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To Serve and Protect in New Orleans?

Dreamer

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
5,360
Location
Grennsboro NC
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Finally some justice in the New Orlean's "Danziger Street Bridge" murder of 2 and wounding of 4 and subsequent cover-up by NOPD...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/us/08shooting.html

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/new_orleans_cop_explains_how_police_gunned_down_ci.php?ref=mp

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/04/07/Officer-guilty-in-Danziger-Bridge-shooting/UPI-47991270694187/
NEW ORLEANS, April 7 (UPI) -- A former New Orleans police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges stemming from the Danziger Bridge shootings after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a release Michael Hunter, 33, of Slidell -- who was a New Orleans officer until last week -- pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to obstruct justice and failing to report a crime in the federal investigation into the case.

Two people were shot to death and four others wounded at the bridge as they tried to flee the city in the days after the 2005 hurricane. The police maintained they fired at the civilians in self-defense, after the civilians fired at them but Hunter is the third officer to admit a role in a police coverup of unjustified shootings.

"In times of disaster, we look to our law enforcement officers to protect public safety and keep the peace," Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division," said in a statement. "Today, this former (New Orleans Police Department) officer has admitted that amidst the devastation that followed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina he watched fellow officers shoot unarmed civilians. And, he admitted covering up about what they did."

In a court filing, Hunter admitted driving to the bridge Sept. 4, 2005, in a large rental truck carrying officers responding to a radio call that other officers were under fire. Hunter said officers fired at civilians who didn't appear to be armed. He said one officer, referred to only as Sergeant A, leaned over a concrete barrier and fired an assault rifle repeatedly in a sweeping motion at the civilians, who were lying wounded and apparently unarmed on the ground.

Hunter admitted he fired his weapon repeatedly at apparently unarmed civilians running away over the bridge.

He said he was on the west side of the bridge when an officer, identified only as Officer A, without warning used to a shotgun to fatally wound an unarmed civilian in the back as he was running from officers with his hands in view. Hunter said he saw Sergeant A physically abuse the victim as he lay on the ground, injured but still alive.
 

SouthernBoy

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Joined
May 12, 2007
Messages
5,837
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Western Prince William County, Virginia, USA
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This is just one more reason to never give up your firearms - especially in a disaster situation. Not only will you need them to protect yourself and your property from roving looters and BG's but rouge police as well. Too bad these citizens weren't armed and able to return fire.
 

Ruger

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2009
Messages
545
Location
Occupied Greensboro, North Carolina, United States
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I lived in New Orleans for about 3 years from '95-'97. The NOPD is a cesspool of corruption. There was a guy I knew who was a cop there, and he ended up quitting as a result. Other officers wanted him to turn a blind eye to their indiscrestions - he was told that if he didn't, then one day he would need backup and "it might not be there." He decided that the job wasn't worth it.

I also vaguely recall another really messed up situation I heard about while living there: An officer was having lunch with herpartner, when she decided to go back to her squad car. She returned to the restaurant with a shotgun & started shooting people - her partner included. During the ensuing investigation conducted by the Louisiana State Police, it was revealed that the officer had failed the required psychological examination. Apparently she was still hired because of affirmative action. They were trying to hit their minority quotas, and she fit two categories being black, and a female :banghead:

I don't miss that city...
 

cloudcroft

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Joined
Jan 13, 2007
Messages
1,908
Location
El Paso, TX (formerly Colorado Springs, CO)
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I would need to knowa whole lotmore about the "unarmed citizens" -- what they were doing/how they were acting -- before I'd bash the cops on this. Plenty of people during after Katrina needing shooting, unarmed or not.

True enough, the NOPD doesn't have a great reputation. But it's ALSO true that LOTS of the citizens of NO don't, either.

You best be armed in NO, but not so much from the cops, but from too manyof your "fellow citizens" of that sorrycity.Too bad Katrina didn't flushMayor Nagin, his Police Chief and the whole of NO out into the Gulf.

Well, maybe this year: Hurricane season starts June 1st...and we here on Galveston Island also wait to see what it will bring. Unfortunately, we could use some flushing down here, too. And as for Houston, too bad the waves don't make it up that far. :-(

-- John D.
 

Deanimator

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Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
2,083
Location
Rocky River, OH, U.S.A.
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cloudcroft wrote:
I would need to knowa whole lotmore about the "unarmed citizens" -- what they were doing/how they were acting -- before I'd bash the cops on this. Plenty of people during after Katrina needing shooting, unarmed or not.

True enough, the NOPD doesn't have a great reputation. But it's ALSO true that LOTS of the citizens of NO don't, either.

You best be armed in NO, but not so much from the cops, but from too manyof your "fellow citizens" of that sorrycity.Too bad Katrina didn't flushMayor Nagin, his Police Chief and the whole of NO out into the Gulf.

Well, maybe this year: Hurricane season starts June 1st...and we here on Galveston Island also wait to see what it will bring. Unfortunately, we could use some flushing down here, too. And as for Houston, too bad the waves don't make it up that far. :-(

-- John D.
Apparently, they were trying to flee New Orleans, something any sane person would do, hurricane or not.

The cop admitted that the shootings were wrongful and that he helped cover them up. END OF STORY.

There's no more justification for what the cops did than there was for the guys in Washington and Pennsylvania who ambushed cops.

Defending the basest criminality by police only lowers public opinion of the police and confirms opinions that they consider themselves above the law and the public.

But then no defense of police criminality truly surprises me anymore. I've seen more than a few Chicago cops defend the beating of the barmaid and the actual thefts committed by the police home invasion ring.
 

georg jetson

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
2,416
Location
Slidell, Louisiana
Ugh? The fed prosecutor's office has been misbehaving. That doesn't mean the officers are innocent, but they deserve a fair trial. Jim Letton is a POS.

Maybe they'll get a fair trial this time.
 

TFred

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
7,750
Location
Most historic town in, Virginia, USA
Ugh? The fed prosecutor's office has been misbehaving. That doesn't mean the officers are innocent, but they deserve a fair trial. Jim Letton is a POS.

Maybe they'll get a fair trial this time.
Of course they do deserve a fair trial... I just hope it's not "fixed" the other way.

My "ugh" is that they have to go through this all over again.

TFred
 

skidmark

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
10,444
Location
Valhalla
Ugh? The fed prosecutor's office has been misbehaving. That doesn't mean the officers are innocent, but they deserve a fair trial. Jim Letton is a POS.

Maybe they'll get a fair trial this time.

Even the guy who pleaded guilty gets a new trial.

I'm still looking to find where the defense objected to the doings of the prosecution, and am coming up empty-handed. You should not be able to appeal based on grounds not objected to in the original trial unless you can show that the evidence you base the appeal on could not have been known during the trial. Otherwise it's just little kids going to grandma asking to have Daddy's decision overturned - Daddy winds up with no authority or respect.

And yes, they deserve a fair trial.

stay safe.
 
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