Asked what she was doing, one of the unidentified officers told reporter Martin Savidge: "I'm just doing my job" - before abandoning her shopping cart to resume her patrol. Her partner apparently continued looting unfazed by NBC's presence.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune also carried reports of police looting, noting in Wednesday editions:

"Some officers joined in taking whatever they could, including one New Orleans cop who loaded a shopping cart with a compact computer and a 27-inch flat screen television. 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."

"We don't have enough cops to stop it," one beleagured cop told the paper. "A mass riot would break out if you tried."

While smaller merchants guarded their storefronts with shotguns, others made excuses for the lawlessness.

"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," a bystander told the New York Post.

Some New Orleans residents were less sanguine about the deteriorating civil order.

"You know what sucks," one local tavern owner told the Times-Picayune. "The whole U.S. is looking at this city right now, and this is what they see."

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