Oh, the irony!
Posted on 09/03/2005 9:53:18 PM PDT by Cyropaedia
The Roots of Corruption: Part 3 -- Lowering the Bar
Until the early 1980s, the New Orleans Superintendent of Police was usually chosen by the mayor from the ranks of the Old Guard. By the middle of the decade, however, the ranks of the Old Guard were thinning out through retirement and attrition. Many of them were leaving for better paying jobs in the private sector or with the federal government. At the same time, the city's racial composition had begun changing radically. "White flight" to the outlying suburbs had given New Orleans a population that was 65% black. Black activists and community organizations began demanding that NOPD hire more black officers, and the city administration complied.
In 1978, New Orleans elected its first black mayor, Ernest "Dutch" Morial, father of Marc Morial who was sitting in the same seat in the 1990s. Dutch Morial appointed the city's first black superintendent, Warren Woodfork, about a year before he left office in 1986. Record numbers of black recruits were accepted by the Police Academy and put on the streets on completion of their training. However, these numbers were not sufficient to replace the officers the department was losing through attrition. The department was being depleted of experienced officers and the numbers within the ranks were decreasing as crime stats were rising at an alarming rate.
Also working against the city's best interests was a "residency requirement" stipulating that police and firefighters must live within the city limits in order to be considered for promotions. When the requirement was codified into law during Marc Morial's administration, it forbade the hiring of non-residents to all "unclassified" (non-civil service) city jobs, in addition to police and firemen. Civil service position holders who were working for the city prior to the law were "grandfathered in" but they could not be promoted until they could prove they had established residence within the city limits. PANO and other organizations representing police and firefighters fought hard against the residency requirement, but they were outgunned by Marc Morial and numerous powerful community groups.
Thus was the stage set for the scenario that was to follow. In order to beef up the rapidly dwindling numbers of NOPD, the department was forced to lower its acceptance standards. Recruits with criminal records, DWIs, unfavorable employment records and dishonorable discharges from the Armed Forces were allowed to enter the Police Academy, whereas they had previously been excluded. A number of these new recruits had been charged with violent crimes as serious as armed robbery and rape. Some were openly recruited from the projects and off the street with no prior experience with the law, other than being on the receiving end of its consequences. Their records were expunged and, on completion of their training, they were issued badges, guns and patrol cars and turned loose on the street.
In so doing, many of these new officers were expected to suddenly straighten up and begin enforcing the laws they had not-so-long-ago been breaking. They were expected to arrest those suspected of crimes, even if those accused had once been their street buddies. But this was an unrealistic expectation. Old loyalties and old habits die hard. Some of these new officers remained loyal to those who had been their partners in crime and they continued their old ways and associations. And, given the level of corruption to which the department had already descended by this time, the ground was well-seeded to breed further corruption.
This explains an awful lot about the dismal performance of the NO "police" dept.
A Baton Rouge police officer said he had a friend on the New Orleans force who told him he threw his badge out a car window in disgust just after fleeing the city into neighboring Jefferson Parish as the hurricane approached. The Baton Rouge officer would not give his name, citing a department policy banning comments to the news media.
The officer said he had also heard of an incident in which two men in a New Orleans police cruiser were stopped in Baton Rouge on suspicion of driving a stolen squad car. The men were, in fact, New Orleans officers who had ditched their uniforms and were trying to reach a town in north Louisiana, the officer said.
"They were doing everything to get out of New Orleans," he said. "They didn't have the resources to do the job, or a plan, so they left."
certainly explains a lot about the breakdown in law and order. Not much to break down.
all the dirty laundry coming out to dry
PING!!
I have a feeling that the Justice Department is already looking into this. Law enforcement collapsed the first day and it was all downhill from there.
Go to officer.com you will see how tow officers have taken their lives. They stated that they were not prepared by the higher ups. I believe that considering I worked for a law enforcement agency. They did not have weapons or equipment alot of them refused to come in to work. What I would like to know is where did the 8.1 million dollars the states law enforcemement was supposed to get for better radios and equipment.
If you ever wrote a novel with a story line like this, every literature critic would toss it in the trash for being too outlandish.
bttt
This afternoon on a news radio program (I don't remember which one), I heard the news reader say that up to 2/3's of the NOPD abandoned their posts. This certainly does explain a lot.
Every time you see the local authorities on the tube they fairly reek of incompetence. Did anyone see the Chief of Police (I think it was with Geraldo) Pacing and fidgeting, wondering what his orders were? Unbelievable!
The MSM will never report this.
I just want to point out, since many of our folks have not served in the military lately, that there is only one way to get a Dishonorable Discharge: as a part of a sentence after conviction by a General Court-Martial.
This is a punitive regime that is reserved for the military's most serious felons. There are two grades of Special Court-Martial for lesser felons, and summary courts and non-judicial punishment for misdemeanors.
For instance, a friend of mine defended, among other things, members of an armed robbery gang at a GCM. They lost (well, they were guilty) and got confinement at Leavenworth and a DD apiece. DDs don't go to some punk that went AWOL or told his sergeant to get bent (on paper, the court can give one for refusing an order from a commissioned officer, but I have never heard of this actually happening in the post-Nam army). DDs go to the lowest of the low -- rapists, robbers and 2nd Degree murderers.
Nobody gets a DD without being a serious, hard-core criminal. I am astonished that any jurisdiction on earth would hire such felons. Well, I would have believed it of Washington, DC, which has a similar spoils-system PD to the NO one described here.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Once the shock subsides, these people may be a lot better off. That State is a cesspool.
This whole system of hiring crooks reminds me of "A Clockwork Orange"
Also, Morial's uncle has been indicted and Jefferson's relative, a District Judge, has already been convicted. The investigation is still ongoing.
A knock-off of Drudge's site, The Dead Pelican is good to keep up with the cesspool that is La. politics.
PS
Texasforever, y'all have room for one more? I decided to move even before Katrina because of what the liberals have turned my state into.
Come on down and welcome.
Oh, the irony!
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