New Orleans had 4,668 violent crimes committed within its borders in 2004. (HT: Palos Verdes Blog)

Given this level of violent crime, was it not completely foreseeable that absent a major National Guard and police presence deployed in the city after the storm came through that there would be destructive looitng and mayhem of a far more serious type?

FEMA does not deploy the local police, and does not activate the National Guard. (That’s for the benefit of CNN’s Jack Cafferty.)