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2000 police report work Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/15/wcops15.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/04/15/ixnewstop.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/15/wcops15.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/04/15/ixnewstop.html
2,000 policemen report for work
By David Blair in Baghdad
(Filed: 15/04/2003)
More than 2,000 Iraqi policemen reported for work in Baghdad yesterday as efforts were made to curb the looting and vandalism.
Following American radio appeals, the officers arrived at the National Police College to register for work.
Later American soldiers made their first joint patrol with Iraqi policemen. Two marine Humvees accompanied five Iraqi police cars through the eastern part of the capital.
Yet this largely symbolic start to a crackdown on lawlessness has made little difference so far. Baghdad normally has 40,000 police and it will be some time before all of the new volunteers are deployed on the streets.
Four of the capital's six general hospitals are closed, plumes of black smoke rise across the city, only a handful of shops are open and looters wheel their gains through the streets with apparent impunity.
Baghdad's five million people still have no electricity or reliable water supplies.
Cars piled high with furniture, typewriters and air conditioning units are common sights. Six young men strode through the al-Thawra area wearing black fencing masks and carrying foils, all pilfered from a gymnasium.
Compared with the looting frenzy that followed the arrival of Americans in Baghdad last Wednesday, the wholesale theft has subsided. Capt Frank Thorp, a central command spokesman, said: "We're beginning to see a downward trend in looting."
This is largely because Baghdad's obvious targets have been plundered to destruction.
The ransacking of two presidential palaces, every government ministry, two five-star hotels, national museum, national library and almost every building associated with Saddam Hussein's regime has satiated the demands of most looters.
But the bands of thieves continue to paralyse the capital. The closure of businesses and shops means that no one can go to work and few can buy food.
Marines have responded by abandoning their armoured vehicles and mounting foot patrols. Two hundred men from 17 Weapons Company were deployed to bring order to the Karrada area.
They sealed off several streets with barricades of bricks, protecting St Raphael's Hospital, a small Christian clinic and a nearby Roman Catholic church. The marines gathered in groups of three or four on street corners, their M16 carbines held at the shoulder.
Shopkeepers felt confident enough to open for business. Ghazi Said, 65, said he had reopened his small supermarket only because three marines were standing within 20 yards of its entrance.
Asked why most of his shelves were still empty, he replied: "I am keeping most of my stock safe at home because I do not know if this stealing will start again."
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