Socialist EMTs No Heroes

The Socialist Workers Party is touting big-time a first person narrative called The real heroes and sheroes [please!] of New Orleans, which their publication, Socialist Worker, says "shot around the Internet, electrifying everyone who read it." It's by a couple people stuck in New Orleans for the better part of a week after Katrina, and it's full of anti-establishment stuff like this:

As we approached the bridge, armed sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions.

... along with some actually very nice credit to the blue-collar heroes, like this:

Most of these workers had lost their homes and had not heard from members of their families. Yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20 percent of New Orleans that was not under water.

But there's something terrible wrong with this article, which my friend Neil pointed out to me. It's easy to miss, because it's in the author intro, and I jumped right past it into the narrative. Here it is:

LARRY BRADSHAW and LORRIE BETH SLONSKY are emergency medical services (EMS) workers from San Francisco and contributors to Socialist Worker. They were attending an EMS conference in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. They spent most of the next week trapped by the flooding--and the martial law cordon around the city. Here, they tell their story.

Larry and Lorrie spent the whole time trying to get out of the city and criticizing any law enforcement element. But they were EMTs! Why weren't they volunterring and helping the poor downtrodden they allegedly care so much about?