Those Who Stayed Behind: The Cops of New Orleans
Sept. 9, 2005 — -- Since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, hundreds of the city's police officers are thought to have deserted the force.
"When I sit in the car at night," Captain Tony Cannatella reflected, "I cry. Man, you got to cry. I mean, you can't laugh because it's not funny. You got to cry."
When the history of Hurricane Katrina is set down on the page, Cannatella, the 58-year-old commander of the city's sixth district, will no doubt emerge as one of the few who displayed true leadership.
Cannatella and his men have been living and working out of the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store, a place they now call Fort Wal-Mart.
"We made this our police station. We put up an American flag, and we said this is it," Cannatella explained. "We're going to stay and do our jobs, and when we leave here, we'll turn it back over to Wal-Mart."
"We have 132 officers assigned to this district," said Cannatella. "We've had three quit, and a couple go down with injuries, but other than that, we are still here."
While command and discipline collapsed elsewhere in the Gulf Coast region, Cannatella's gruff charm held the officers at Fort Wal-Mart together.
"I'll follow that man to the ends of the world," Detective Tim Bruneau said.
Laundry hangs from a tree outside the Wal-Mart store. There is a dining room set up next to the checkout counters. One of the officers even got married this week in the parking lot.
"Some of the officers here have homes that withstood this, myself included, and they could go home every night, but they don't want to," explains Cannatella. "They're sticking together. We've decided that we're all going to stay here until we can all go home."
As for those who have deserted, Cannatella expresses nothing but contempt for them.
"I don't respect anybody that can't do what they took an oath to do," says Cannatella.
Cannatella and his officers first came to the Wal-Mart to respond to the reports of looting.
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