NOPD, JPSO at odds as DOJ probes Feb. 8 shooting
21st March 2016 · 0 Comments
An officer-involved shooting that began as a car chase on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish and ended on the East Bank of Orleans Parish has led to a war of words between officials in the New Orleans Police Department and those who support the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in the wake of the deadly shooting that claimed the life of 22-year-old Eric Harris and spawned a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.
Nola.com reported that NOPD Public Integrity Bureau chief Arlinda Westbrook angered law enforcement officials when she told members of the Harris family on March 8 that NOPD officers “would have been arrested on the spot” if they — and not JPSO deputies — had been responsible for the shots that claimed the life of Eric Harris.
Westbrook made the controversial comments at a community forum exactly a month after the Feb. 8 shooting of Eric Harris in Central City.
Her remarks incensed Donovan Liccari, president of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, who the following day called her comments “reckless, inflammatory and unnecessary” and said should resign.
“Failing that, Superintendent Harrison should insist that she resign,” Livaccari said in a prepared statement.
NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison responded later that day by defending Westbrook, who he said “misspoke” and would not be disciplined for her remarks.
“She has demonstrated to me, for years, that unlike what the FOP claims, she has a very competent knowledge of probable cause, due process and color of law,” Harrison said in a statement. “She clearly misspoke, and she’s acknowledged that, “I think what (the FOP) is calling for is an overreach, because it really is an overreaction.”
In an earlier statement on March 9, NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble said Westbook “incorrectly stated that an NOPD officer would have been arrested on the spot. In officer-involved shootings, arrest and prosecutorial decisions are made by the (Orleans Parish) District Attorney or U.S. Attorney.”
Nola.com reported that Orleans Parish D.A. Leon Cannizzaro also issued a statement on March 9 that said the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office has been “in contact” with DOJ officials and local law enforcement agencies investigating the Harris shooting.
“Upon conclusion of the federal investigation, the district attorney’s office will review all of the reports and evidence gathered by the investigating agencies,” Cannizzaro said in the statement. “To date, we have not yet received any reports.”
Supt. Harrison said that the probe of the Feb. 8 shooting by the FBI’s Civil Rights Division and the NOPD’s PIB Force Investigation Team is ongoing.
“When all the facts come in — and we don’t know how long that will be, but we would ask that they be thorough — we’re going to present that to the district attorney and U.S. attorneys,” Harrison said. “It’s really unclear how long that will take.
Kenneth Bonura and Henry DeJean, the two JPSO deputies involved in the shooting, have reportedly not been suspended or reassigned during the investigation. According to a JPSO report, the deputies chased Eric Harris from the Oakwood Shopping Center in Terrytown after a report that Harris brandished a handgun. The chase ended near the intersection of Simon Bolivar and Philip Street in New Orleans when Harris crashed into a utility pole, JP Sheriff Newell Normand reportedly said.
Some of the rank-and-file officers were reportedly upset by Westbrook’s remarks about the shooting incident and wondered how the Public Integrity Bureau’s investigation of use-of-force incidents would be shaped by the political climate.
“That’s a legitimate question, and probably a legitimate concern for the rank-and-file,” Harrison told Nola.com. “But I would ask them to consider the history. We have never arrested an officer ‘on the spot’ in the performance of duty. When an officer steps out of the performance of duty and commits a crime, that’s different. But in the performance of duty and under color of law, there’s due process. We’ve always given officers due process.”
Some wondered whether Westbrook’s remarks might make law enforcement agencies from surrounding parishes think twice about aiding the undermanned NOPD in New Orleans.
Harrison told Nola.com that the spent a considerable part of the morning after Westbrook’s remarks assuring the sheriffs from St. Tammany, St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes that the PIB chief had in fact “misspoke.”
“They were very understanding and said they would transmit that message through their departments,” Harrison told Nola.com. “If their deputies are acting under color of law, there’s going to be due process.
“They should follow their training and follow the law,” Harrison continued. “If they have to pursue someone into the city, and if there is a use-of-force incident that leads to a shooting and a death, there’s going to be an investigation. But there will be due process, and nobody is going to be ‘arrested on the spot.’”
Harrison also explained why he didn’t think disciplinary action needed to be taken against Westbrook’s remarks.
“I didn’t see this as a ‘neglect of duty’ or ‘performance of duty’ (issue),” he said. “She understands the mistake she made. She misspoke. I didn’t see it as a disciplinary issue, but rather as an opportunity to train and to talk about it. I have more opportunities to speak publicly, and have more practice at it.”
“I don’t think she misspoke,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, a community activist and president of National Action Now, told The Louisiana Weekly Wednesday. “I really think she told the truth. All of the law enforcement agencies in the U.S. have gotten away with killing Black and Brown people when that level of force wasn’t necessary to resolve a situation. The NOPD has come under some fire and scrutiny since the Danziger Bridge, Henry Glover, Wendell Allen, Adolph Grimes III and Justin Sipp shootings, so it is being watched more closely than the law enforcement agencies in surrounding parishes.”
“There seems to be a different mindset in many of the people who live in surrounding parishes, so why should the attitudes of law enforcement officers be any different?” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans businessman and former congressional candidate, told The Louisiana Weekly. “That’s why it’s so dangerous to have law enforcement agencies from surrounding parishes and the Louisiana State Police helping out during the NOPD manpower shortage. Many of these law enforcement agencies and officers are used to getting away with treating Black and poor people in a way that the NOPD can no longer always get away with while under the federal consent decree.
“When things go wrong and someone’s constitutional rights are violated — as happened in the case of the two teenagers in the French Quarter, Sidney Newman and Ferdinand Hunt, a few years ago —the NOPD and City of New Orleans say ‘It wasn’t us’ and ultimately no individual or law enforcement agency is held accountable.
“It’s also the reason why it was a bad idea to relax the city’s residency rule to make it possible for the NOPD to recruit and hire more officers who live outside of Orleans Parish. These officers are coming to work in a community they view as a ‘jungle’ and come into contact with people in economically depressed communities who have no reason to trust or respect the police. That’s a recipe for disaster and something that needs to be addressed within the framework of criminal justice reform.”
This article originally published in the March 21, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
