First Night in New Orleans

We were told by our contact person that sleeping across the street from his house--in the median of the road--was the place where other volunteers had stayed and that we would be safe sleeping there. No one would mess with us, we were told. Our contact person warned us that if we had any trouble, the only source of that trouble would be the police.
Well, he turned out to be right on the money.

Yes, The Pedalers and I pitched our tents and were ready for some real food [after eating insurmountable amounts of pre-packaged gas station food]... but all we could get was the neighborhood store called "Spider Meats" [which we ended up loving, by the way] and different waves of police officers/military personnel encounters.
After being questioned if we were OK, if we knew what the area was like that we were staying in, and after being told that this "wasn't a good neighborhood," the final squad car rolled up the median where we were set-up on and the officers acted quite harsh to us.
Needless to say our tents eventually--eventually but quickly--came down from the median and we would spend the majority of the rest of our nights in our contact's dilapidated house.
PS--the neighborhood did not have a good reputation but that was mainly told to us by seemingly rich people who would drive through in their polished SUVs... people who obviously had already pre-judged the community members of the area in which we were staying. What a shame for them, though, because it was those neighborhood members who treated us the best, advocated for us, and supplied us with things that they most likely needed themselves.
Wow, now that is caring for your neighbor. Maybe those people in the SUVs should stay in that Saint Bernard community for a while and humble themselves.