New Orleans Police Beating

Link Fixed Caught on video - courtesy Drudge.

If you listen to the audio you'll hear the one police officer tell the AP he's been there for six weeks just trying to stay alive. So, are they rushing things just to get the damned night life back on track, or is it just business as usual down in New Orleans?

I'm not defending the police, whose careers are likely over, anyway. But are drunks on the street what every wants given how deep they are asking America to dig to rebuild? It makes it look as thought the worst of New Orleans is the priority some folks have in mind when it comes to re-building. I find that sad.

Comments

[chrys]

Only the action to stop the negative action becomes important and not allowed. Everyone totally forgets what brought on this "fear" response in the first place. Could have shot this man - but they knew he was just drunk and couldn't get him under control. What are police required to do with this anyway? Let him go and continue? Obviously you must allow ANY action to exist because even as individuals paid to protect EVERYONE from this type of public activity - you are still wrong to stop it if you need to push bigger people a little harder to get them to stop. Shoot - - let everything go - don't try to stop anything?!?! Didn't Rodney get arrested again just over a week ago?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050930/ap_on_re_us/rodney_king_1

DANG PC - - we need to be protected and don't want people to STOP protecting us because they'll loose their careers!!

These men are extremely stressed - especially over the last five weeks - and the crime rate in N O is one of the highest in the country - if not THE highest (heard it had the highest murder rate or something like that?!?)

This is a confusing time and New Orleans may be in too big of a hurry to produce revenue.

Then you have to consider "cart before the horse" measures. Are the police corrupt or is New Orleans corrupting everyone?

The Drudge Video didn't take - if this happens to you - Video can be played with a small commercial at:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20051010/ap_on_re_us/new_orleans_taped_beating_8

[TheAlamo]

DANG PC - - we need to be protected and don't want people to STOP protecting us because they'll loose their careers!!

Posted by: chrys | Oct 9, 2005 10:51:43 PM

This is the problem in America. A complete misunderstanding of responsibility. It is YOUR responsibility to protect you. Police investigate crime AFTER it has occurred, and go after perpetrators. Your job in the equation is not to become a victim. The only possible way you can be "protected" is if 50% of the nation become a police agent and walk around with each of us as a body guard. Do you think criminals go where the cops are, or another part of town to do their crimes? Heck, even police will tell you this, they cannot prevent crime--only the proposed victim can.

Now, I am not picking on you...this is a mindset perpetrated upon us by TV and the lies coming out of the schools. You CANNOT be protected unless you do it yourself. This is one reason there is a 2nd amendment. Buy a gun, and learn to use it.

[FloridaPatty]

After everything I have seen going on in that city, I think it got what it needed, a good bath.

[rr]

It seems like the usual MSM stunt. Police are trying to control a black person and the AP is there filming the event hoping to make a big deal about abuse of blacks by the police. Had the victim been white there is an excellent chance that the MSM cameraman would have put a lens cap over his camera lens and gone off to have a beer somewhere.

If this nonsense keeps up, we Americans are going to find that police departments are going to become de-populated. Why would anybody with law enforcement skills want to hang onto a job where he is criticised if he lets a perp get away and loses his job if he captures a perp and gets accused of excessive force. A win-win situation is what everyone looks for. A lose-lose situation is one to be avoided.

When the MSM stops trying to convince American TV watching zombies that we have serious white on black problems and severely downplays black on white problems, we may all wake up and start to see the truth about what is going rapidly wrong in our country.

[absynth_minded]

You see something like this on TV, but you only see what the editor wants you to see..

Than people wonder why race relations are so horrible even in this day and age and how there is often a presumption of racism even if one it doesn't exist..

I'm sick of it all and sick of the bullshit political games behind it.

[absynth_minded]

Shit... I'm tired so I'll quit while I'm not ahead...

What I meant to say is:

You see something like this on TV, but you only see what the editor wants you to see..

Then people wonder why race relations are so horrible even in this day and age and how there is often a presumption of racism even if/when it doesn't exist..

I'm sick of it all and sick of the bullshit political games behind it.

[usmcmom]

I'm sick of it all and sick of the bullshit political games behind it.

Posted by: absynth_minded | Oct 10, 2005 12:27:04 AM

This is off topic of New Orleans, but it is related to the police issue. Here in B'ham in June, 2004, 3 beat cops went to a home to deliver a warrant. They were shot dead by two black guys. The neighborhood was a lower-income black neighborhood. The neighborhood association head came out mad as a wet hen. He basically wanted the heads of the shooters. These white police officers were so loved and respected in the black community. They had a big outpouring of support for the families and all. I never heard word one about it from any national media, and it wasn't even really talked about much here about the overwhelming support the black community gave these guys. IMO the neighborhood support and grief didn't fit the media's stereotypical equation, so the media didn't report much about it.

[MarlboroGal]

This is the problem in America. A complete misunderstanding of responsibility. It is YOUR responsibility to protect you. Police investigate crime AFTER it has occurred, and go after perpetrators. Your job in the equation is not to become a victim. The only possible way you can be "protected" is if 50% of the nation become a police agent and walk around with each of us as a body guard. Do you think criminals go where the cops are, or another part of town to do their crimes? Heck, even police will tell you this, they cannot prevent crime--only the proposed victim can.

Now, I am not picking on you...this is a mindset perpetrated upon us by TV and the lies coming out of the schools. You CANNOT be protected unless you do it yourself. This is one reason there is a 2nd amendment. Buy a gun, and learn to use it.
Posted by: TheAlamo | Oct 9, 2005 11:29:04 PM

Excellent advice, Alamo.

[absynth_minded]

USMCMOM:

It's the same thing when dealing with a missing person's case. Pretty and light skinned= Air time; Average looking and dark= overlooked.

Though sometimes race isn't the issue, it's how sensational a story can be made. Now when you consider that news channels either lean to the left or right and both sides never fail to have different accounts of the same event/occurrence, that's when the real political bullshit starts.

[PegnAl]

I think New Orleans has been in need of a good cleaning for many years. It needed to start with the Police Department. I think it is a crying shame that the policemen that are hired to protect us is out stealing everything they can get their hands on. The report last week that the New Orleans Police Dept. stole "200" cars from a Cadillac Dealership the worst I have ever heard of !!! If I was the Police Chief I would resign too.

[alert]

After living in Europe for 30 yrs,I returned to the US. MY first trip was to NO La. MY car was parked just up from Cafe de Mond.People were walking,there were police officers,it was about 9pm. Having been informed of the crime,pick pockets etc, I had left al in the trunk of the car..still having my passport, all personal info, credit cards etc. Returning an hour later, the trunk looked open,it was..all was gone. I went to the police dept..they asked why I was reporting this, business as usual. I told the hotel folks, they said, it is the NO expereince and laughed.
That city will never see me again.The corruption runs from top to bottom and back again. It took 3 yrs to finally get 'clean 'cards, my identiy back... I believe it is a genetic and nurture problem.

[new2blogging]

It makes it look as thought the worst of New Orleans is the priority some folks have in mind when it comes to re-building. I find that sad.

Posted by Dan in News | Permalink

Yeah, like Vegas-style casinos - a la Nagin - instead of building homes and schools; investing in local, small and family businesses, etc. Sad indeed.

[Nan]

i lived in nola for 3 years, and I can say that at first i felt katrina would be a great oppurtunity to rebuild and make things better for the city, but now i see nagin talking about more casinos.. what? yeah i know it would help to pay for htings etc, but com e on, what about making the projects better and clening things up? getting a better system for thigns overall? Well, what's happening is that our leaders are too busy, and the important little things that make new orleans full of crime will come back, if they ever left.
i had an experience where a pervert chased me into an apartment building while masturbating, and i was able to get away. i went to the police station and the lady at the station said i shouldn't have been out so late...school was in and crime was up, they didn't have time to go and look for him or help me. WHAT? Needless to say I have never been impressed with the police dept. over there. Good luck to nola
oh and on the subject, they say the man was possibly drunk....he didn't look to be resisting. I was horrified as i watched the video.

[TheAlamo]

i lived in nola for 3 years, and I can say that at first i felt katrina would be a great oppurtunity to rebuild and make things better for the city, but now i see nagin talking about more casinos.. what? Yeah I know it would help to pay for htings etc, but com e on, what about making the projects better and clening things up? getting a better system for thigns overall? Well, what's happening is that our leaders are too busy, and the important little things that make new orleans full of crime will come back, if they ever left.

This is what socialism does. Under the guise of "helping the poor" your money is spent on the pet projects (from which they personally profit) of governments, national, state and local. This is why they establish bureaucracies...for the explicit purpose of "non-response," but leaving you absolutely no recourse. All one need do is check any socialist country's history, like Russia or Cuba, to see that they have an abundance of poor, misguided and dependent people.
This will never end. It will only get worse unless there is a miraculous awakening of the people, who, once again accept personal responsibility for themselves, and do not depend upon the government to be the "charity" that has replaced the real ideals of giving to actually help people. It costs us 8 times what a normal "gift" to help the poor would cost when using the government to provide the aid.....the aid that is minimal...and only if it profits someone "connected."

[Josey]

Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver:
"All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."
...
"You talkin' to me?"

[aircoop]

No matter how stressed you are, that is not an excuse for exercising poor judgement with respect to your job. If they are under that much stress, then quit. If he (the old black man) had been a 17 year old blonde white girl with her classmates on holiday, would you still say the officer was stressed or acted irresponsibly.

[vera]

they might have been stressed, but in NO WAY is that an excuse for what i saw on the video. I cried when i saw it.

If they cant handle stress they should not have been police officers.

[Alex Lint]

All these comments really surprise me. Four cops beat up a 64 year old retired schoolteacher on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and the posters complain about socialism? Or about the need for individuals to take responsibility for their own lives? Or about what stress the COPS are under? Wow.

I grew up in New Orleans. My recollection of the town -- honed over several decades -- is that it's difficult to find sober people on Bourbon Street after 8 PM. All my life it's been a street full of strip joints, bars and shops selling cheap tourist knick-knacks. Most locals shun the place, except when they are forced to go there to show it to out-of-town guests.

My point here is that if the cops truly wanted to deal with every drunk on Bourbon Street, they're going to have quite a task. The odds are pretty good that most of the people on the street that night were past the legal limit. Do the police now plan to beat up every person on the street?

And since when do cops need to beat an old man senseless in order to subdue him? My wife worked for a couple of years on a locked ward with violent psychotics -- who believe me are a lot stronger, and more adrenaline-filled than your average old man, drunk or sober. There, she learned in the first couple of weeks on the job how to work with her co-workers to grab violent crazies and bring them down without hurting the person or exposing herself or her co-workers to injury. I have seen the video, which includes a cop punching an old man in the face while the cop's co-workers are holding the man stomach-down on the sidewalk. Please, don't sully yourself by excusing such behavior.

Some of the posters in this forum need to re-examine their tendency to view things exclusively from an ideological angle. Decent people should stand up for decency. Sometimes that involves leaving your politics behind, and simply examining facts, condemning the guilty regardless of whether they wear a unifom, have white versus black skin, and so on.