Ken's  comments: I thought this was interesting.  I think it should almost
be classified as required reading for liberals.  You're sure not going to see it
on the evening news.
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KATRINA HIGHLIGHTS BIG EASY'S VIOLENCE
By Andy Sullivan
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY
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NEW ORLEANS ? After the storm came the carjackers and burglars. Then came the shootouts
and the chemical explosions that shook the restored Victorian houses in New Orleans'
Algiers Point neighborhood. 

    "The hurricane was a breeze compared with the crime and terror that followed,"
said Gregg Harris, a psychotherapist who lives in the battered area. 

    As life returned to this close-knit neighborhood three weeks after Hurricane
Katrina struck, residents said they hoped their experience could persuade political
leaders to get serious about the violence and poor services that have long been 
an unfortunate hallmark of their city. 

    "I think now it's a wake-up call," Mr. Harris said. 

    After the storm, the neighborhood association had to act as the law enforcement
and as an emergency-response unit as city services collapsed and the police force
was unable to provide protection. 

    Residents organized armed patrols and checked on the elderly. They slept on 
their porches with loaded shotguns and bolted awake when intruders stumbled on the
aluminum cans they had scattered on the sidewalk. 

    Gunshots rang out for days, sometimes terrifyingly close. 

    The first warning sign came for Mr. Harris on Aug. 30, the day after the storm,when
two young men hit his partner, Vinnie Pervel, over the head and drove off with his
Ford van. 

    "A police car drove up behind me and saw it happening, but he didn't do
anything," said Mr. Pervel, the leader of the 1,500-household neighborhood 
association. 

    Then residents heard that police vehicles were being carjacked and looters were
taking guns and ammunition from nearby stores. 

    "We thought, 'Perhaps this is going to get really ugly,' " said Gareth
Stubbs, a marine surveyor who lives across the street from Mr. Harris and Mr. Pervel.

    A Texas woman who runs a Web site called Polimom.com served as a link between
those who stayed and those who had left. With her help, they stockpiled an arsenal
of shotguns, derringer pistols and an old AK-47 assault weapon. 

    They were put to use the next day. 

    "Some looters came up and pulled a gun on the wrong group of men,"
said Mr. Harris, adding that he did not fire a gun. He declined to say who else 
was involved in the battle. 

    "Two men were shot right there," Mr. Harris said, pointing down the
street as he watered his rosebushes. "One was shot in the back, the other in
the leg, and the third I was told made it a block and a half before he died in the
street. I did not go down to see the body." 

    The next day a nearby stockpile of chemicals exploded, shaking the houses and
sending a fireball 300 feet into the sky. The fire burned for another three days,
Mr. Harris said. 

    "For five days, we didn't need FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency],
the Red Cross or the National Guard," he said. "The neighborhood took 
care of itself." 

Printed in the Washington Times