Federal Investigation Claims Abuses Among New Orleans Police

Federal investigation claims abuses among New Orleans police

(CNN) -- A federal investigation found that the New Orleans Police Department has engaged in patterns of misconduct in violation of the Constitution and federal law, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

For example, investigators found that officers "regularly used excessive force as retaliation" but that in six years, not one officer-involved shooting violated policy. In some cases, there were attempts to prevent the prosecution of officers, Perez said. They also found that officers did not know the law regarding legal stops, searches and arrests. The system at the police department favored quantity of arrests over quality, Perez said.

It looks like the investigation started last year by the then-newly elected Mitch Landrieu has finally been finished. A lot of what has been discussed on ATS has shown up in the report too. Excessive force, illegal stops and confiscations, etc. I don't expect many on here to be surprised.

It is good to see that the bad conduct has been brought out into the light and is being addressed. I do hope that the quality of the police in New Orleans, as well as everywhere else of course, gets a nice boost. Only time will tell on that I suppose...

The Mayor was also quoted as saying that he has "inherited a police force that has been described by many as one of the worst police departments in the country." I do wonder if his opinion on the New Orleans PD has improved much since he took office.

Source

Thanks for posting. As you noted, not too shocking to hear. N.O. is about the most corrupt city in the U.S.

I could tell stories for days about the things I saw with my own eyes after Katrina, not to even mention in all the years before that. Hopefully they can start to change things if this investigation is brought out into the open, though I wouldn't bet much on it.

reply to post by Shaker


60Minutes did a short doc on this years ago where those cops were exploiting a drug law that said you can seize the vehicle of anyone involved in it, including anyone just suspected of it, so the cops kept pulling over nice cars and just taking them.
If someone took my car, I'd be taking body parts off them, no joke.