Surprise, Surprise

27th April 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
The Louisiana Weekly Editor

On Wednesday, April 13, an attorney representing one of two New Orleans policemen charged in the July 2005 death of Tremé handyman Randy Robair said he was “surprised, shocked and disappointed” by the guilty verdict handed down by a jury after nearly 15 hours of deliberation.

Attorney Eric Hessler must have needed a moment to compose himself after the shock to the system he and his client, rookie NOPD Officer Matthew Dean Moore, received by the guilty verdict.

Moore was found guilty of falsifying a police report about the pre-Katrina death after his partner, Officer Melvin Williams allegedly mercilessly beat and kicked the victim until his spleen was ruptured. Robair was then dropped off at Charity Hospital like the injuries he sustained were no big deal.

Justice Department attorney Forrest Christian hinted at why Williams and his attorney, Frank DeSalvo, might have been caught off guard by Wednesday’s verdict. “Williams believed he had the power to beat a man in broad daylight, in front of multiple witnesses and get away with it,” Christian told jurors during closing arguments Monday. “You know that Melvin Williams is not above the law.”

“I believe the police department has been so maligned over the last few years that it is probably impossible for a policeman to get a fair trial in this city,” Frank DeSalvo said outside the courthouse Wednesday.

The fact that anyone could be surprised and shocked by what sounds like an open-and-shut case involving cops who overstepped their authority as law enforcement officers is more telling than the verdict itself.

For decades, the Justice Department as well as local, state and national elected officials have said and done very little as New Orleans cops have gotten away with cold-blooded murder. It has to be a jolting wake-up call for those who see nothing wrong with the way police have been doing their jobs for as long as anyone can remember to one day see someone step up to the plate to hold them accountable.

There are apparently some people in the community who think police can do no wrong. But contrary to what they believe and profess, sometimes cops are found guilty of committing murder and other unspeakable crimes because they are actually guilty.

Despite what they have seen and experienced, there are still Black people in this city who can listen intelligently and fairly to testimony in cases involving cops accused of breaking the law and judge them accordingly. It is infuriating and insulting for anyone to suggest in this day and age that Black people are incapable of sitting on juries in cop trials and judge these defendants based on the merits of these cases.

Most residents of this city know that there are many decent, hard-working cops in the New Orleans Police Department, But they also know that there is also a criminal element in the department that has no regard for the law or for the rights of New Orleans residents to be treated with respect and dignity.

The recently released Department of Justice probe gives many members of the community hope that they will see more good cops on the streets of New Orleans and fewer bad asses trampling upon their rights. But as Community United for Change and other groups fighting for justice remind us, these changes are not going to happen overnight and they are not going to happen without the active participation and input of everyday people in the community who are willing to whatever is necessary to bring change to the New Orleans Police Department.

The reforms coming to the New Orleans Police Department unfortunately will come too late to save the lives of Henry Glover, Raymond Robair, Ronald Madison, James Brissette, Adolph Grimes III, Joe Williams, Kim Groves, Steven Hawkins and all the others who have lost their lives at the hands of trigger-happy, rogue cops. But maybe, just maybe, if residents commit to continuing to organize and struggle to ensure that the Justice Department follows through on its commitment to monitor, oversee and reform the NOPD, New Orleans residents will one day have a police department that protects and serves all of the residents of New Orleans, an agency that Black men, women and children can trust and respect.

Maybe, just maybe, the men and women in blue will one day intervene when they see a Black college student like Levon Jones being held in a chokehold or suffocating to death outside a French Quarter nightclub. Maybe they will learn to control themselves and not viciously attack a retired teacher for daring to venture out of his French Quarter hotel room after dark to buy a pack of cigarettes. Perhaps they might even learn to respect cultural treasures like the Black Mardi Gras Indians and stop preying on women in the community. Until that day arrives, we’ll just insist that they do their jobs and abide by the laws they have been sworn to protect and enforce.

We can always hope and dream, right?

In the meantime, I have a message for cops and lawyers who are upset by the Justice Department stepping in and providing New Orleans residents with equal protection under the law, one of their constitutional rights as tax-paying citizens of the United States of America: Get used to it.

This story originally published in the April 18, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.