NO PD Beatdown

[White Shogun]

If you haven't seen the video yet, steel yourself.

Three WHITE New Orleans PD officers were videotaped in an arrest manhandling a 64-year old black man. I caught it on Fox News this morning. They didn't played the race card in this segment, but you know its coming. Whats-her-face asked if the NO PD had different standards right now, considering the environment New Orleans finds itself in, and of course, the standards are still the same.

I'm still waiting to hear if this applies to looting and abandoning your post in time of crisis, but no word so far.

If anyone has other news or insights on this situation, please share.

 

[jaxvid]

New Orleans police have always been brutal. I have seen them beat the hell out of people at Mardi Gras. This is standard stuff for them, and they don't discriminate, they beat white as well as black. I'm just surprised this has not been caught on camera before.

 

[White Shogun]

I have read more about the incident on the net. Believe it or not, the NOPD spokesperson has said on the record that race was not a factor in this case.

 

[white tornado]

we all know the only reason it was news. I personaly have been knocked down by NOPD while they were trying to get to an unruly man who they subsequently beat down. What im realy suprised at is it took this long for something like this to be in th news.

 

[Bear-Arms]

This was done to counter all the negative media blacks took during Katrina.

 

[Spooge]

I was able to view two black female officers (FOX network) during the
ensuing floods/pandamonium. These two examples of N.O.'s finest
were filling up a couple of shopping carts at Wal Mart, unfortunately,
the store was closed. When asked by the cameraman what they were
doing, one replied " I'm doing my job." Bet you or I will not see
that particular scene on television again. But when it comes to
white on black, oh man how the media plays it over and over and...

 

[JD074]

I saw a short clip of his daughter on Lou Dobbs Tonight and she was surprisingly level-headed. She said that there were other cops, white and black, in the area and they didn't do anything about it. It seems pretty apparent that you guys are right: the cops are jerks and everybody there is used to it.

 

[Bart]

How much was videotaped? I saw the portion showing the cops trying to bring him down with one cop delivering several shots to the head. Cops are rough on all who resist arrest. If I was a cop I would do my best to hurt him before getting hurt or killed myself. Being a white cop trying to enforce the law in a city full ofblacks has got to be one of the most difficult jobs in the world. As for the newsman who got shoved...big damn deal, that was nothing. He should have stayed at a distance and waited until the suspect was subdued before going for a story.

 

[Uberberserker]

Always bear in mind that the New Orleans Police Department has the reputation of being the most corrupt in the US. It has had this reputation for years, and who knows how bad things are now after Katrina.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

follow up: New Orleans beating victim insists incident wasn't racially motivated. Naturally, his lawyer and the media disagree...

Man beaten in New Orleans arrest says racism not issue
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
NEW ORLEANS â€â€￾ Robert Davis, a retired black schoolteacher whose violent arrest by white New Orleans police officers was videotaped by news crews, believes the incident says more about post-Katrina chaos than it does about racism.

"Some people want to make it a race thing," Davis said in an interview Tuesday. "I don't. That's demeaning to me."

Davis, 64, was to be in municipal court today to face charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. The officers have pleaded not guilty to charges of simple battery. They were suspended without pay. The Justice Department is investigating whether Davis' civil rights were violated.

Davis said the officers should be fired. "They don't need to be on the force," he said. "It's not good for the city."

The city attorney and a spokesman for the police department did not return calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

Davis, who said he hasn't had a drink in 25 years, wants the charges dropped. His lawyer, Joseph Bruno, plans to seek a financial settlement. "He needs to be compensated, but that's not what this is all about." The issue, he said, is reforming the department "from the top to the bottom. Put some competent people in charge."

By and large, police have responded well to the devastation of Katrina, Bruno said. But a department that allows a "couple bad eggs" needs to be reformed, he said.

 

[hedgehog]

Cops were out of control on this one. I supported the police during the Rodney King ordeal, but this cop needs to be put in prison. The man was 64 years old! If he is that big of a threat to you, then you need to find a different job.

 

[White Shogun]

They punched the guy four times in the face, wrestled him to the ground and tried to put hand cuffs on him. He may not have been drunk but he did resist arrest.

Do you think they would have done the same had he simply said "Yes, Officer," and put his hands behind his back? He could have fought the pub intox in court the next day after he passed a breathalyzer.

He admitted in one of the interviews that he had told a cop to butt out of his conversation with a mounted officer. I don't know about you, but it would take some seriously bad circumstances for me to mouth off to a police officer.

One or two of the officers in the mix were Feds. If you know anything about the relationship dynamics between local and federal officers, I highly doubt the Feds would have been involved in this altercation, backing up the locals, were there the slightest doubt this guy was in the wrong.

Probably doesn't matter anyway, I doubt if a Bush*te led Justice Department will clear these guys of civil rights violations, no matter how egregious the offense may have been.

 

[Bart]

Cops were out of control on this one. I supported the police during the Rodney King ordeal, but this cop needs to be put in prison.

Why were they out of control?Cops are authorized to use forceif confronted with resistance. So they pounded the guy a few times...so what? He kept fighting and resisting. What would you do in that situation?

 

[hedgehog]

They were out of control because the one cop used excessive force. Yescops are authorized to use force against resistance, but not unlimited force. I would have taken the guy to the ground without punching him.

 

[White Shogun]

KJ,
How do you know you could have taken him to the ground without punching him? Have you ever watched an episode of the TV show Cops? A truly resistant suspect is hard to get down, let alone handcuff.

 

[Bear-Arms]

Certainly this did not need to be national news. This is a sensative issue; they don't need a riot on their hands by showing this type of video. I don't deny that it was excessive force, but I don't think they beat him because he was black either.

 

[Colonel Callan]

The average person has no idea how hard it is to subdue someone who is
just resisting. The LAPD Academy used to have an exercise with new
recruits. They would take a small guy and tell him all he had to was twist
around (no punches) and resist a couple of other recruits. They would
then have the two biggest recruits 'subdue' the small guy with no
punches. It was always a nightmare to try and get the smaller man in a
position where he couldn't squirm away, kick his legs, drive them crazy.
Any of you guys who have been in some fights know what I'm talking
about. I'd like to know the whole story behind this one before passing
judgment.

 

[White Shogun]

Thanks for the post, Colonel. Its one of those things a person must try before they can actually get the full understanding of whats it like to actually put cuffs on a resistant suspect.

Moreover, without knowing the actual Use of Force policy on the NOPD, its hard to say if these guys exceeded its limits. It may be another case of the "oh sh*ts" only because it was caught on video, and "SOMETHING MUST BE DONE."

 

[White_Savage]

Cops have too damn much power in this country, and yes they use excessive force and are generally out of control, but this is not one of those cases. A @#$%&* bunch of cops could beat any man on this forum to death and there would be no outcry of any sort because we're not ********, period.

The main thing I worry about is not how much force is used to subdue someone, but what they have the right to "subdue" you for, IOW, we have entirely too many tyrannical laws and they should have absolutely no power to harass you for anything other than threatening someone's person or property.

 

[White Shogun]

we have entirely too many tyrannical laws and they should have absolutely no power to harass you for anything other than threatening someone's person or property.

I agree with this.

 

[White_Savage]

Shogun:
I look at it kind of this way, if you had a job dealing with the worst part of the ******* race day in and day out, how long would it take you to loose it and go off on one's head? Most cops probably have good self-control to not beat one half to death every day.