when it gets down to the bottom line of fighting crime it seems like many cops are cowards! Original Article Overwhelmed officers quit the force; 2 kill themselves Joseph B. Treaster New York Times Sept. 4, 2005 12:00 AM NEW ORLEANS - Reeling from the chaos of this overwhelmed city, at least 200 New Orleans police officers have left their jobs, and two have committed suicide, police officials said Saturday. Some officers officially told their superiors they were leaving, police officials said. Others worked for a while and then stopped showing up. Still others never made it in after the storm. The absences come during a period of extraordinary stress for the Police Department. For nearly a week, many of its 1,500 members have had to work around the clock, trying to cope with flooding, an overwhelming crush of refugees, looters and occasional snipers. Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass III said most of his officers were staying at their posts. But in an unusual note of sympathy for a top police official, he said that it was understandable that many were frustrated. He said morale was "not very good" after nearly a week of deprivation and danger. Fire Department officials said they did not know of any firefighters who had quit, and that there had not been any suicides. But they, too, were more sympathetic than critical of emergency services workers breaking under the pressure. Police officials did not identify the officers who took their lives, one Saturday and one Friday. But they said one had been a patrol officer, who a senior officer said "was absolutely outstanding." The other was an aide to Compass, who said the aide had lost his home in the hurricane and had been unable to find his family.