Private Mercenaries in Post-Katrina New Orleans
In the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of armed private security contractors flooded New Orleans — arriving faster than federal relief agencies. Leading the charge was Blackwater USA, a company notorious for its controversial work protecting U.S. officials in Iraq, which deployed roughly 150 heavily armed personnel into the city under an eventual federal contract with the Department of Homeland Security.
While Blackwater publicly framed its presence as humanitarian, its personnel on the ground were focused on property protection. They set up a makeshift base in the French Quarter, claimed authority to arrest people and use lethal force, and operated with little accountability. One contractor earned $350 a day and wore a badge labeled “Operation Iraqi Freedom” — treating New Orleans like a foreign combat zone.
Blackwater wasn’t alone. Dozens of private security firms, including an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI), were hired by wealthy residents and business owners to guard luxury properties and gated communities. Israeli ex-military contractors, armed with M-16s, patrolled the gates of Audubon Place — an elite neighborhood — while poor Black residents of areas like the Ninth Ward faced a militarized crackdown framed around fears of “looting.”
A deeply troubling incident illustrated the dangers: one private security chief described opening fire on an overpass toward what he called “black gangbangers,” hearing moans afterward, and facing zero investigation or accountability from either the military or state troopers who arrived on the scene.
Critics like Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights warned that deploying mercenaries — who had acted with impunity in Iraq — onto American streets was both dangerous and potentially illegal, representing a fundamental collapse of government responsibility.
Blackwater’s rapid ascent was fueled by deep Republican Party ties. CEO Erik Prince had donated heavily to GOP campaigns and cultivated relationships with senior political figures, helping secure lucrative government contracts. Observers, including then-Senator Barack Obama, questioned whether this privatization of public safety was an appropriate use of taxpayer money.
The episode exposed a stark racial and economic divide: armed contractors protected million-dollar estates while overwhelmingly poor, Black communities bore the brunt of disaster — and were treated as threats rather than victims.
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