New Orleans Cops Face Charges in Beating

[Little95]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051010/D8D55Q4G5.html
(someone post the pics for yo boy pls)

New Orleans Cops Face Charges in Beating
Oct 10, 8:22 AM (ET)

By MARY FOSTER

(AP) Robert Davis, who was repeatedly punched by two police officers during his arrest is shown in a...


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NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Three New Orleans police officers are facing battery charges after investigators reviewed a videotape showing two patrolmen repeatedly punching a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication and a third officer grabbing and shoving an Associated Press Television News producer who helped capture the confrontation on tape.

After being questioned and arrested, the three officers were suspended without pay Sunday, police spokesman Marlon Defillo said. The police promised a criminal investigation.

"It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it," Defillo said.

The confrontations 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.


(AP) Police officers subdue a man on Conti Street near Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New...
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The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the suspect, Robert Davis, at least four times in the head Saturday night outside a French Quarter bar. Davis appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers.

Another of the officers then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter.

Then a fifth officer ordered APTN producer Rich Matthews and the cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials, 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 identified himself as S.M. Smith.

In addition to Smith, the other officers charged were identified as Lance Schilling and Robert Evangelist. Smith is an eight-year veteran of the force, while Evangelist and Schilling have served three years each.


(AP) A bloodied man lies handcuffed on the sidewalk after being arrested by police on Conti Street near...
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"The incidents taped by our cameraman are extremely troubling," said Mike Silverman, AP's managing editor. "We are heartened that the police department is taking them seriously and promising a thorough investigation."

Police said Davis, of New Orleans, was booked on public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. He was treated at a hospital and released into police custody.

A mug shot of Davis, provided by a jailer, showed him with his right eye swollen shut, an apparent abrasion on the left side of his neck and a cut on his right temple.

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 is light skinned. The officer who hit Matthews is white. Defillo said race was not an issue.

Two of the officers in the video appeared to be federal officers. Numerous agencies have sent police to help with patrols in the aftermath of Katrina, and Defillo said it would be up to their commanders to decide if they would face charges.


(AP) In this image taken from video, a police officer who identified himself as S.M. Smith, partially...
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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. About 300 officers apparently either died, abandoned their posts or disappeared for some other reason.

Those who stayed 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.

"Our police officers are working under some very trying times," Defillo said. "So it's a difficult time, but it doesn't excuse what our jobs are supposed to be."

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.

[nattyreb]

We won't hold our breath on them actually getting convicted of anything, right?

[Moorish Rebel]

We won't hold our breath on them actually getting convicted of anything, right?

Sure wont.....the most those pigs have gotten is a suspension...Not suprising.

[OsunkoyaIfayomi]

VIDEOTAPED STATE TERRORISM
=============================
[Col. Writ. 10/12/05] Copyright '05 Mumia Abu-Jamal

The sight of swinging, kicking cops swarming over the prone figure
of a
Black man should be too common to still surprise.

Yet, there it was: half a dozen cops, punching, kicking, grabbing
and
twisting on a 64-year old man.

Predictably, the New Orleans cops have charged the man they whipped
senseless, with public drunkenness, with resisting arrest, with
intimidation
of police, and a few other charges.

Why does it not surprise us that the NOPD, arguably the most
corrupt
police department in the country, slaps the old guy they beat into the
concrete with what are called 'cover charges'?

There are two problems they will soon face; 1) the beating victim
is a
retired schoolteacher, and neither a drunk, nor a punk; and 2) it was
captured on videotape.

But, in America, as we've all learned, videos often aren't enough.

Oldheads amongst us recall the brutal beating and rifle-butting of
MOVE
member Delbert Africa, back during the first police assault on MOVE
Headquarters, on Aug. 8th, 1978. Cops were videotaped slamming helmets
into
the jaw of Delbert, kicking him, and slamming rifle butts into his
head.

Slam dunk, right?

One would think so. But, even after the jury was imported from
western
Pennsylvania, the trial judge threw the trial, dismissing all charges
against the cops who beat Delbert, *on tape*, basing his 'decision' on
Delbert's frightening muscles.

I kid you not!

Younger folks will recall the name, Rodney King, whose videotaped
beating has become almost legendary. Most also remember the acquittal
of
the brutes in blue who beat him into amnesia. Their defense? Well,
let's
just call it 'the big, black gorilla' defense, for those words best
capture
the tone.

But, both Delbert and Rodney were relatively young men, and both
*were* in good shape (they had to be to survive their beatings, eh?).

But, what would the cops do when it's a 64-year old man; a
gray-bearded
elder, who was a retired schoolteacher?

It hasn't been a week since the savage assault on Robert Davis, and
already the lawyer for the 3 cops charged with 'simple' [!] assault
argued
that Mr. Davis "wasn't as frail as he looked -- he lifted several cops
off
the ground!" So claims Frank DeSalvo, lawyer for the so-called police
'union'.

Clearly, it doesn't matter if one is 16, 26 or 64, as long as one
is a
Black man. For, here, again, is the 'big nigger' defense (or, in Los
Angeles, 'big, black gorilla' defense).

Videotapes don't matter, as long as the 'right' jury gets
empaneled.

It's the same old game.

Robert Davis was beaten for the high crime of WWB: "Walking While
Black."

For decades, it was DWB: "Driving While Black." Now, walking is
an
ass-whupping offense.

That, is what constitutes progress in today's backwards America.

That this blatant act happens just weeks after the state's betrayal
of
tens of thousands of Black natives of New Orleans gives us precious
evidence
of what daily life must be in the Crescent City. Cops, many of whom
have
stolen whatever they could get their greasy paws on, many of whom have
fled
the city they swore to serve, who have stolen nearly a hundred cars
from a
New Orleans dealer, accost, assault and beat a 64-year-old man, because
they
claim he was drunk!

And then claim he was a kind of superman!

I'm sure that the tourism will really take off now, huh?

Doesn't this sound like a place you'd love to visit?


Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South End Press
(http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]

[Jasel]

Ya I really doubt there will be any convictions. Probably just suspensions.