Posted on 10/09/2005 12:13:05 PM PDT by pitinkie
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - At least one police officer repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations.
There will be a criminal investigation, and three New Orleans Police Department officers will be suspended Sunday, arrested and charged with simple battery, 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.
The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the man at least four times in the head Saturday night as he stood outside a bar. The suspect, Robert Davis, appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers. Another officer then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter.
Meanwhile, an officer ordered APTN producer Rich Matthews and the cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials and explained he was working, the officer grabbed the producer, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade.
"I've been here for six weeks trying to keep ... alive. ... Go home!" shouted the officer, who later identified himself as S.M. Smith.
Police said Davis, 64, of New Orleans, was booked on public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation.
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 was light skinned. Defillo said race was not an issue.
Three of the five officers involved were New Orleans officers, and two others appeared to be federal officers. Numerous agencies have sent police to help with patrols in the aftermath of Katrina.
Under normal circumstances, it takes unusually offensive behavior to trigger an arrest on Bourbon Street. But New Orleans police have been working under stressful conditions since the hurricane.
Officers slept in their cars and worked 24-hour shifts after the storm. Three-quarters lost their homes and their families are scattered across the country.
Many officers deserted their posts in the days after Katrina, and some were accused of joining in the looting that broke out. At least two committed suicide.
Conditions have improved - officers now have beds on a cruise ship - but they don't have private rooms and are still working five, 12-hour days.
Compass, the police superintendent, resigned Sept. 27. Despite more than 10 years of reform efforts dating to before he took office, police were dogged by allegations of brutality and corruption.
On Friday, state authorities said they were investigating allegations that New Orleans police broke into a dealership and made off with nearly 200 cars - including 41 new Cadillacs - as the storm closed in.
Oh yeah that was funny...my son and I love it!
I'll ditto that from an episode I witnessed last year in the French Quarter. The mounted patrol got hold of a guy and beat the heck out of him in front of the crowd. The crowd cheered so I figured he did something to deserve it.
They should really give it to them for such actions and condemn them to two week paid in Las Vegas!
That would show them!
LOL..lest we forget that happened! I still cant believe they went to Vegas! Guess they forgot they werent still there..."what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"
I nominate Nagin as a pre-death Darwin Award Winner.
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Ain't it amazing? Where did they ever find that maggot anyway? Yes, the golden touch of the liberals...isn't it beautiful??
My take: the guy was bait - positioned by the cameraman and the reporter - in a location known to be frequented by thug-cops.
Any mention of the little old lady who was jumped in her home by a big brute from the NO police department because she was holding a small handgun and refused to abandon her home?
Yep, a "firm" hand is necessary once in a while.
White cops beating up a black old man. Good thing there's no one left New Orleans to riot.
This is not a crime, just "misconduct."
L
Ah, takin' one for the team eh? I can appreciate that.
Police brutality bothers me, but I am quicker to explain it as bad judgement based on a tense situation and hyope that the LEO is disciplined appropriately. However, when authority tells people to stop excerising their 1st amendment, the hair goes up on my neck.
Yeah, Paparrazzi scum...
Oxymoron = New Orleans Police Department..
Yes, it is. The more info comes out of there, the worse it gets. And Landrieu on the floor of the senate this week asking for billions of taxpayer dollars. I hope the power-hungry posturing politicians don't give it to them. It would be throwing good money after bad, IMO.
Carolyn
And Nagin is p!ssed because many of the corrupted left to save their lives and most of them don't want to go back!
He's lost his political base....
The police do not have the authority to beat someone because they deserve it. They have the authority to use force to stop someone from committing a crime or to apprehend a suspect.
We are on dangerous ground when people are cheering the police for beating an individual.
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