How did police officers justify not stopping the looters? Cite details from the article to support your answer.

According to a different source, this question refers to the article "Looters Leave Nothing Behind in Storm's Wake" by Mike Perlstein and Brian Thevenot.

This article narrates the events that took place in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. The article tells us that looting and chaos took over the city, but that policemen did nothing to contain this. Moreover, we learn that some policemen even joined in on the looting.

The police officers justified not stopping the looters by arguing that there was nothing they could do to stop their actions, as they could communicate with their superiors. The authors state that:

"Officers claimed there was nothing they could do to contain the anarchy, saying their radio communications had broken down and they had no direction from commanders."

They also said that they did not have enough police officers to face the crowd, and that a mass riot would most likely break out if you tried to contain the people.