We can't trust until we've unearthed the corruption.
Thanks for nothing, NOLA P.D.
You've helped create a national distrust of police that affects me every day that I work.
While the five New Orleans Police Department officers convicted today weren't found guilty of murder, they were found guilty of improper actions resulting in the unwarranted deaths of citizens, and the cover-up of the shootings on the Danziger Bridge.
I live a few hours west of New Orleans, and regularly am told that I simply have to visit the place. For the culture. For the food. For the history.
Y'all can keep that stuff. I'm not voluntarily going to a place where, when you're in trouble, you don't dare call the cops, because you're afraid that they're crooks, too.
Having never been to New Orleans, I have thus never left anything there, and have no reason to go there. From what I can see, it is our nation's greatest shame. Why didn't we just quit the town, after the hurricane?
Labels: dumb cop tricks, People Who Need Pianos Dropped On Them, police, travel
posted by Matt G @ 9:32 PM
16 Comments:
I was talking to a friend and my wife about some topic, and we got onto the confiscation of guns in New Orleans after Katrina. I started talking about the things the NOPD had done, the firearm seizures, the shooting at people, and so forth. She's originally from New Orleans, and her response? "You're talking like that isn't expected from the New Orleans police. They're the most corrupt police department in the country."
It's hard to abandon a port facility that would cost billions of dollars to replicate, and handles a significant portion of the country's shipping.
That said, it's also hard to rebuild said facility every 30 years or so.
Plus, who wants the refugees? Would you want NOPD transfers onto YOUR force?
Ted, the Mississippi is navigable. Why not rebuild it correctly, 30+ miles upriver? Then you could have a portside city with a positive elevation, and while you're at it, make it a clean city.
I've seen cost estimates from $81 billion to $110 billion in 2005 dollars to rebuild NOLA. Couldn't we build a crackerjack new port city for about that?
And then there's Quartzite, AZ, which doesn't even have all that racial tension mixed in. I firmly believe that bad cops are the most dangerous criminals anywhere, because they endanger all good cops, which also endangers the public.
I've been pissed off about police corruption and abuses of power since...well, since I first became aware of it.
The biggest problem I have with it is that I've known plenty of good cops.
And I know that, in the future, I'll be less cooperative with ANY cop I don't know...because of a few abusing the very source of their authority in society (public trust is more important than some arbitrary permission granted by our .gov).
I still wouldn't hesitate to help out an officer in need of assistance, and I'm not going out of my way to make things more difficult...but I'm damn-sure not going to blindly comply with whatever what (potentially) megalomaniacal pig wants to put me through. I'll question or I'll just keep my mouth shut.
Exactly correct MattG. I've added you to my blog roll.
Phillip's wife IS CORRECT... and don't forget the 'phantom' officers that never existed but drew paycheck s for years...
What Phillip said. NOPD is infamously corrupt and has been for many years, and anyone in the city or state knows it and takes it as a granted fact of existence.
It's part of freshman orientation at Tulane University not to wear any clothing with the university logo if you go out drinking in the Quarter, because NOPD may invent something to tag you with and toss you in the tank hoping to get a nice settlement out of your family lawyer. No kidding.
I lived in New Orleans for a time in the `70s and it was common knowledge that unless one lived in the Garden District, the cops were not your friends. "Corrupt" and "brutal" seemed to be their watchwords. What happened on the Danziger Bridge, as well as the cover-up of the killing of Henry Glover should have not surprised anyone who has lived there at any time i the last fifty years.
I've lived in a number of places in my life. Of all of them, New Orleans is possibly the only one that I'd never move back to.
A friend's father was killed over his first retirement check, and the police were anywhere from worthless to in on it.
I'm in no rush to see Mardi Gras.
Mardi gras is a joke!
If your hedonism needs an excuse, quit being such a hypocrite!
"...and regularly am told that I simply have to visit the place....For the food..."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't NOLA have one of the highest murder rates in the country? Because it that hold true, there isn't a dish on this Earth that I'm willing to risk my life for...
Cormac response #1. Well stated, and I agree.
"Why didn't we just quit the town, after the hurricane?" "Ted, the Mississippi is navigable. Why not rebuild it correctly, 30+ miles upriver?"
Cost. You'd be tacking on at least six more hours onto their river navigation. New Orleans is about as far upriver as is really cost effective to bring most ocean-going ships and about as far downriver as is solid enough to put up high-rises. No argument about the majority of the NOPD, though. The JPSO isn't as crooked, but are about as likely to give you an undeserved hickory shampoo.
I just had a very friendly encounter with some cops while I was out walking the other day...it warmed my heart.
It's so easy to forget that there are really nice guys in that uniform that you will actually meet!
Then my brother comes in and tells me about a friend of his whose blood was drawn without consent following an accident, and who has been in jail for 6 days now without being arraigned despite the fact that he wasn't drinking, so couldn't have been intoxicated.
Matt, I live in a community that could give NOLA a run for their money in the misconduct department.
That said, If I ever find myself in distress in Texas, I'll call the police.
And hope you will be the one responding.
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