NO Mayor Orders Police Back to Streets Amid Increasingly Violent Looting

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBI7OA73DE.html

<snip>Some outside the same Rite-Aid on Thursday were anxious to show they needed what they were taking. A gray-haired man who would not give his name pulled up his T-shirt to show a surgery scar and explained that he needs pads for incontinence.

"I'm a Christian. I feel bad going in there," he said.

Earl Baker of Kenner carried toothpaste, tooth brushes and deodorant. "Look, I'm only getting necessities," he told a reporter. "All of this is personal hygiene. I ain't getting nothing to get drunk or high with."

New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. At one point, officers stranded on the roof of a hotel were fired at by people on the street. snip

In another incident, two officers drew their guns on looters, but the thieves left without incident. One of the officers said he was not going to arrest anyone for snatching up food and water.

"It's really difficult because my opinion of the looting is it started with people running out of food, and you can't really argue with that too much," Nagin said. "Then it escalated to this kind of mass chaos where people are taking electronic stuff and all that."