New Orleans Polices Charged With Killings After Katrina Tuesday 13 July 2010 by: Jordan Flaherty | ColorLines | Report
(Photo: Dan Iggers / Flickr) As revelations of police violence and corruption shake New Orleans, the city's new mayor, Mitch Landrieu, has signaled the disturbing direction he plans to take, asking the Department of Justice to help restructure the police department while at the same time appointing a new police chief whose daughter lives with a police officer involved in a racist brawl now under federal investigation. The dual announcement came last week in the wake of eight federal criminal investigations into accusations that police brutalized and killed residents in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck the city and in more recent years. Already, four police officers have pled guilty. Now the Justice Department is expected to announce its wider investigation of the New Orleans Police Department. Most likely, this will lead to a restructuring of the police force which could go in one of two ways: a kind of hostile takeover, in which the Justice Department issues mandates, or a friendly partnership, in which the feds play the role of cooperative overseer. By asking publicly for help from the feds, Mayor Landrieu is clearly hoping to get the latter, gentler deal. But what Justice Department officials will find in New Orleans is a systemic problem of corruption that has its roots in pre-Katrina times and that's going to require more than just a new police chief or a restructuring. Part of the city's troubled system includes its elected coroner, the district attorney's office, the U.S. attorney and the city's independent police monitor, whose ability to perform its own investigations have been, according to residents here, severely limited. The Justice Department will also find a slew of other crimes at the hands of police that families and activists say need to be investigated. The current scandal broke with the stories of killings that happened in the days after Hurricane Katrina, when police officers apparently believed they were defending a city under siege and were given tacit permission to use deadly force at their own discretion. Among the most disturbing revelations: On September 2, 2005, four days after Katrina made landfall, Henry Glover was shot by one officer, then apparently taken hostage by other officers who either killed him directly or burned him alive. Also on September 2, Danny Brumfield Sr., a 45 year old man stranded with his family at the New Orleans Convention Center, was deliberately hit by a patrol car, then shot in the back by police in front of scores of witnesses as he tried to wave down the officers and ask for help. On September 4, 2005, a group of police officers drove up to several unarmed civilians at the Danziger Bridge who were fleeing their flooded homes and opened fire. Two people were killed, including a mentally disabled man named Ronald Madison. Madison was shot in the back by officer Robert Faulcon and officer Kenneth Bowen then rushed up and kicked and stomped on him, apparently until he was dead. Police officers then arrested Madison's brother Lance under false pretenses and later had secret meetings where they conspired to invent a cover story, including planting evidence, inventing witnesses and coordinating lies. But the violence wasn't just about a few bad cops. At the time, no one in power neither in New Orleans or in Washington seemed to be interested in looking into the details of who shot who and why. Although seven officers were indicted in 2006 for the Danziger Bridge shooting, the case fell apart in court. For more than three years, these post-Katrina murders were ignored by the city's district attorney, the Republican U.S. General Attorney, and even the local media. Then, in late 2008 ProPublica and The Nation published the results of an 18-month investigation by journalist A.C. Thompson, and soon after the Department of Justice, under new leadership, began its own inquiries. FBI agents reconstructed crime scenes, interviewed witnesses and seized officer's computers. Since then, the disturbing revelations have continued to unfold, as one-by-one officers have been forced by the evidence against them to confess. One of the most chilling findings is that police may have burned a man alive or at least burned his body to cover up the evidence of murdering him. While the stories are shocking and terrible, advocates here say police violence has been endemic. < http://www.truth-out.org/new-orleans-police-charged-with-killings-after-katrina61419> <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6063982> <http://article.wn.com/view/2010/04/14/Corruption_cases_put_New_Orleans_cops_up_against_wall/> The wicked ENDTIME - NOT the RIGHTEOUS! http://Zetaheaven.org:
