Nola.com: New Orleans cops say they got orders authorizing them to shoot looters
Published: Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 1:00 AM
Updated: Friday, August 27, 2010, 2:37 PM
In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, an order circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters, according to present and former members of the New Orleans Police Department.
It's not clear how broadly the order was communicated. Some officers who heard it say they refused to carry it out. Others say they understood it as a fundamental change in the standards on deadly force, which allow police to fire only to protect themselves or others from what appears to be an imminent physical threat.
The accounts of orders to "shoot looters," "take back the city" or "do what you have to do" are fragmentary.