New Orleans Police Beating Caught on Tape : AZ IMC

Oct 9, 3:53 PM EDT

New Orleans Police Beating Caught on Tape

By MARY FOSTER
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Two New Orleans police officers repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another city officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations.

There will be a criminal investigation, and the three officers were to be suspended, arrested and charged with simple battery Sunday, Capt. Marlon Defillo said.

"We have great concern with what we saw this morning," Defillo said after he and about a dozen other high-ranking police department officials watched the APTN footage Sunday. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it. ... This department will take immediate action."

The assaults 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.

The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the man at least four times in the head Saturday night as he stood outside a bar near Bourbon Street. The suspect, Robert Davis, appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers. One of the four then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter.

Meanwhile, a fifth officer ordered APTN producer Rich Matthews and the cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials and explained he was working, 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 later identified himself as S.M. Smith.

Police said Davis, 64, 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.

Matthews reports he saw a New Orleans police officer confront a 64-year-old man who was walking on Bourbon Street.

"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."

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.

Three of the five officers - including Smith - are New Orleans officers, and two others appeared to be federal officers. Numerous agencies have sent police to help with patrols in the aftermath of Katrina.

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.

Officers 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."

Many officers deserted their posts in the days after Katrina, and some were accused of joining in the looting that broke out. At least two committed suicide.

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.

a photo of the police beating

What's the point of being a cop if you can't beat poeple when you want?

After all, it's only a drunk, a man in his '60's, and he's black. Nothing to see here.

What we should do is seek dialog. We should try to understand the bad cops. We should all ask "why do they hate us?" We should decide it's all our fault and do everything in our power to Appease them.

And we should have the A.N.S.W.E.R. monkeys march in the streets to prop them up.

"We should all ask "why do they hate us?"

We should ask why this happened, not deny it by attacking the messenger for being unpatriotic, then deal with it.

Hey, hippie, glad you decided to open your drooling piehole.

Appeasing hand wringers (which means you) apparently doesn't have a sense of irony. And there's nothing "patriotic" about dropping to your knees instantly and fellating terrorists.

?Now don't you come back with that sloganeering shit about "it's patriotic to hate America and give bin Laden blowjobs", because you hippies don't have any credibility as it is.

What I will allow is for you to discuss United Nations Resolution # 1441, and I will allow you to discuss No Food for Oil!

Catch my drift, asswipe?

The Yellow-Bellied Amerikkkan Patriot:
When distressed this strange bird cries "Tray-Tor! Tray-Tor!"
When extremely threatened it runs in circles chirping "Kweer! Kweer! Kweer!"

Please, we can do without the juvenile "I know you are, but what am I?" crap. Leftists are groveling cowards, and eveybody knows it.

So are you going to answer about Resolution 1441? About the Food for Oil scandal? Didn't think so.

Um, wipe your chin....

I'm confused. Unless I'm massivley mistaken, this thread is in response to the NOPD's savage beating of an elderly man. I guess if you did anything other than listen to drudge and jerk off to pictures of Mussolini, you might have had the time to formulate a response to THAT issue. Clearly though, you were just too busy to think, so you pulled up the only remotley viable bullet points you have left in a pathetic attempt to reinforce your fantasy land where your president isn't a phony ass, limp-wristed, ivy league, chicken hawk. Oh, by the way, "your daily dose of reality", you wont ALLOW me to do anything cocksucker. I'm an American, so come try and tell me what i can and can't talk about, you "one wrong word from being shot in fucking face" fascist. I bet half of those hippies you talk so much about could wipe the floor with you, because only a true pussy would spend his time baiting and threatening pacifists. You want to show how big a man you are? How about you hippie stomper? You fucking drunk hicks can come to New Mexico and get cut to fucking pieces by the liberals out here. We shoot back bitches, and we rareley miss, so wear a motherfucking vest. As to your questions, I will respond to your issues when you respond to the downing street memo and explain why inteligence debunked a year earlier was included in the state of the union. Yeah, it's fucking annoying huh?

Thats funny. That guy who keeps posting "whats your point" really is a dumbshit. Yeah, I lean to the left a bit, coz theres more truth in the ideology. I consider myself mostly anarchistic, but don't nessisarily agree with all of their ideology/tactics. But one thing for sure, I DO fight back. I do get militant, and I do STOMP motherfuckin' fascists. So, catch me in the street and get beat you hick bastard.