Feds asked to step in on latest NOPD offense

18th July 2011   ·   1 Comment

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

The New Orleans Branch of the NAACP reached out to the Obama administration last week after learning of another incident it says offers more proof that the New Orleans Police Department is not interested in cleaning up its act or its image. After receiving a copy of an email dated June 28 that is attributed to NOPD supervisor Sam P. Palumbo Sr. in which he threatens to take away overtime pay for officers in the Mid City Security District, New Orleans NAACP branch president Danatus King, decided it was time to write the nation’s chief executive to seek federal assistance in addressing the department’s misconduct and ongoing problems.

King said Friday that the NOPD supervisor’s email sends the wrong message to cops on the street and encourages them to stop random civilians on the street without probable cause. “That email states that less than 15 percent of the stops made in the MCSD resulted in the issuance of a citation,” King said in a press release. “That is proof in itself that too many stops are already being made. The email does not discuss the legal requirement that before an officer can stop someone, the officer must have at least a reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred, is occurring or is about to occur.”

The New Orleans branch of the NAACP is demanding copies of the Field Investigation Cards (FIC) for the Mid City Security District from January 1, 2011 to July 15, 2011.

On Friday, the NAACP denounced what it called the city’s defense of Palumbo’s email, which it first learned of after a reporter from WDSU-TV forwarded it to Danatus King. “That defense stated, in part, that Sgt. Palumbo should give ‘residents their money’s worth,’” King said in a July 15 press release. “The city’s response failed to state that giving them ‘their money’s worth’ does not allow the NOPD to violate the United States Constitution by stopping people and harassing them without a reasonable suspicion of a crime.

“It is shocking and unconscionable that the city could issue such a defense when the U.S. Department of Justice has only recently released an investigation report excoriating the NOPD for illegal and unjustified stops of citizens.”

The NAACP has also requested copies of time sheets for the officers who work in the MCSD and their regular time sheets. It is also seeking copies of the time sheets of officers who were involved in the recent traffic camera scandal and Newman detail scandal where it was alleged that officers were “double-dipping,” getting paid for working details while still being paid for working their regular NOPD shifts.

“These matters have been swept under the rug,” King said. “No more has been said about these scandals.”

“I’m very concerned,” King told The Louisiana Weekly when asked how disturbed he was by the fact that NOPD misconduct is still being reported three months after the Department of Justice report that outlined system problems and corruption in the NOPD. “I’m even more concerned by the response after we made a complaint about it. The response was ‘That’s fine, they’re not doing anything wrong.’ That’s even more disturbing.

“We’re in the middle of the Danziger trial where police have killed innocent civilians, shot a civilian’s arm off, planted guns, lied and covered it up,” King continued. “We just came off the Glover trial and the Department of Justice just released an investigative report highlighting the illegal activities of the NOPD, particularly of officers targeting African-American males and the illegal stops… With all of that, this officer feels free enough that he can send that email out and say, ‘If anybody has problems with it, call me’ and have the force back him up. That is very disturbing. Because they felt bold enough to issue that statement and challenge anyone to question it and then be defended by the force once it was challenged, we felt we had to go all the way to the top. We had to go to President Obama. This is an affront to the people of New Orleans and also a slap in the face to the federal government. The DOJ is still in town and they’re bold enough to do the same thing that the DOJ already complained about.”

King told The Louisiana Weekly that the post-Katrina stress that New Orleans residents are still under and a host of other challenges associated with inadequate health care, a lack of jobs and not enough affordable housing provide a volatile environment in which illegal police stops could lead to an explosive situation, particularly among younger New Orleans residents.

“There are so many of us out there right now that, when they get stopped by that police officer and they know they haven’t done anything wrong, they’re going to snap,” he told The Louisiana Weekly. “The more this goes on, the more likely it is that we’re going to see people just snapping. …The more this pressure builds up, the worse it’s going to get.”

Asked if U.S. Attorney Jim Letten has done enough to address NOPD misconduct since the release of the DOJ report, King told The Louisi-ana Weekly, “He hasn’t addressed the issue. And with all of the issues that have come up, we haven’t heard anything out of him. We haven’t heard anything out of his office about the traffic camera scandals and the paid details scandal.

“The movement that occurred in the Danziger and Glover cases — that movement came out of Washington, D.C. It didn’t come out of New Orleans.”

“Even though the DOJ is currently attempting to craft a consent decree to end the abuse by the NOPD, the abuse continues,” Danatus King wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama dated July 14, 2011. “Also enclosed herewith is an email detailing a threat by an NOPD supervisor to his officers telling the officers that if they don’t increase “stops,” they will be punished. The directive does not mention the requisite reasonable suspicion of the commission of a crime or intent to commit a crime as the basis for increased stops. It only demands an increase in stops. As you are aware, that is a violation of the United States Constitution.”

King tells the president that the email from Palumbo “references 48 stops within a 48-hour period in only one neighborhood of our city that is not known as a high-crime area. Seventeen of those stops were vehicular stops and 31 were pedestrian stops.

“Out of those 48 stops, only seven resulted in citations” King continued. “That is less than 15 percent. Notwithstanding the fact that less than 15 percent of the stops resulted in citations, the supervisor is demanding more stops. Please note that 31 of those stops were pedestrian stops. There has been no justification presented for 31 stops of pedestrians during a 48-hour period of time in a relatively low-crime area of New Orleans.

“The citizens of New Orleans are becoming increasingly frustrated and upset about the continued abuse by the NOPD,” King adds. “Please bring the resources of our federal government to bear now to save us. We cannot wait until a consent decree is confected. Please help us now.”

The Louisiana Weekly sent emails to New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Office of Commu­nications and Congressman Cedric Richmond’s Press Office seeking comment, but did not receive responses before the publication went to press Friday.

This article was originally published in the July 18, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper