Black Man Beaten by White New Orleans Police Officers

[RainyDay]

What is missing from this story is that a federal civil rights investigation has been started about this case. Oh, I know. It isn't racial. They never used the n-word. The incident was taken out of context. We don't know what happened before the tape started to roll. I think I've covered all the proper apologists' typical excuses.

Fortunately, a white AP producer was roughed up by these ball scratching morons so it legitimizes what happened to the black guy. Otherwise, he'd just be another lying black person starting trouble. There was also something on the radio yesterday about steroid use among cops. Racist 'roid rage. That outght to keep black people off the streets.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../ixportal.html
New Orleans police beat up black man
By Harry Mount
(Filed: 11/10/2005)

The tarnished reputation of the New Orleans police has been sullied still further by film of a group of white officers beating an elderly black man to a bloody pulp.

Three officers were suspended, arrested and charged with simple battery after the incident, recorded on the city's famous Bourbon Street over the weekend.

"We have great concern with what we saw," said Captain Marlon Defillo, a force spokesman, after watching the tape. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it."

A mounted policeman tried to use his horse to screen the assault from the cameras. But he failed, ensuring that the sight of a policeman punching Robert Davis, 64, in the face and bouncing his head against a wall was seen worldwide.

Mr Davis tried to turn away but was wrestled to the ground where another policeman punched him twice more in the face.

Mr Davis was handcuffed on the ground, blood pouring down his arm into the gutter of the city's elegant French Quarter.

Another officer ordered the Associated Press Television News crew to stop filming, jabbing him in the stomach and pressing him on to a car bonnet.

The officer, S M Smith, then swore at the producer, shouting: "I've been here for six weeks trying to keep ******* alive. ******* go home."

Mr Davis was later arrested and charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation.

Capt Defillo, who is black, argued that race was not an issue in the melee.

But the spectacle of an elderly black man being set upon by white officers will not help racial harmony in a city whose majority black population mostly lives in poverty.

The incident evokes worrying memories of the 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police.

When, a year later, three of the four LAPD officers were acquitted of assault, Los Angeles erupted in riots, in which 58 people were killed and 12,000 arrested.

The New Orleans force was plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption long before Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the city last month.

Despite more than a decade of efforts at reform the New Orleans murder rate has soared while that in other cities dropped dramatically.

The police department is also understaffed. Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans had 3.14 officers per 1,000 residents, less than half the rate in Washington, DC.

The New Orleans police chief, Eddie Compass, resigned last month in what was seen as a tacit acknowledgement of his force's failings in Katrina's wake. Mr Compass added to the post-hurricane chaos by publicly repeating allegations that people were being beaten and babies raped at the New Orleans Convention Centre, allegations that have since proved largely unsubstantiated. Of the 1,700-strong New Orleans police force, 250 are said to have deserted immediately after the hurricane, and some officers were accused of joining in the looting that broke out.

Last week, state authorities announced that they were investigating allegations that New Orleans police broke into a car dealership and made off with nearly 200 cars, including 41 new Cadillacs, as the storm closed in.

The latest incident does not reflect well on the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, who appointed Mr Compass three years ago and called him "a hero" after his resignation.

"He leaves the department in pretty good shape and with a significant amount of leadership," Mr Nagin said when the police chief stepped down.

[Gentle Giant]

While I in no way excuse, tolerate, or forgive the actions of the officers, what also seems missing is the need for extensive counseling for people involved in rescue, public safety, and related functions in times and instances of catastrophe. Fire, police, ambulance, medical personnel, anyone involved in the stressful, dangerous, and ghastly work of dealing with the aftermath of a large-scale tragedy needs a lot of help before they get back to their daily tasks. Especially if their job permits them to carry guns and nightsticks.

[moneyp]

I saw the footage of this last night. Godawful. The actions of a significant portion of the NOPD during and after Katrina have been an embarrassment. That department needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible.

[rollhead]

Cops see bad stuff all the time. It comes with the territory. One of those cops could have restrained a 64-year-old drunk man without delivering the beating to him that he got.

When I was a 6-foot, 175 pound high school athlete and backyard boxer, my father -- a 20-year-police veteran in his 50s -- could restrain and have me on my knees in about 30 seconds.

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by rollhead

Cops see bad stuff all the time. It comes with the territory. One of those cops could have restrained a 64-year-old drunk man without delivering the beating to him that he got.

apparently the beaten man has not had a drink in 25 years!

[sonic1]

Originally Posted by mone peterson

I saw the footage of this last night. Godawful. The actions of a significant portion of the NOPD during and after Katrina have been an embarrassment. That department needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible.

I don't really have any reason to believe the N.O. police are any worse than any other police department in this country. The only difference is that N.O. was tested by a catastrophic event, which exposed problems in governing institutions local and federal like cockroaches.

I bet you can take any major city in this country and have the same experience. This shit happens everywhere.

[tippy]

My understanding is that NOPD is notoriously corrupt. It could be that such an incident is business as usual (culture, rather than the effects of recent stress) but they happen to be in the spotlight now. Do you think that people who really cared about their role as protectors of the peace would retire in the numbers they have at this point in time? One perspective is that the horror was so great, but maybe it is more complicated than that and has to do with the feeling of not having signed up for legitimate duties of a police officer.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by RainyDay

A mounted policeman tried to use his horse to screen the assault from the cameras. But he failed, ensuring that the sight of a policeman punching Robert Davis, 64, in the face and bouncing his head against a wall was seen worldwide.

That pretty much sums up the case against the cops right there.

[JamesH]

The 64 year old and 25 years sober black man and his lawyer are trying very hard not to talk about race. This goes to show how far the demonization of anyone who talks about race has gone in this country.

Given the history of this country a helpless old black man being brutalized by 3 young white cops has everything to do with racism. Even if the cops were too stupid to realize it.

[Monte Smith]

I haven't seen the tape in question (been busy catching up from my vacation). And while my default position has always been to give cops the benefit of the doubt if possible (multiple notable exceptions leap to mind, i.e. Abner Louima in NYC), I have never heard a good thing said about New Orleans law enforcement. That's a generalization, but a fact.

[john williams]

So what if the guy had had a drink; he hadn't though. The cops have no excuse for this at all. There would never be enough rope to hang all the corrupt/bored/power hungry pigs on the planet.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by JBW

So what if the guy had had a drink; he hadn't though.

There is no way for you or I, sitting here, to know that. Any position we take on his BAC is vanity. However, you are right. In a perfect world, being drunk doesn't get you punched by cops.

Originally Posted by JBW

There would never be enough rope to hang all the corrupt/bored/power hungry pigs on the planet.

Sure there would, if we all pulled together and really tried. But count me out. You know, cause it sounds kind of radical and extreme. And also its terrible to call anyone a pig.

[john williams]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

And also its terrible to call anyone a pig.

Yeah I know, I'm terrible, though one could argue that it's an insult to the pig.

[shrugs]

The NOPD have quite a number of crooked cops in their numbers. Just look at how they comandeered all those Cadillacs from the Sewell dealership during the storm aftermath. We still haven't heard a straight story from the department.
And why the fuck did they have to take the nicest vehicles? Sewell also sells Chevrolets. But they take Escalades.................

[Noj]

The thing that stands out to me is the old man's age, 64. He can't have been that difficult to subdue. Anything more than a single wallop into a wrestling-like maneuver for submission with handcuffs is officially kicking Grandpa's ass. Even if he's tough or drunk, anyone scoring multiple shots on someone's face is winning the fight handily. Abuse, period.

I haven't seen the footage.

[John P. Cooper]

Originally Posted by Valerie

apparently the beaten man has not had a drink in 25 years!

Ahhh....drunks always have their lies. Right, just happens to be a 'cool' number like 25. Couldn't be 17. Or 23.

Nevertheless.....those 4 cops sure look like they are overdoing it. And the 5th cop...the fat gut cop named Smith......he simply bites.

And I thought I rwad the cops were not all white....a couple of them were Latino, I think I read or heard on the radio.

*New report on KFI radio....oh, well..doesn't matter....the truth will out.

[shrugs]

Lance Schilling, Robert Evangelist, and S.M. Smith


latino? From this picture, it's obvious they are all white.

what station was reporting that? In fact, I RARELY see latino cops in New Orleans. I can't even remember seeing ONE. Not that there aren't any, but where are they if they are out there?

And to report that a few of the cops were latino and not white is the dangerous bullshitting that is so common today. Unlike the possibility of lying that you haven't had a drink in 25 years.

[Finger Poppin']

What a racist thread. Rainy Day, whomever you are, you're fucked up!

[claude]

Originally Posted by Finger Poppin'

What a racist thread. Rainy Day, whomever you are, you're fucked up!

Huh? Please explain.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

And also its terrible to call anyone a pig.

Oh, god, Monte. It is all right for you Republicans to treat people like pigs -- Abu Ghraib, Git-mo, Ninth Ward Blacks, the poor in general, trashing the environment, sending kids to die in a oil war, and the destruction of any effort at widespread economic opportunity, etc., etc. -- as long as you don't CALL anyone a pig.

Call it selective application of the Golden Rule -- or Agreeing with 3 out of seven of the Deadly Sins.

You agree that Anger is a bad thing, so you shouldn't call someone a pig.

You agree that Lust is a bad thing, so the president shouldn't get a blow job.

You agree that Sloth is a bad thing (at least among the working class, among the privileged class it is expected), so you rightwingers have an excuse to send U.S. jobs overseas.

But Greed and Gluttony and Pride (in the sense that the rich deserve to be rich) and Envy (Greed and Envy seem to go hand in hand) are all good.

I would call it hypocritical, but I would doubt that you would get it

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Finger Poppin'

What a racist thread. Rainy Day, whomever you are, you're fucked up!

Scott's back.

[Monte Smith]

I prefer the term "the Fuzz."

[rollhead]

I forgot about this: Chris Rock's How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked by Police, an educational video

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2458063?htv=12