Local Cops Shut Off Escape Route From NOLA To Protect Their City

The police chief in Gretna, LA, is sure to take some heat for this decision (h/t Instapundit):

Police from surrounding jurisdictions shut down several access points to one of the only ways out of New Orleans last week, effectively trapping victims of Hurricane Katrina in the flooded and devastated city. . . .

"We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.

"All our people had evacuated and we locked the city down," he said. The bridge in question -- the Crescent City Connection -- is the major artery heading west out of New Orleans across the Mississippi River.

Lawson said that once the storm itself had passed Monday, police from Gretna City, Jefferson Parrish and the Louisiana State Crescent City Connection Police Department closed to foot traffic the three access points to the bridge closest to the West Bank of the river.

He added that the small town, which he called "a bedroom community" for the city of New Orleans, would have been overwhelmed by the influx.

"There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, Lawson said. "We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people."

"If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

But -- in an example of the chaos that continued to beset survivors of the storm long after it had passed -- even as Lawson's men were closing the bridge, authorities in New Orleans were telling people that it was only way out of the city.

I'm having a harder time than some (including Instapundit) in condemning this guy's actions. I'm privileged to know some very fine small-town law enforcement officers, and frankly, I'm not sure I'd have done anything differently than he did. His job was to protect his city, and that's what he did. It was not his first priority was to evacuate citizens from New Orleans. That was Mayor Nagin's responsibility.

Had the mayor coordinated actions with the authorities in Gretna, they might have been able to share resources and move people out of there. But that didn't happen, and the chief did what he thought best to protect the people and property of his community. He'll get blasted, but I think he probably did exactly what the taxpayers in Gretna wanted him to do.