New Orleans Police Beating Caught on Tape

[DoYouEverWonder]

Oct 9, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - Two New Orleans police officers repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another city officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations.

There will be a criminal investigation, and the three officers were to be suspended, arrested and charged with simple battery Sunday, Capt. Marlon Defillo said.

"We have great concern with what we saw this morning," Defillo said after he and about a dozen other high-ranking police department officials watched the APTN footage Sunday. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it. ... This department will take immediate action."

The assaults come as the department, long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption, struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051009/ap_on_re_us/new_orleans_taped_beating;_ylt=A9FJqaCZdklDKi8AtQes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--


Well at least poor guy has the incident on video. It didn't happen unless you're lucky enough to get pictures when it does.

[AX10]

1. Or will the police use intimidation to get hold of the tape.

I know the FOP thinks that police should be able to do whatever they want to. :puke:

That's not America. I wish this man well. If he'd been tasered, he would have had a strong chance of dying.

[Tomee450]

2. The New Orleans police

department has had a bad reputation for years. Former police chief Pennington tried to clean it up but even he admits he was not entirely successful. There are still bad cops on the force.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Police Brutality is not isolated to just one city

Every major police department in the US has had problems with police brutality for decades. Unfortunately without pictures or video, police brutality is almost impossible to prove.

[Tomee450]

4. I am aware that

most major police departments have officers who are brutal and it's usually minorities who are the victims. However, as a black person, I am especially troubled when black cops engage in such behavior. One would think that a black officer would not want to mete out the same kind of harsh treatment towards members of his own community or for that matter, anyone else. The New Orleans police department, a majority black force, has been brutal for years. It was a black officer who hired a killer to murder a black,female witness who was going to testify against the cop. He was involved in drug running and was seen beating a citizen. I believe he is now sitting on death row. For some reason, it's been difficult to clean up the New Orleans police dept.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Bad cops come in all shapes and colors

but it does especially suck when it's your own kind that does this to you.

Funny thing, I am one of the few middle class whities that knows about police brutality first hand. Fortunately, we had pictures.

[supernova]

6. I think that was the subject of a "City Confidential"

program on A&E a few years ago. Or something very similar. It was the first time I'd ever watched that show. Twisted.

NO has been corrupt for a long time. I don't know what it will take to clean it up. In that environment, it's not surprising so many people left their posts. I'm not trying to generalize or excuse it; it just seems to be such a huge, long-standing problem no one knows how to deal with. :-(

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Bad police who engage in this behavior

must be appropriately punished and removed from the police force.

If the leadership of these departments and the local governments decide that this behavior will not be tolerated, then you can start to clean things up.

[supernova]

16. Well, you're right, but in many places, including NO

there seems to be a lack of will to deal with it.

Here's hoping Katrina changed some attitudes. :hug: Everyone deserves equal justice and a safe environment.

[pitohui]

14. len davis

sheesh, ordered her death by phone & wonders why it was recorded, now he is appealing his sentence basically on the grounds that if the FBI had stepped in and stopped the hired killer from killing the lady after listening to his call, instead of allowing the man he hired to kill the lady, then he would not be facing the death penalty because the lady would not be dead and it would only be a conspiracy case

something like that

i dunno, i don't think you can fairly claim "FBI is incompetent so i should be let off" for murder but what do i know

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

45. It's been on TV. White cops beating the crap out of an old black guy.

Mounted officer deliberately moving to block camera, but he got the shot. Cops subsequently lunge at and threaten the news people.

[Hotep]

41. Anther reason that Americans should cherish the right to bear arms

to defend themselves.

[DoYouEverWonder]

42. LOL

Oh yeah, that will work. Try pulling a gun on a bunch of pissed off cops and see how fast you end up dead.

[goddess40]

46. you're joking right?

[Megahurtz]

44. And you are absolutely correct.

Sadly...:(

[bhuddaboy]

8. Pick Anybody

Around ten years ago my brother was in the Big Easy on business and one of his co-workers was mugged and had her purse stolen. The N.O. police took her around in a cruiser and prompted her to finger the first black man she saw as the person who ripped her off. "He may not be guilty of taking your purse," they told her, "but it's just a matter of time before he steals one from someone else. Just pick the first one you see."

She wouldn't accuse an innocent man and they were pretty angry with her. Apparently she reported the theft to some of those bad cops.

[pitohui]

15. that wasn't new orleans, that was kenner, louisiana

double check w. yr brother

i bet you are going to find out this actually occurred in jefferson parish, louisiana

something v. damn similar happened to me...and it was NOT nopd

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Jefferson Parish is also home of the Gretna Police

who wouldn't let the people stranded at the Superdome to cross over Cresent City Bridge.

Nice gang of thugs that they have over there.

[markus]

20. When my girlfriend was mugged at our door in Treme one night

they promptly rounded up what I think was everybody in the neighborhood and lined them up on the 1300 block of Esplanade in front of the house.

I had been around back putting up my motor bike, and chase the guy back toward Elysian Fields into the hood. (We'd lived there long enough that, tho' I'm as white as a slice of Bunny Bread, I didn't give it a second thought. Hell, people were nice enough the times I went back there looking for the cats).

None of these were even close to the guy. Hell, I gave them a good height (having run past things the guy had passed) and a clothing description, and they just rounded a bunch of suspeciously black guys up. (It's not hard to get a pretty large crowd of suspiciously black and idle in Treme)

They were pissed when we pointed out that rounding up my neighbors when they had a description of the guy was pretty fucking bone headed. I think if we'd called the police again, we would have died waiting. But at least the folk where I lived knew I wasn't going to just pick somebody.

I always felt a little safer walking home down the DMZ (aka known as the beaten path down the middle of the neutral ground ) after that.

[kostya]

28. Probably a lot of cops on the beat not known for being particularly

bright. :)

BTW, what is "bunny bread"? :)

[markus]

29. Think "Wonder Bread"

I don't know that cops are any more or less bright than any other set of guys of a certain education and inclination.

Being an urban cop must involve a high risk of early burnout, and the feeling that at least one of the guys they're drug up in front of me was probably guilty of something at one time or another.

I don't know the solution of burned out or inept or violent policing, but there must be same approach that produces cooperation in all communities.

Beating the hell out of people is not one of those approaches.

[pitohui]

31. what is bunny bread, you ask

think it might be awhile before it's in production again

[Twist_U_Up]

9. New Orleans Police Beating Caught on Tape

NEW ORLEANS - Two New Orleans police officers repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another city officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations.


There will be a criminal investigation, and the three officers were to be suspended, arrested and charged with simple battery Sunday, Capt. Marlon Defillo said.

"We have great concern with what we saw this morning," Defillo said after he and about a dozen other high-ranking police department officials watched the APTN footage Sunday. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it. ... This department will take immediate action."

The assaults come as the department, long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption, struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass.

more here
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051009/ap_on_re_us/new_orleans_taped_beating

[StrafingMoose]

10. See??

Bush says: "See?? The police is no good, bring in the Army instead!"

:sarcasm:

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Except the Army is worse

especially if they're fresh off a tour of Iraq.

[StrafingMoose]

12. I think that's the least of concerns to Bush anyways

:P

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cloudythescribbler]

18. not genocide for profit, not world domination by coercion and other goals

Those are the goals of the warmongers who rule the world.

But I agree that anything WORTH DOING peace can do better LOL.

[Ksec]

19. Saw it on CNN

This is gonna be big.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. So we are about to see how far the thin blue line will go?

[Scurrilous]

22. New Orleans Cops Charged in Taped Beating

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051010/ap_on_re_us/new_orleans_taped_beating;_ylt=AoS4w_s.aquHXKRF0_iPX6es0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

<snip>

"Three New Orleans police officers are facing battery charges after investigators reviewed a videotape showing two patrolmen repeatedly punching a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication and a third officer assaulting an Associated Press Television News producer who helped capture the arrest on tape.

After being questioned and arrested, the three officers were suspended without pay Sunday, police spokesman Marlon Defillo said. The police promised a criminal investigation.

"It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it," Defillo said."

<snip>

"The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the suspect, Robert Davis, at least four times in the head Saturday night outside a French Quarter bar. Davis appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers.

Another of the officers then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter."

<snip>

"Davis, who is black, was subdued at the intersection of Conti and Bourbon streets. Three of the officers appeared to be white, and the other is light skinned. The officer who hit Matthews is white. Defillo said race was not an issue."

[Maine-ah]

23. just caught it on cnn while reading your post.

pretty fucking pathetic. Cop moves horse infront of AP's camera to block view, but they managed to get plenty in regardless. It looked like the man wasn't even resisting arrest, and they beat the crap out of him. Final pic's of the man on the ground in a pool of blood, with head injuries. WTF?!

[oneinok]

24. How old was this guy?

How many cops does it take to beat up an old guy who is drunk?

[Maine-ah]

26. he is in his 60's, something like 63 I think. Maybe 65.

[Bethany Rockafella]

25. I just saw this video.

This makes me very angry. I believe those cops let all their anger and frustration out on this guy. I don't care if these cops have been through a lot the past couple of months, you don't blow up on a suspect like that. I hope they lose their jobs and get taken to court.

[Maine-ah]

27. then they proceded to assault the camera man.

[Tomee450]

35. It has nothing to do with what

they've been through. Some cops are just drunk with power and are just plain brutal. This kind of behavior by the police is widespread. In this case, the brutality was caught on tape. People keep saying that most cops are good, that it's only a few bad apples. It seems there are more than a few bad apples since this behavior by cops is happening quite often. Unfortunately there are too many people always willing to excuse police brutality. I've heard people excuse the shooting of young black youth who were unarmed and running away from the police, posing no threat. Some people feel the murder in a case like that is justified since the victim shouldn't have run. And when a cop who has beaten a citizen is put on trial, he is usually acquitted. There is no incentive for an officer inclined to be brutal not to engage in such brutality.

[tjdee]

30. Then they yelled at the AP producer--I saw it, it is gross.

They've been showing this on CNN all day.

It's shot a lot closer than the Rodney King video, you can see this poor guy pretty well. I'm not sure what the point of publicly releasing this tape is, though.

[Kingshakabobo]

32. I hope they charge the cop on the horse as well.

He knew a crime was being committed and he chose to cover it up by blocking the camera's view rather than step in to prevent it.

[daleo]

33. It looked pretty inexcusable to me

I just can't understand the kind of behavior revealed on the tape I saw on CNN. Three cops against an old man.

[Bethany Rockafella]

34. Where's the DUer that's a former cop?

Will he defend these guys?

[Maine-ah]

36. I doubt it.

[Suspicious]

37. Stomach-turning....

I saw the video this morning on CNN. I saw the footage of that man laying on the sidewalk in a pool of his own blood. There are no words.

Something is very, very wrong with those officers, and they need to be stripped of their power and placed behind bars. No one who is capable of that kind of brutality should be in a position of authority, EVER.

[Centered]

38. Terrible

Sadly the small amount of bad officers destroy the reputations of the good ones.

I cut the Police alot of slack but these men/women who engage in brutality are a disgrace to their brothers and sisters in blue.

[Sgent]

39. This is an institutional issue

not only an issue with individual cops.

NOLA cops have been trained to treat anyone in the french quarter ruthlessly. As long as they do what they are told, the individual is fine. Break that, and they beat the living crap out of you.

This has been the case for over a decade, and apply's equally to both male and female, black and white. At least in the area of Burbon St. at night, you do what the cops tell you. You do not talk back, you do not get in argument, you do as told.

The beatings are 1) to encourage people not to talk back, and 2) to discourage people from acting up.

In my experience, they tend to do a fairly good job -- protecting the masses while not having as much respect fot he individual. I accept a suspension of civil liberties in the area to help protect my saftey. I personally have been rough handled at least twice -- though not as badly as this poor guy, but I deserved it both times. I would also prefer it to stun guns.

[LittleWoman]

40. Just heard on WBNS tv in Columbus (CBS local affiliate)

If I heard right, it seem this gentleman has relatives in the Columbus area and among other things it seems he suffers from Parkinsons. It is not likely that he was even drunk, just showing the signs of his disease. Many years ago my grandmother had surgery for cataracts and in those days that meant that you wore very thick glasses after that as the lens was removed. She slipped trying to get on a streetcar partly because he could not see very well and the conductor acted like he thought she was drunk. My mother was indignant over that for years. By the way, Grandma was white and never drank on any occasion. Sometimes you just have to be elderly and infirm to be treated badly.

On another tack, when I first heard this on the news my first thougth was Blackwater might be involved. Just a little paranoia coming out.

[Megahurtz]

43. Uh Huh..........

"He was intoxicated, so because of that we had to beat the shit out of him!":eyes:

What a fucking sorry excuse for violence!:grr: