Crimes against humanity

15th August 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

Since the Danziger Bridge trial, I have to admit that I’ve been a little dazed and confused. I have been trying to no avail to understand how a jury who heard testimony from the survivors and witnesses presented by federal prosecutors could still fail to classify what the former officers who killed Ronald Madison and James Brissette Jr. did as murder.

I was so confused, in fact, that I had to surf the Internet last week for clarification about what constitutes murder.

This is how the website Dictionary.com describes murder: “The killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).”

At the very least, it sounds like what the officers involved in the Danziger Bridge shootings did was second-degree murder.

What kind of law enforcement officer opens fire on unarmed civilians without identifying themselves as police officers and continues to shoot as these startled civilians run from them? What kind of human being stands over unarmed civilians and pumps bullets into them without hesitation? What kind of human being stomps and kicks a bleeding man and he lay dying on a bridge?

The fact that so many members of mainstream” society thought that these cops were heroes when they were initially indicted by then-Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan speaks volumes about the racial divide in New Orleans. The fact that there are still people in the Greater New Orleans area who continue to believe that these cops did nothing wrong and should never have been charged for their role in the Danziger Bridge shootings even after hearing testimony from victims and witnesses says even more.

There will never be law and order in New Orleans as long as the criminal justice system allows law enforcement officers to get away with murder, police brutality and violating civilians’ constitutional rights. “No justice, no peace” is more than just a catchy protest slogan.

Given the history of the NOPD, why is it still so hard for a segment of the population to believe that a member of the New Orleans Police Department is capable of committing murder?

Murder is murder whether it occurs during a drug deal gone bad, during an argument at a party or in the aftermath of a natural disaster like a hurricane.

No one should be allowed to get away with murder because he or she is wearing a badge or is having a bad day. Those who try to excuse the cops involved in the Danziger Bridge shootings by pointing out that they were forced to work under nightmarish conditions or that they didn’t abandon their posts like other members of the police department should remember that those facts don’t give them the right to take innocent lives.

Prisons are literally crawling with otherwise decent human beings who took other people’s lives because they were having a bad day or going through a rough patch.

Stress, fear and adversity are a natural part of life, not a reason to lash out violently at others.

Stressed-out people commit murders every day but most of them don’t get a get-out-of-jail-free pass. Civilians who commit the act of murder because they were going through something usually find themselves facing lengthy prison terms, life sentences and yes, the death penalty.

Some of the comments civilians made on local newscasts after the verdict was read are very disturbing. One gentleman said that after the Danziger trial no one is going to want to be a cop in New Orleans. “They work hard every day and stayed behind to keep the city safe and this is the thanks they get,” a woman asked.

Both are missing the point of the Danziger trial and the other federal NOPD probes.

These cops stayed behind to keep the city, its emergency workers and those who were unable to evacuate safe but did they accomplish that goal? Did they protect James Brissette Jr. and Ronald Madison from harm? Did they protect Susan Bartholomew, Lesha Bartholo­mew and Jose Holmes?

The cold, hard facts show that they did exactly the opposite. They rolled up on these innocent civilians like gunslingers from the Old West and started blasting them without figuring out what whey were up against. While hindsight vision is always 20/20, is it really unreasonable to expect cops to assess a situation before they start shooting?

The bottom line is the cops who murdered James Brissette Jr. and Ronald Madison and wounded four others on September 4, 2005 acted as judges, jurors and executioners on the Danziger Bridge.

After they killed these two men and wounded four others, other members of the NOPD backed their play. Without missing a beat, they got right down to the business of covering their tracks and concocting a fictitious account of what happened on that fateful day.

It is mind-boggling that no one in the department felt strongly enough that what they were doing was wrong to come forward and speak out against it. Their fear of going against the “blue wall” was stronger than their sense of decency. These are men and women with husbands, wives and children of their own and are concerned about the well-being of their friends and loved ones. Many of them attend church services regulary and profess their faith in a Higher Power. None of that motivated them to take a stand.

If they were concerned about retaliation from fellow officers or losing their job as a result of speaking out against what happened, they could have given a member of the Justice Department an anonymous tip.

Those who participated in the murders on the Danziger Bridge saw absolutely nothing wrong with murdering unarmed civilians, even if that meant standing over them and shooting them execution-style or stomping and kicking a mentally challenged man as he lay on the ground bleeding to death from gunshot wounds.

The fact that the cops involved in the shootings transitioned so quickly from the shootings to the cover-up suggests that this was not the first time the NOPD has gone to great lengths to cover up an act of excessive force by one of its own. Even in the midst of efforts to overhaul the NOPD and place it under a federal consent decree, that’s troubling.

Don’t get it twisted or confused: This was cold-blooded murder. During the June trial, an EMT worker who administered medical care to Jose Holmes testified that one of the cops involved in the Danziger shootings told him several times to stop working on the teenager. Fortunately, he didn’t and Jose Holmes lived to tell a federal jury and the world what these officers did to him and others on the Danziger Bridge.

He lived to tell Sherrel Johnson what these cops did to her youngest child and Holmes’ good friend, James Brissette Jr.

While it is unfathomable that police officers whose sworn duty it is to protect and serve civilians would shoot to kill unarmed people, it is even more unconceivable that any human being would be able to commit such heinous crimes and make moves immediately afterwards to cover these offenses up. That’s not just criminal, that’s diabolical. How does anyone — whether an officer or not — who believes in the existence of a heaven and hell have the unmitigated gall and temerity to commit these acts, cover them up and frame the survivors of these horrific attacks for crimes they never committed?

The world and the Almighty will be watching when Robert Faulcon, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso, Kenneth Bowen and Arthur Kaufman go back to court to be sentenced for what they took from the families of James Brissette Jr., Ronald Madison, Susan Bartholomew, Jose Holmes and all of the people of New Orleans.

May God have mercy on them and all of the men and women of the New Orleans Police Department who knew about the Danziger Bridge shootings but did or said nothing.

This article was originally published in the August 15, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper