers. "There are a lot of criminals in this city," he said with a shrug.
He takes huge pride from his team's rescue efforts. "We were the first on the water, we were the first to rescue people."