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One of the first things New York City police officers thought of when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans was 9/11. They remembered how New Orleans police officers had been there for them, working at their sides in the pit at Ground Zero, cooking up pots of gumbo and jambalaya for them, and doing all they could in those terrible times to make things just a little bit easier for us. They gave their blood, sweat and tears in the rescue-and-recovery effort after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. |
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For many New Orleans police officers, their troubles were at least as great as ours in the aftermath of 9/11. Like millions of other residents of that Katrina-devastated city, they have lost loved ones, worldly possessions – even their homes. And still, they had to continue to do their jobs, under incredibly difficult conditions. So now, New York City police officers believed, it was time to for them repay the debt of 9/11. On Sept. 5, more than 300 NYPD volunteers gathered at One Police Plaza and boarded buses stocked with cases of bottled water, ready-to-eat meals, latex gloves and other gear and headed for the Big Easy to help their counterparts down there with regular patrols, rescue work and delivery of food and water. It was the largest out-of-city deployment in NYPD history. As they left for the lawless and deluged Gulf Coast, most expressed no reservations about the rigors that awaited them. “I’ve been in worse situations,” P.O. Roland Kitchen of the 13th Pct., who had served in the Army in Iraq, told the Daily News. “This is helping people.” The reception our cops received in New Orleans was typified by one incident in which P.O.s Robert Nutter of the 113 Pct. and Eric Charles of the 69 rescued a couple that had padlocked their doors against looters and then found themselves trapped behind security bars after losing their keys. Their first words while being saved by Nutter and Charles were: “Thank God – the NYPD.” The PBA has set up a fund in conjunction with the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) to assist our brother and sister officers in New Orleans. |
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