MOGADISHU, LOUISIANA

CNN reported a bit ago that FEMA has stood down its rescue efforts for the time being. Their reasoning is clear and stark: The gangs of addicts and looters, now armed with stolen firearms, have made rescue attempts too dangerous.

This is why you threaten to shoot looters, from the beginning of a crisis:

I fully acknowledge that shooting looters is an inappropriately disproportionate response if one views looting as mere larceny. But one doesn't shoot looters to protect property, one does so to protect order. Somebody is going to suffer unjustly when society breaks down. I don't understand why Muller thinks it preferable for the law-abiding citizens to be the cost-bearers. History has shown repeatedly that the way to stop an anarchic riot is an early display of substantial force.

Of course, with the New Orleans police having close to third-world levels of corruption in good weather, there isn't exactly law enforcement that I would trust on the ground in the city until the National Guard gets sent in, so the whole question may be moot.

I'd prefer the Marines instead of the National Guard, but otherwise this is exactly right. In coddling the looters early on, authorities sent a message that the lives of lawbreakers were being protected at the expense of the law-abiding. We would not shoot looters, therefore they had free reign. This is pretty much standard liberal crime policy, when you stop and think about it. That's also pretty much the ACLU's approach to crime and especially terrorism too. But I digress.

The fact is the dependence culture, the drug culture and the criminal culture are combining in New Orleans, which should probably be renamed Mogadishu, and are swirling into a perfect storm of chaos. The weather didn't cause this chaos--people are causing it right now by their behavior. Now if you're a law-abiding citizen facing the prospect of home invasion by these gangs and you have no means of getting help from outside, your only rational choice is to arm yourself however you can. Which means now the law abiding will turn to looting to get guns and ammunition, supposing there's any left in the city to be had. And even the law abiding will begin to shoot strangers on sight, if they believe strangers pose any kind of threat.

This is the cycle of violence: Let lawlessness get out of control even for a short time, and soon everyone's caught up in it.

(via Michelle Malkin)

UPDATE: CNN now reporting the evacution of Charity Hospital in N.O. is coming under sniper fire.

Curiel and his National Guard escorts, were returning to the hospital after dropping off patients at nearby Tulane Medical Center, when someone started shooting at their convoy of Humvees.

"We were coming in from a parking deck at Tulane Medical Center, and a guy in a white shirt started firing at us," Curiel said. "The National Guard (troops), wearing flak jackets, tried to get a bead on this guy. "

The incident happened around 11:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET). About an hour later, another gunman opened fire at the back of Charity Hospital.

"We got back to Charity Hospital with with food from Tulane and we said, 'OK the snipers are behind us, let's move on,'" Curiel said. "We started loading patients (for transport) and 20 minutes later, shots rang out."

The National Guard soldiers told staff to get away from the windows, and evacuations were halted.

MORE: "Worse than Camille" has now become "worse than Iraq":

"This is mass chaos," said Sgt. Jason Defess, 27, a National Guard military policeman who had been stationed on a ramp outside the Superdome since Monday. "To tell you the truth, I'd rather be in Iraq," where he was deployed for 14 months, until January. "You got your constant danger, but I had something to protect myself. [And] three meals a day. Communications. A plan. Here, they had no plan."

4:15 P.M. - (AP)Police say storm victims are being raped and beaten inside the New Orleans Convention Center.

About 15,200 people who had taken shelter at the convention center to await buses grew increasingly hostile.

Police Chief Eddie Compass says he sent in 88 officers to quell the situation at the building, but they were quickly beaten back by an angry mob.

Compass says, "We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten."

He says tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.

And...

NPR reports that "people trying to fix the levee are now getting shot at," according to Dane. An unconfirmed report.

Drudge says that the New York Times will report tomorrow: "There are signs of complete social breakdown, experts and locals say, a descent into a kind of predatory violence... Developing..."

MORE: Rep. Peter King agrees that it's Mogadishu out there.

MORE: Jonah Goldberg concurs. Honestly, I thought and hoped I'd be alone in making the comparison between New Orleans and Mogadishu. Events have mandated it, unfortunately.