who do you hold responsible?

[Carrie]

Biggy, I don't think the folks in charge did everything right. I think they did what they *could*... you can only plan so far ahead and when a hundred thousand people ignore your order to get out, what do you do? Ya know?

The NOPD thing is mind-boggling. But in my mind, this can't be attributed to one person or to higher-ups. This is a set of people each individually choosing to act in this manner. You can't control that kind of thing. If folks that are still there can get pictures of this stuff happening, I think every police officer caught in a photo should be fired immediately with no pension and a no-rehire notice on his record that gets sent to every police dept in the country.

As for this being preventable, I think the only way to universally plan for that is to *force* people out of their homes and onto buses and evacuate them whether they want to go or not. If the city were empty of people right now, this would be a much better situation.

The folks who are starving right now, dying right now, they wouldn't be if they had left when they were told to. And I'm sorry, I don't think the people who stayed or "stuck it out" are brave or noble whatsoever. That's not bravery, it's not nobility, it's stupidity and pride. They are all *contributing* to what's happening right now, even if they're trying to help in some small way. Each of them is still a person that the gov't needs to be concerned with, their safety, their physical needs. When they piss and shit they're contributing to polluting the water.
The city officials, the Guardsmen, etc all could be focusing right now on clearing the streets, draining the water, getting the power back on... instead, because of the folks who stayed, they have to divert all of that attention to stopping looting, raping, starving, pollution...

The only way to prevent this would have been to use guns and force the people to leave.