Devil in the details

18th July 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund cash advance 10158 W. Lewis
Editor

For what seems like an eternity, community activists, civil rights leaders and residents have been asking the U.S. Department of Justice to expand its probe of the New Orleans Police Department beyond the handful of cases it has agreed to look into.

Rather than sit on the sidelines or ask the Feds to do all of the legwork, Community United for Change organized a series of public meetings over the past year that brought together DOJ officials and residents whose lives have been forever changed by police brutality and unjustified shootings.

While the DOJ has done much more than some residents and leaders expected by holding the NOPD accountable for a number of high-profile cases involving the use of deadly force, many in the African-American community who are familiar with the shortcomings of the NOPD think the DOJ could and should have done much more. By not further expanding its probe of pre- and post-Katrina cases of payday loans in indio ca police misconduct, it almost seems like the Feds are saying without actually saying it that there is only so much that they can do.

Despite being disappointed about the DOJ not looking into more cases involving police brutality and other forms of NOPD misconduct, many are nevertheless grateful for the unprecedented level of federal scrutiny the police department has faced.

But if there was ever a compelling argument to convince the U.S. Department of Justice to reconsider expanding its investigation of the NOPD, it has to be the testimony heard in the cases of Henry Glover and the Danziger Bridge shootings.

In these cases, we have heard blood-chilling eyewitness accounts of NOPD officers who had no qualms about murdering innocent civilians, attacking people who were every bit as traumatized by Hurricane Katrina as they say they were and boldly concealing evidence.

To this day, no one in the police department has stepped forward to tell the family personal loans low income of the late Henry Glover where his skull is and only a miniscule number of the officers involved in either case has shown anything that even vaguely resembles remorse.

The most oft-cited defense for these horrendous crimes against humanity has been the fact that NOPD officers were exhausted, stressed out and afraid in the harrowing days that followed Hurricane Katrina.

None of these excuses explain why they took out their frustration on a mentally disabled 40-year-old man, a 17-year-old mild-mannered kid and a West Bank man who was seeking nothing more than medical assistance after he was wrongfully shot by a trigger-happy cop standing on the roof of a strip mall.

Just as Katrina’s aftermath revealed a city where residents are woefully mired in poverty and have been deprived of educational and economic opportunities for decades, the Glover and Danziger trials have unearthed a police department where many of the NOPD’s leaders and rank-and-file officers saw dollar payday loan nothing wrong with disrespecting, bullying and murdering innocent people if these officers were having a bad day or these people happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The kind of callous brutality and killing that took place in these cases cannot be fully attributed to unfavorable working conditions in post-Katrina New Orleans. These inhumane actions are symptomatic of a department whose culture places very little value on the lives, safety or constitutional rights of people of color and poor people. It’s just that simple.

Given the blatant miscarriage of justice that takes place almost daily on the streets of New Orleans at the hands of those whose sworn duty it is to protect and serve the people of this city, is it any wonder the District Attorney’s Office has had such a difficult time finding jurors in Orleans Parish to sentence anyone to die?

Residents have seen firsthand how far police, prosecutors and judges payday loans fixed income are willing to go to accomplish their goals and gain the favor of chronic voters and campaign contributors.

The U.S. Department of Justice has been thanked profusely by community activists and residents who are grateful for the lengths to which it has already gone to clean up the NOPD but it needs to do more.

There is very little evidence to support the notion that what happened to Raymond Robair, Adolph Grimes III, Henry Glover, Susan Bartholomew, Ronald Madison, James Brissette and others were isolated incidents that sprang up as a result of the hellish conditions brought about by Katrina.

No, these were the result of a police culture that vilifies poor and Black people, a department that has gotten away with bullying, brutalizing and murdering innocent people for so long that it sees nothing wrong with pushing Black people around or treating them like chattel. The cheers and hugs the “Danziger 7” received when they turned themselves maximum personal loan tenure in to authorities several years ago show the appalling level of approval and support these armed criminals can count on from their co-workers and the white community.

Even now, from the comments and actions of members of the NOPD, it is painfully clear that there are still many cops on the force who think they are above the law and have the right to treat people however they damn well please.

One need look no further than the case of Sgt. Sam P. Palumbo Sr., who allegedly told officers in the Mid City Security District to make more stops of civilians or risk losing opportunities for overtime pay. Or the SOD commander who recently resigned after telling subordinates to target young Black men in the French Quarter during the Essence Music Festival.

One of the things that has become painfully clear over the past few months is that some members of the NOPD are so preoccupied easy 24 hour loans with getting extra pay from off-duty details that they have very little time or energy left to focus on fighting crime and making New Orleans a safe place to live.

It is imperative that New Orleans residents and community leaders make it clear to local, state and national elected officials as well as the NOPD and the DOJ that we will not accept being treated as badly today by cops in New Orleans and those we elect to represent our interests as Blacks were treated by violent mobs and domestic terrorists in the Jim Crow South.

The people of New Orleans deserve much better. And make no mistake about it: Those we elect to represent our interests better do their jobs and clean up this mess or there will be hell to pay. All power to the people.

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