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August 25, 2010

Report: NOLA Officers Ordered to Shoot Looters After Katrina
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The investigative news website Pro Publica is reporting New Orleans
police officers received orders to shoot looters in the days after
Hurricane Katrina. Pro Publica says details of the alleged orders are
"fragmentary" and cited the accounts of "present and former members" of
the New Orleans Police Department. Pro Publica says a police captain
named James Scott was videotaped telling patrol officers, "We have
authority by martial law to shoot looters." Scott now heads the New
Orleans Police Department’s special operations division. Another police
captain has told prosecutors he was ordered by then-second-in-command,
Warren Riley, to "take the city back and shoot looters." Riley has
denied making the statement. This Sunday marks Katrina’s fifth
anniversary.



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