New Orleans Police

[Lonan3]

From The Times 11/10/05

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11...1819745,00.html

 

Scandal enveloped the New Orleans Police Department yesterday after officers punched a 64-year-old man, slammed his head into a wall and then threatened a television crew that filmed the incident.

Three patrolmen were suspended from duty and charged with battery, after Associated Press Television News showed footage of the episode to internal investigators of the NOPD.

The incident, which took place on Saturday night, has brought further embarrassment to a police department that is already struggling for credibility after a series of public disgraces, including the desertion of up to 15 per cent of its officers as the city flooded after Hurricane Katrina.

At least 12 officers are also being investigated over allegations that, as the city descended into chaos after the storm, they joined in the looting of shops and businesses, plundering televisions, jewellery and, in one case, a hospital generator to keep their beer chilled.

Police are also accused of taking cars worth £2.6 million from a local dealership.

 

It almost seems pointless to add that the three officers are white, their victim black.

[SugarBee]

The victim stated that he did not believe that it was a racist attack.

 

He was talking to a black police officer and his conversation with the black officer was interrupted by another officer (race unknown) -- The victim told the officer who interrupted that he was rude to interrupt his conversation with the black officer and told him to apologize for being so manner-less.

 

The victim appeared to be drunk, but was actually not feeling well and may have taken some back pain medication. The officers thought he was intoxicated.

 

I'm not saying that the NOLA police were not absolutely wrong and I believe the officers that participated in the event should be suspended or fired.

 

I just go nuts when I see people eating up the shock news and believing each story as face, when many times the reporting is completely wrong or just sensationalized -- horror sells these days it seems.