Quote from the Mayor on National Guard...

From the New York Times
Hands Full, Officials Are Helpless Against Looters

"Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she has asked the White House to send more people to help with evacuations and rescues, thereby freeing up National Guardsmen to stop looters."

''Once we get the 3,000 National Guardsmen here, we're locking this place down,'' Mayor Ray Nagin said. ''It's really difficult because my opinion of the looting is it started with people running out of food, and you can't really argue with that too much. Then it escalated to this kind of mass chaos where people are taking electronic stuff and all that.''

The mayor seems to think 3,000 national guardsmen would make quite a difference...