Will Katrina lead to a police state?

Lee Harris:

Rescuers will still be salvaging bloated bodies from debris of New Orleans when the nation commemorates the fourth anniversary of the last catastrophe that focused the world's attention on America, 9/11. Whether the death toll from Katrina exceeds that killed by the terrorists four years ago may not be known for a while, though the numbers that are currently being thrown about in the media suggest that it may be three or four or five times as great. One thing is already certain, however: Katrina will have a profound impact on the way Americans think about their government, just as 9/11 did -- only Katrina will almost certainly move public opinion in the opposite direction from the way 9/11 moved it -- with consequences that are, for the moment, foreseeable.. . .

In short, in the post-9/11 world, the federal government was looked upon as a bulwark that stands strong; in the post-Katrina world, it is seen as a levee that failed.

I expected more sense from Harris. I don't know where he got the idea that the feds were stepping in as the first responder in every instance, but that assumption seems quite puerile. The Patriot Act was not intended to relieve local and state government from their status as first responders or their responsibility to protect their citizens' lives and property. It helps them by financing better emergency preparedness, but obviously, if the locals adopt a policy of "leave it to FEMA," they're derelict in their duty. A third of the New Orleans police department just disappeared into the woodwork. And the mayor and Governor Blanco don't seem to ever have met one another, let alone work out their respective powers and duties.

In fact, the heightened awarenss of approaching calamity may actually contribute to lawlessness, and hence increase the need for proactive local government. Does anybody really want the federal government to maintain FEMA as a standing army of bureaucrat cops to move in and take over a city? That's where I would join the libertarians. The increased investigative powers given to the FBI, are nothing compared to that.

If Katrina ends up creating that kind of thing, it'll be worse than a disaster. The president and the Republicans in Congress had better jump on this kind of thing and stop it before it gets any farther.