Police Are Charged in Post-Katrina Shootings

Police Are Charged in Post-Katrina Shootings

www.nytimes.com

NEW ORLEANS — Four current and two former New Orleans police officers have been charged in connection with the killing of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, federal law enforcement officials announced here on Tuesday.
Four of the men — former Officer Robert Faulcon, Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officer Anthony Villavaso — were charged with federal civil rights violations in the killing of 17-year-old James Brissette and the wound

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This story, along with the publicity about the recent killing of a man by police on a subway station platform, I hope shows that we as a society are no longer so willing to tolerate abuse by our police officers.

It has taken years for this atrocity, committed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to come to justice. But it looks like there will be a reckoning at last.

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I hate to correct your thinking, but we won't tolerate abuse to black people by abusive police is what you really meant to say. Funny how things work out.......

reply to post by adifferentbreed

True, I think we as a society are less willing to tolerate abuse of African Americans by police. This is good.

But I would hope that we are also less willing to tolerate abuse by police toward ANY human beings who do not deserve it. I personally know of several cases where innocent white people, especially poor white people, were also targeted.

Class, I think, has almost as much to do with police brutality as race. The people in New Orleans who were killed were not rich.

You know I see stories like this all the time. I find my self wondering, is there any sort of screening program, psych exam or anything you must pass before you become a police officer? Are they just giving anyone a gun and a badge these days?

These stories are coming more and more everyday. Its to the point where we can't even trust the ones that are supposed to protect us. Who protects us from them??!

The wheels of justice grind slowly forward.

I often see posts that are very anti police/ law enforcement etc.

Yet here was a big issue and it is being dealt with.

We won't know the outcome for some time.

reply to post by Wildbob77


It's hard not to become anti police when you see them doing things like this. I know they aren't all like this but there are enough to make you weary.

Almost five years for justice.

The people they killed, didn't have that long to be free.

Sad, and I hope they get the death penalty!

reply to post by Wildbob77


How is it being dealt with? Nobody is going to be un-shot or risen from the dead.

reply to post by Sestias


I was recently looking at the new, it looks as if the death penalty is on the table for these rogue police officers.

In my mind, death is way to easy for them, they should rot for longs periods of time, in solitary confinement.

souce

reply to post by DaMod

All states and localities are different in their requirements for hiring police officers. Some places go on the "good old boys" system and hire cronies or sons and daughters of cronies. Others require training, psychological testing and certain educational standards.

I understand about 50% of officer candidates fail training because their personalities are judged to be too aggressive. If the offending officers were deemed to be not too aggressive during training I hate to see what kind of policing we would have without that requirement.

I believe there should be professionalization and standards, including testing and some minimal education, required for all aspiring police personnel.

Probably 99% of crimes committed in the aftermath of Katrina, perpetrated by both civilians and law enforcement, will never be prosecuted. Still I believe the police should be held to a higher standard than civilians. That is what they are entrusted to uphold.




[edit on 14-7-2010 by Sestias]

reply to post by theability


I agree. Life imprisonment without parole is more cruel than the death penalty, especially if the prisoner is put in the general population rather than solitary. Inmates generally don't take too well to cops.