New Orleans Police Department Issues LGBTQ Policy on Anniversary of Historic Stonewall Riots Against Police Brutality

From a press release from BreakOUT!

After organizing for over two years, BreakOUT! members enjoyed a victory today in the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) with the issuing of Policy 402, dealing with the treatment of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) community. 

The policy includes protocols for stopping and searching transgender individuals and mandates that officers be trained on issues pertaining to the LGBTQ community.  Most importantly, the policy specifically mandates that, Officers shall not use an individual's actual or perceived gender identity, or sexual orientation as reasonable suspicion or probable cause that an individual is or has engaged in any crime.  (NOPD Policy 402.4)

"While BreakOUT! is hopeful for the policy's implementation, we recognize that much more must be done to ensure the safety of queer and trans youth of color on the streets of New Orleans," said BreakOUT!Youth Organizer Derwin Wilright, Jr.

Members and organizers of BreakOUT! were disappointed in the lack of community engagement during the policy's development. While BreakOUT! secured a commitment from the NOPD in October 2012 to meet with members prior to the adoption of any LGBTQ policies after members testified about their experiences with the NOPD in front of City Council, it was not until March 2013 that BreakOUT! was invited to a meeting.  This meeting was only after BreakOUT! sent over 300 emails to Chief Ronal Serpas demanding that the NOPD keep their promise to LGBTQ youth in New Orleans. 

After receiving the first draft of the policy, BreakOUT! called for public meetings for the NOPD to solicit community feedback and engage community members in policing reforms.  BreakOUT! held a rally in front of NOPD headquarters to deliver a statement with signatures from over 15 organizational partners to call attention to racial and gender profiling and Stop & Frisk practices, including Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition. 

Although the NOPD refused BreakOUT!'s request for a public meeting, youth members solicited community feedback on the policy themselves and brought community members, including representatives from the Congress of Day Laborers, to the NOPD meeting with them.

All of this comes as the Department of Justice and City of New Orleans continue to battle over desperately needed federal oversight of the NOPD.  While these policies are a step in the right direction, BreakOUT! members say they are a far cry from the sweeping reforms needed to keep community members safe from  harmful and discriminatory policing practices in New Orleans.

It is notable that the policy was released on the 44th Anniversary of the historic Stonewall Riots, where queer and transgender youth of color and drag queens fought back against police brutality and police raids in Greenwich Village in New York.

"We can see that little has changed in the last four decades and BreakOUT! must continue the tradition of organizing for a safe and just city," said Milan Alexander,BreakOUT! Youth Organizer.  

Warning NOPD: Not My Sons! by Tracie Washington

My friends Richard and Hilda McCline needed a couple of guys to help them move boxes from the American Can to storage. So on Thursday, Jacob picked-up Donald (his friend) and they worked from a little after 11am until 2pm. On the way home, they stopped at the light at Carrollton and Tulane alongside a marked NOPD vehicle. When the light changed, both cars proceeded through the intersection and, immediately thereafter the police officers turned on their sirens. Jacob pulled over.

Jacob and Donald sat perfectly still (as they have been cautioned OVER AND OVER again), as they watched these officers, clad in those Black swat uniforms, jump out of their vehicle, jerk open the driver’s side and passenger car doors, and begin really gruff interrogations.

License and Registration

Where’s your I.D.? (Jacob hands over his driver’s license.)

Why don’t you have identification? Jacob just picked me up and I knew I would be driving so I didn’t think I needed to bring my license.

Is this your car? Yes, I mean, it’s owned by my mom, but it’s my car to drive.

What are you doing? We were doing a job for one of my mom’s friends.

Where are you coming from? The American Can.

What kind of job were you doing for these friends? This professor is moving to Georgia and so he and his wife needed help moving boxes to storage.

You boys in school? Yes, I attend Grinnell College. Yes, I attend Millsaps College. (each pointing to their gym shorts with the school names and logos on them; serendipity that they were wearing their college shorts that morning)

The officers look through the backseat of the car, walk to the back of the car, and then walk to their patrol car, wait about 30 seconds and return with this “warning” -- Just make sure you always wear your seatbelts.

Jacob and Donald had been wearing their seatbelts!

Everyone in the City of New Orleans knows, these NOPD Special Ops Jump Out Boys spend their days harassing young black men, hoping to pull over someone, open the doors to see if the smell marijuana, and then “justify” an illegal search under the guise that they smelled marijuana.

News Flash NOPD – You illegally stopped the wrong 19 year old. And because you don’t know whose son you may be stopping illegally, why not just end the illegal stops. ‘Cause see, when I'm done with these particular jokers, they will wish they had chosen a different profession. Sarah Palin could take lessons from this mamma-Grizzly. Orange is not on my color wheel, but I will wear it proudly if NOPD thugs harm my son. I’m just sayin’ ….. I’m scared every time my son is home from college. Not because of the New Orleans streets; Jacob knows how to avoid our “normal” thugs. I’m scared because I can’t tell him to avoid the “badge-wearing” thugs and in New Orleans they harass and kill Black men with impunity, and often without repercussions.

Jacob returns to Grinnell the day after my dad, Dr. Louis X. Washington, Sr., turns 75. I suppose I should find some comfort in the fact that my dad has survived 75 years of New Orleans. I don't.

I’ll sleep well again beginning August 11, 2012.

Coalition Gathers to Demand Action on NOPD Shootings

NEWS RELEASE: Non-Profits, Attorneys, and Community Members Unite to Demand Information from and Action by Local and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, the District Attorney, Mayor Landrieu, and the Local Press concerning NOPD Police-Involved Shootings
One week after the tragic NOPD police officer involved shooting of Wendell Allen, New Orleans area non-profits and community members are calling for immediate action by government officials.

“Wendell Allen’s murder raises significant civil rights issues, again, and reminds this community that nearly one year since the U.S. Department of Justice’s report concerning severe dysfunction within NOPD, that system has regressed,” according to Attorney Tracie L. Washington, Director/Counsel for Louisiana Justice Institute.

The assembled groups and community members have sent their letters to NOPD, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice, District Attorney Leon Canizzaro, and Mayor Mitchell Landrieu, calling for immediate access to critical information and actions to redress systemic problems within the criminal justice system.

Among those requests are the following:

1. To the NOPD, that it provide the names of all officers involved in the fatal shooting of Wendell Allen, and the Public Integrity Bureau files for all officers on the scene of this tragedy, in addition to providing to the public all NOPD policies related to

a) NOPD’s Use of Force, and,

b) NOPD investigation of officer involved shooting, including any policies or practices related to a waiting period after an officer involved shooting before officers are interviewed by investigators.

2. To the Office of Mayor Landrieu, that it provide documentation concerning status of the Consent Decree negotiations and confection;

3. That District Attorney Cannizzaro immediately convene a Grand Jury to investigate the fatal shooting of unarmed Wendell Allen shooting by NOPD Officer Jason Coclough, and request appropriate criminal charges;

4. That the NOPD provide unfettered and immediate real time access by the Independent Police Monitor (IPM) to all shooting-related crime scenes and that any and all information related to officer related shootings be released immediately, and upon demand to the IPM;

5. That the F.B.I. is called immediately to all officer-involved shooting crime scenes – and that the F.B.I. accepts this charge as a mandate – and that the FBI is actively involved in such investigations and allowed unfettered and immediate real time access to same. Further, that the F.B.I. provide names and access to all assigned agents involved in these investigations;

6. That the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Civil Rights, open an investigation immediately into any NOPD officer-involved shooting and allegation of excessive use-of-force, and allow public access to all findings at the earliest appropriate time, and

7. That Mayor Mitchell Landrieu attends a meeting of community groups to discuss his plans to address the growing sea of distrust between the NOPD and the people of New Orleans they are sworn to serve.

The tragic fatal shooting of Wendell Allen by the NOPD, the unanswered questions regarding the investigation of this calamity, the outstanding questions regarding the shooting of Earl Sipp in police handcuffs and the fatal shooting of Justin Sipp – these events alone are alarming enough, but when considered with the surge of violent crime, and the mounting credibility challenges facing Superintendent Serpas and fundamental failure of NOPD command to respectfully and effectively engage the public in the fight against violent crime have resulted in an toxic and volatile atmosphere of distrust that threatens the peace and safety of every New Orleanian. It is imperative that leadership act immediately and transparently to begin to address the evaporation of public confidence in the NOPD and city government leadership.

Did Closing the Large Housing Projects in New Orleans Create a Spike in Crime and Violence? By Dr. Lance Hill

One of the post-Katrina policies touted as a way of reducing poverty and crime was to demolish most of the large housing projects and disperse the poor throughout the city (and the nation). Apparently the planners were not paying attention to what happened in Memphis when this policy was implemented.

In New Orleans, dispersing the poor also meant dispersing some of those who deal drugs, which would inevitably lead to a new war over drug markets. Combine that with a generation of untreated Katrina-traumatized poor youth, expelling them or driving them out of the new profit-driven charter schools, and skyrocketing Black unemployment and poverty rates because Blacks have been locked out of the billions in recovery money, and one can see the futility of proposals to “arrest and imprison” our way out of this problem or blame fragmented and dispersed families and local communities for problems that were imposed on them by social planners who wanted a whiter and more affluent New Orleans.

Now there are cries to bring out the National Guard to meet the problem of traumatized youth who could care less about the criminal justice consequences of their actions because they expect to be quickly executed in retaliatory actions for their crimes. The National Guard tactic was tried in Puerto Rico several years ago but only showed some success because crime and violence was concentrated in a few public housing neighborhoods, which we no longer have for the most part. The National Guard assisted local police in New Orleans after Katrina, but that was in a city largely depopulated. Now that we have forcibly dispersed the poor internally in a 180 square mile area, the chance of anticipating and preventing violence through policing seems very unlikely.

But we do have proven solutions that overcome geography and trauma. They begin with remedying the injustices of the Katrina recovery. Opening tens of thousands of jobs to local residents would reduce, not increase violence. It would not end it, but it would improve on the 37% Black poverty rate we have now—a rate higher than before Katrina. We had $20 billion to spend on hiring local workers and we did not; we now have another $20 billion in recovery dollars and there is no plan to change the policy of relying on cheap, itinerant, outside labor. People who self-medicate their emotional pain with street drugs can be removed from the deadly drug market by providing comprehensive mental health programs and prescription drugs for the indigent. And we can ban the practice of expelling special needs students and low-performing students from our schools and also stop driving them into dead-end “prison prep” dumping schools just so that privatized charter schools can inflate their test scores and make a profit.

What does the future hold? We now have 65% of Black children under the age of five living in poverty in New Orleans, facing a bleak future. The Census Bureau says that as of 2010, there is not a single white male between the ages of 13 to 15 living in poverty in the city of New Orleans. Is there a correlation to the relative low crime and violence rate among young white males and the fact that, although they too experienced the trauma of Katrina, they came back to private mental health care, free anti-depressants and counseling, and their parents' homes were not demolished nor were their jobs stolen? They face a bright, secure, future.

The model for solving the problem of New Orleans Black youth crime and violence is right in front of us: it’s just across St. Charles Avenue.

Dr. Lance Hill is the Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a tolerance education and race relations research center based at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and The Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).

NOPD Declares War on Sex Workers

Calling prostitution "a dangerous, violent crime," NOPD Police Chief Ronal Serpas announced today that New Orleans police had arrested 67 sex workers in the months of July and August in an undercover operation that also involved State Police, the FBI and the Secret Service.

In June, the NOPD made a similar announcement, in operations that totaled at least 60 prostitution arrests. Another June operation, targeting the clients of prostitutes, brought 29 arrests, including one NOPD officer.

Perhaps the most disturbing element of the recent campaign was the announcement by District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro that "prosecutors persuaded judges to slow down," causing releases on light bail to plunge.

The high-profile press conference held to announce the arrests, combined with the multi-agency involvement, indicates that this is another attempt by the NOPD to polish their image, similar to a recent campaign that involved officers checking the locks on car doors and knocking on houses.

The announcement also came on the same day that a judge ruled that a suit challenging Louisiana's registration of sex workers could go forward.

Chief Serpas' official statements further demonized the sex workers, accusing them of nearly every crime short of terrorism. "We find time and time again that women and men who actively participate in prostitution tend to commit other crimes," claimed Serpas. "Such as some form of battery, simple robbery, armed robbery, illegal drug deals, or carrying concealed weapons. In some cases, customers of prostitutes find that their wallets have been lifted, which means bank card theft and sometimes stolen identity cases. This is why it’s an incredibly worthwhile effort to target people involved in the prostitution business."

According to the Times-Picayune, Serpas indicated at the press conference that the arrests were requested by French Quarter business owners. It remains to be seen if this targeting of women provides the public image make-over the NOPD is hoping for.

Photo of Ronal Serpas from 2010 press conference.

Danziger Bridge Police Trial Exposes NOPD Corruption ... Again

This is an altered version of a story originally published on The Loop21 website:
In New Orleans’ federal courthouse, five police officers are currently facing charges of killing unarmed Black civilians on Danziger Bridge and conspiring for more than four years to cover-up their crime.

The New Orleans Police Department has developed a reputation as one of the most violent and corrupt in the nation, and the revelations in this case has stoked anger and outrage, especially in New Orleans’ African-American community. “This case shows the total dysfunction of the New Orleans Police Department,” says Malcolm Suber, a longtime activist against police brutality and project director with the New Orleans chapter of the American Friends Service Committee. “It shows they were just going wild after the storm.” Suber and other activists have called for the DOJ to launch a wide-ranging investigation into a pattern of abuse they say goes back decades.

A Department With A Troubled History

Like most southern police departments, NOPD was explicitly segregationist for much of the 20th century. The first Black New Orleans police officer was not hired until 1950 and it was several more years before Black officers were allowed to carry a gun or arrest whites. In comparison, Miami, Florida was one of the first southern cities to hire Black officers, starting in 1944, while Jackson Mississippi did not hire their first Black officer until 1963.

Even as Black officers came onto the force, suspicion from the Black community remained. In 1980, New Orleans was rocked by protests when Sherry Singleton, a 26-year old African-American mother, was shot by police while she was naked in a bathtub, in front of her four year old child. Police said she was armed, but a neighbor testified that she heard her pleading, “please don’t shoot, please don’t shoot.”

The issue of police violence continued to dominate in the 1990s. Revelations of corruption in the force inspired both mass protest and Department of Justice investigations. Federal involvement combined with aggressive actions on the part of a new mayor and police chief led to 110 police officers being arrested, while 600 officers were suspended, 117 were fired and 180 officers resigned while under investigation. Two NOPD officers received the death penalty for killing civilians. One of those officers, Len Davis, was caught on a federal wiretap ordering the assassination of a woman who had complained about police brutality. As officers were being fired and disciplined, the city’s murder and violent crime rates dropped dramatically, and the prosecution of corrupt officers was widely seen as having made the city safer.

Advocates say that the changes begun in the 90s were cut short when C. Ray Nagin became mayor, at around the same time that the Clinton presidency ended and the Bush administration begun. Both Bush and Nagin seemed uninterested in continuing to prosecute police, and New Orleans slipped back into having the nation’s highest murder rate, as well as reclaiming the title of the capital of police violence.

Renewed Outrage Brings Energy for Change

The revelations of post-Katrina police violence have given birth to a new era of outrage. Political and civic leaders, across boundaries of color and class, have called for systemic change in the NOPD. “The public has a right to know what really happened,” says Anthony Radosti, vice president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, which plays the role of an unofficial watchdog over the NOPD. “The police department failed in their mission,” adds Radosti, a 23-year veteran of the NOPD.

Ronal Serpas, who has hired by Mayor Landrieu to run the department in 2010, admits that the department has a long way to go. “Chief Serpas has always acknowledged that he inherited a fundamentally flawed department,” explains NOPD spokesperson Remi Braden. “He has done a lot, but there is much more to be done.”

Federal agents are looking into at least 9 cases of police killings from the past several years, but that is just one aspect of their involvement. In March, the DOJ released a 58-page report that describes a department facing problems that “are serious, systemic, wide-ranging, and deeply rooted.” The report highlighted a range of areas in which it found “patterns or practices of unconstitutional conduct and/or violations of federal law.”

The bad news keeps coming out of the NOPD. In just the past two weeks since the Danziger trial began, scandal has reached the very top of the department. The NOPD’s second in charge, Marlon Defillo, was found in an investigation overseen by the state police to have neglected his duty to investigate police violence, in effect helping to hinder official investigations. Three police commanders – the position under Defillo, and third in the overall NOPD hierarchy – have also been the subject of internal investigation. One commander was accused of directing officers to specifically target young Black men for questioning during the city’s Essence Festival, one of the nation’s largest Black tourism events. He resigned shortly after the investigation was announced.

Investigations are also ongoing into profiteering in the NOPD's "paid detail" system, in which officers make extra money - sometimes far more than their official salary - by doing outside work for hire. Among those under investigation are Police Commander Edwin Hosli, a close ally and friend of Chief Serpas, and officer Travis Ward, Serpas' son-in-law.

Criminal justice activists have demanded more federal investigations and a wider scope. “This represents a real opportunity for New Orleans to raise some fundamental questions about the nature of police and what they do,” says organizer Malcolm Suber. “But unless we talk about the entire system, this will repeat again.”

Photo above from 2010 Protest/Memorial on Danziger Bridge.

First National Conference of Formerly Incarcerated Persons Convenes In Alabama

From our friends at Black Agenda Report:
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Black Agenda Report managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

In the spirit of those brave and selfless Georgia prisoners who stood up for their human rights last December, formerly incarcerated people from across the country convened their own first national meeting in Alabama last week. The next is scheduled for November in Los Angeles. They stand for the full restoration of civil and human rights, and the rollback of the nation's policy of mass incarceration.

Many have declared that the real Freedom Movement of the 21st century will be a broad civic mobilization to confront the prison state and the policies of mass incarceration it inflicts upon the black, the brown and the poor. If so, the clearest sign that such a movement is truly underway is the awakening and self-organization of the formerly incarcerated.

Last week, The Ordinary Peoples Society of Alabama hosted the first national gathering of the Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted Peoples Movement. The three day meeting was attended by ex-prisoners from all 50 states and included formerly incarcerated leaders from dozens of groups from around the country, including co-conveners All of Us or None (CA), Women on the Rise Telling Her Story (NY), National Exhoodus Council (PA), A New Way of Life (CA), Direct Action for Rights and Equality (RI) and many more.

Many of these one-time prisoners had long ago seized control of their lives and destinies to found service and self-help organizations in their own cities. Up till now, much of their activism has been about providing counseling to former inmates and their families, helping them find jobs, health care, housing and a tenuous foothold from which to re-enter society. They have led local efforts to curb violence and drug use, to keep kids in school, as well as restorative justice initiatives designed to make the victims of crime whole and heal the wounds of their families and communities. Separately, the former prisoners and the organizations they founded have waged local, statewide and national campaigns to curb the vicious and pervasive discrimination against former prisoners in employment and housing and to fully restore their civil and human rights.

Participants at the meeting pointed out that 700,000 prisoners were released from state and federal custody every from 2005 to 2009, mostly into communities with few jobs, little health care, dim economic prospects, and not many educational opportunities. These lives cannot be rescued, they said, unless the communities they come from and return to are rescued as well.

“In the end, more prisons are not the answer to crime,” Pastor Kenneth Glasgow of Dothan Alabama, one of the event's principal organizers told Black Agenda Report. “Mass incarceration,” he emphasized, “locks long-term poverty in place for the communities many prisoners come from and return to. Our work changing individual lives has led us back here, back to Selma and Montgomery,” said Pastor Glasgow. “Just as we've changed ourselves, we are going to challenge America, to change America, and to roll back this prison state.”

The meeting of the Formerly Incarcerated Persons Movement was funded in part by the good people of the Drug Policy Alliance. It was conducted in the spirit of the Peoples Movement Assemblies, which are a spin off of the US and World Social Forum Movements. Participants in the meeting left with commitments to begin the political education and organization of the formerly incarcerated, their families and their communities across the country as part of their ongoing self-help agenda.

That is how mass movements for real change grow. The next national gathering of the formerly incarcerated will take place in Los Angeles this November. You can contact the national Movement of Formerly Incarcerated Persons on the web at wearetops.org, or through links on blackagendareport.com.

Jackson City Council Passes Anti-Profiling Legislation

From our friends at the ACLU of Mississippi:

JACKSON - The ACLU of Mississippi announced today that it applauds the Jackson City Council 6-1 vote to pass an anti-racial profiling ordinance. The ordinance prohibits police officers from stopping or detaining people based on the person’s race, immigration status, perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. It also prohibits police officers from asking people about their immigration status solely to determine if they are in the United States illegally.

“I commend the council members for standing up for the protection of civil rights and civil liberties,” said Nsombi Lambright, ACLU-MS Executive Director. “A person’s race should never be grounds to suspect that someone has committed a crime. This ordinance declares that Mississippi’s capital city will not tolerate racial profiling.”

The ordinance also enforces basic Constitutional protections.

“The Constitution guarantees equal protection and prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement,” said Bear Atwood. “This ordinance underscores those protections and reminds police officers that they have a sworn duty to uphold them.”

LJI Injustice Index: The State of Criminal Justice in New Orleans:

July 2010: Oppression and Repression for All
“We are dedicated to maintaining the highest moral and ethical standards, through the principles of pride, honesty, trust and courage.”
-NOPD Mission Statement

Maintaining the Highest Moral and Ethical Standards:
• New Orleans is ranked 2nd in the nation for police misconduct.
• NOPD receives an average of 555 citizen complaints of misconduct per year.
• On average, 162 NOPD officers are disciplined per year for misconduct
• In 2010 alone, 16 New Orleans Police Department Officers have been either convicted or federally indicted for violent crimes against New Orleans residents.

A Waste of Resources:
• While the total number of arrests has been reduced by 7%, traffic arrests increased by 45% from 6,874 to 9,985 over a one-year period.
• Only 13% or 7,945 of the 59,974 Orleans Parish arrests were felony arrests, and 6% of arrests resulted in a violent felony conviction.

Criminalizing Non-Criminals – A Booming Business:
• 86% of all arrests were for misdemeanors, municipal, traffic violations, and other arrests
• Over 3,400 (or 77%) of traffic arrests were for license violations such as driving with a suspended or invalid license.
• NOPD Averages about 6,000 traffic stops per week.
• New Orleans Police Officers make an average of two stops per each of the 118,464 resident commuters each year.
• The odds of those traffic stops resulting in a citation: 1:3
• The odds of those traffic stops resulting in arrest: 1:31

Is Everybody Really Breaking the Law?
• According to an audit of the Orleans Parish Traffic Court’s processing system, 30% of all cases processed by court personnel had the potential for processing errors. Of the 90,000+ traffic citations processed by the court annually, 27,000 were possibly erroneously processed, resulting in the issuance of illegal arrest warrants, license suspensions, and illegally impounded vehicles.
• With the average traffic citation of $110.00, the City of New Orleans can make up to $3,000,000 per year in fraudulent fines and fees.

Photo from April, 2010 Community United for Change demonstration, New Orleans, LA.

Community Organizers Congratulate Mayor Landrieu for Important Step Towards Reform of New Orleans Police Department

Mayor Landrieu Invites U.S. Department of Justice Assistance

Leaders from more than two dozen community organizations applaud Mayor Landrieu's invitation to the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene to enforce reforms and provide monitoring and oversight of the New Orleans Police Department.

For the past year, and then most frequently in the last two months, New Orleans advocates and concerned citizens have been meeting to discuss ways in which to involve the US Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights in systemic reform of the New Orleans Police Department. During a meeting on April 14, 2010, a group of advocates gathered at the LJI Office to discuss a campaign strategy for requesting U.S. Department of Justice intervention for the monitoring and supervision of the New Orleans Police Department. All in attendance agreed that hiring a new New Orleans Police Superintendent was not sufficient to force reform within the department.

On Tuesday, May 4, over two dozen organizations signed a letter addressed to Mr. Thomas E. Perez, Esq. Assistant Attorney General - Office of Civil Rights, requesting that the United States Department of Justice intervene in the reform of the NOPD through utilization of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which authorizes the Department of Justice to file civil lawsuits against law enforcement agencies that engage in a pattern of violating people's rights and obtain a court order to monitor and reform them.

Less than 24 hours later, Mayor Landrieu met with 16 of these leaders and 6 attorneys from the US Department of Justice, and then announced that he has invited the Justice Department to come to New Orleans and perform an assessment of the NOPD and the criminal justice system. Mayor Landrieu anticipates this assessment will eventually lead to a consent decree and federal oversight for the New Orleans Police Department.

None of this work would have been possible without the sacrifices and organizing committed organizing of criminal justice advocates and concerned New Orleans residents who have worked together for years. Moreover, this final community push for a judicially binding consent agreement could not have happened without the courageous leadership of those 26 groups and equal number of individuals who signed the May 4 letter to Mr. Perez. Most important, this effort marks a tremendous victory for community organizers, who work tirelessly to insure everyone's voice is heard when public policy is made. With less than 2 hours notice, 16 individuals gathered to meet with Mayor Landrieu and Justice Department attorneys. "We hope the meeting marks a fundamental change in how our local government interacts with the community. There was mutual respect in that room. Everyone was able to express the pain of past dealings with NOPD and our dysfunctional criminal justice system here in New Orleans, and then commit to each other to work collaboratively in the future," commented Barbara Major.

Those attending the meeting: Bertrain Butler - New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Council; Lucas Diaz - Puentes NOLA; Ken Foster and Baty Landis - Silence is Violence; Norris Henderson - V.O.T.E.; Robert Horton and Ronald McCoy - Black Men United for Change; Allen James and Robert Goodman - Safe Street/Strong Communities; Mary Howell; Mary Joseph - Children's Defense Fund; Carol Kolinchak - Juvenile Justice Project Louisiana; Barbara Major; Jacques Morial and Tracie Washington - Louisiana Justice Institute; and Malcolm Suber - American Friends Service Committee.

When Abuse is the Norm, by M. Endesha Juakali, J.D.

Recently there was a controversy surrounding the transition task force charged with assisting in finding a new police chief for New Orleans. Our city's new mayor, Mitch Landrieu, declared a national search to find the best available person for the job of police chief. According to him, this is a fresh new approach and his task force allowed a cross section of the community to have input in the decision making process. However, four of the community persons from the transition task force resigned or were forced out.

The reality of the situation is this process is old hat and the community involvement is only window dressing for him to hide behind. The community will have no real power to impact this decision. Therefore, honest community representatives had only two choices: participate in this charade or resign and expose it. I applaud the choice of the four who refused to go along and be silent.

In tandem with this process of internal selection, there is another farce being perpetrated on the citizens of New Orleans. This is the selection of a so-called police monitor, which is supposed to give citizens some extra protection from police abuse by having an independent monitor to investigate the actions of the police.

The problem is, like the task force mentioned above, the police monitor has no real power. It cannot even investigate the police, but can only “review the New Orleans police department's internal investigation of misconduct cases to determine if they were properly conducted." This means they will only see what the police department gives them. They have no independent investigation power, no subpoena powers, no arrest powers, and no powers to take police off the streets. In short, they have no powers at all, except the power to come to work and get paid.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

I remember thinking recently that I was having a flashback when I watched some well-meaning community groups fight in the city council chamber for an entity to oversee police actions. This was not a new request, just as the most recent spate of police murder is not a recent occurrence or an aberration.

In going forward with trying to change the NOPD, we must accept two major facts:

1) The brutal actions by the New Orleans police department is not the work of a few bad apples on an otherwise good group of hard working individuals. Brutality and the deprivation of the rights of the black/poor is ingrained into the fiber and history of the NOPD.
2) The police cannot police themselves, and any entity that is not totally independent of both the police department and government will ultimately become a part of the problem, not the solution.

REMEMBER ALGIERS

I began organizing against police brutality in 1980, when a police officer named Gregory Neupert was found on a levee in Algiers shot to death. There has never been a satisfactory explanation as to why he was on a dark levee by himself with no legitimate reason, with no back-up and without the knowledge of his bosses. But his fellow officers did not need a reason. In their minds, someone in the black community killed one of them and they intended to get some payback.

Almost immediately, the entire black community in Algiers was under siege. People were beaten, kidnapped, and tortured. Based upon the information received from the use of torture, police raids led to the murder of four people in Algiers, three men and one young mother who was shot through the eye with a 357 magnum revolver and in the chest with a shotgun loaded with double ought buckshot. She was shot while naked, unarmed and in front of her 4 year old son. During that same period unarmed black men were killed in the French Quarter and the Desire community. In fact, in a very short period of time 11 people had been killed by the police, in different parts of the city, following the death of Officer Neupert.

In response to this war that had been declared on the black community by NOPD, we created the Committee for Accountable Police (CAP), a united front of family members, neighbors, civic leaders, lawyers and activists.

I was one of the student leaders that helped organize on the college campuses. In fighting back, CAP had numerous marches, closed down the city council, closed down police headquarters, occupied the mayor's office for over a week, and sponsored a public hearing that packed the city council chambers with people testifying regarding the actions of NOPD, from 6pm in the evening until the sun came up the next day.

After months of protracted struggle, the following results were achieved:

1) The police chief, who was brought in from Alabama after an exhaustive national search, was forced to resign.
2) Seven police officers were indicted for civil rights violations and four were convicted.
3) The city created the Office Of Municipal Investigation, an independent agency to monitor the actions of the police department.
4) The city settled with the families of those murdered by police, paying out millions of dollars.

WHAT DIDN'T HAPPEN

The reality of this situation is that none of the police officers who participated in these murders were convicted for what happened to Sherry Singleton and the other persons killed during this rampage. These officers were not even removed from the police force and continued having power over citizens. Many ended up being supervisors and passing on their unique form of policing to incoming officers.

The OMI became a part of the system and was totally controlled by the forces that supported the role of the police in New Orleans, In other words the police continued to police themselves.

I stated at that public hearing that: “the police policing the police is like having Dracula guarding a blood bank,” and I still feel the same way today. Since most of the police that went on a murder spree in 1980 are still on the police force now, what has happened since should not be a surprise.

I was not surprised when I heard that the police department used hurricane Katrina as an excuse to hunt and murder black people. The beating death of Adolph Archie was expected. Antoinette Franks, who murdered several citizens while pulling off a robbery and Len Davis, who put a hit out on a young black woman for filing a complaint against him, are par for the course for NOPD. Shooting a young black man 22 times for no obvious reason is not outside of the norm. What I saw and learned while organizing after the Algiers murders made me understand, it is the total relationship between the police and the black community that is the problem, it was then, and that hasn't changed.

In looking at the current situation, we have lost many of the reforms we fought for and won thirty years ago.

In the end, we must understand that the problems that exist between the police and the black community are ageless and systemic. The original police were the paddy rollers whose job it was to catch escaped slaves. The criminal justice system was given an exemption from the thirteenth amendment, using conviction of a crime as a way to re-enslave those being emancipated. Under this system, the police are supposed to be brutal, and fear is a tool of control.

If we are going to protect ourselves from the daily disrespect, abuses, and brutality of the police department, we must create an entity that is controlled by the community, that reports to the community, and is funded through the community. We need a version of the community policing model that was put in place by the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in Oakland 40 years ago. But instead of shotguns people need to be trained to use cameras and video to document the daily abuse,disrespect and violations of rights that goes on in the Black community countless times on a daily basis. This evidence would be delivered to a central place where people with knowledge of the law would formulate official complaints and make the case prior to turning it over to officials. This would be accompanied by exposing the info to progressive media sources prior to giving it to traditional media outlets.

The community must also be educated and organized on how to document what they see, such things as date, time, place, of incidents, car and badge numbers, and name addresses and telephone numbers of witnesses, of course none of this would be given to the police until it is processed and the persons involved are protected(from the police). Some will say that this would place people in harms way, since the police will not want to be filmed, photographed, or policed by the community. My, response is that we are all in harms way now, we must at least try to fight back.

Victims of Police Brutality and Community Leaders Demand US Justice Department widen its Probe of NOPD

A newly formed coalition, Community United for Change, will be holding a picket line and press conference to announce their demand to US Attorney General Eric Holder and the US Justice Department to widen their present investigation of the NOPD to include all instances of police violence, abuse and murder over the past 30 years.

* When: Tuesday April 20, @ 11:00 am
* Where: 600 Camp Street
* Who: Community United for Change

"We don't want the investigation to look at just 8 instances of abuse. We believe there are scores of victims in our community and scores of murderers and abusers on the NOPD" said Peggy Williams. Family members of victims who have received no relief on the local level will join with families who are currently included in the 8 cases being investigated. Together they will add their voices to demand an enlarged probe.

The Assistant US Attorney Perez stated that the New Orleans Police department is suffering from a "Crisis of Confidence", He continued by saying, "I'm very, very disturbed by the allegation we're investigating . . . We certainly intend to use every law enforcement tool at our disposal to ensure that wrongdoing is uncovered and that in the long-term systems are put into place to prevent these problems from happening".

Organizers of of CUC said that they "are holding Perez to his words by demanding that an enlargement of the federal investigation be given to all acts of deprivation by the NOPD."

They also will announce the convening of a public hearing to be held at 6pm, Thursday, April 22 at St. James AME Fellowship Hall on 219 N. Derbigny Street. The public hearing will take testimony from victims, witnesses and family members of the deceased to present to the US Justice Department in support of our demand to widen the probe.

Mitch Landrieu Dismisses Critics of Police Chief Search Process

At a press conference today, Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu fired back at the former members of his police chief search team, dismissing them as "individuals who chose to take their ball and go home." The Mayor-elect did not respond to their criticisms at length, seeming to ignore the fact that many of their demands related to basic issues of transparency such as access to task force meeting minutes.

"We have seventeen members of the task force who are completely on board with what we're doing," said Landrieu, adding that the total number of members of all his search teams was more than four hundred people. "We've had four people out of four hundred say this isn't my cup of tea."

Landrieu said that the board members represented the old ways of New Orleans politics. He accused them of finger-pointing and possessing a narrow agenda, and painted their departure as sour grapes against a new mayor who is breaking with the city's old habits. "We're going to rediscipline ourselves in this city," said Landrieu.

Baty Landis, the Silence is Violence founder who was forced off the committee for making her comments public, was disappointed in Landrieu's comments. "I was hoping that he would step up today," she said. "I was hoping he'd say that he would take an active hand in the process. As it stands, it seems he's just saying everything is fine and our complaints were just an aberration."

A CALL TO ACTION: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SUPERVISION OF NOPD REQUIRED NOW

When she was called for jury duty, Veda Manual’s reaction was no different from most citizens. “I knew it would be long,” she said. “No one wants to be there.” But because it was her civic duty, last week she sat at Criminal District Court and endured the process. Unfortunately, what she experienced will come as no surprise to most New Orleanians.

“Three times we could not seat a jury,” She says. The reason for this difficulty could not have been envisioned by the framers of our constitution. A majority of our residents – and an overwhelming majority of African-Americans – know this truth and live its fear. It was a case of drug possession with intent to distribute, where there was no physical evidence, just the testimony of the police officer(s). “In light of all of what we know about the police, I said I couldn’t convict anyone on their testimony alone. I was Juror No. 1. Sixteen of the other people in my group agreed. How can we trust the police?”

Ordinary citizens could not in good conscience affirm they could believe the truth of any testimony sworn under oath by officers of the New Orleans Police Department.

Harsh? Well, let’s consider some of the news headlines/reports and proven facts, just since Katrina:

 NOPD officers' account of beating disputed
Associated Press
Oct. 10, 2005, 10:12PM
A retired elementary school teacher was arrested and beaten by police officers who claim he was publicly intoxicated. The incident was caught on tape by Associated Press Television News, and one producer was allegedly grabbed and shoved by the arresting officers.

 NOPD baits, then arrests, the homeless
POSTED: 01:00 AM Friday, July 11, 2008
BY: Richard A. Webster, Staff Writer, New Orleans City Business
Police officers baited passersby by placing several small items worth less than 10 dollars in plain view on the dash of unlocked cars in an effort to entrap and arrest homeless people living under the Claiborne overpass.

 Cop booked in rape of 13-year-old was investigated twice for raping young girls, but remained on the job
By Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
October 23, 2008, 7:59AM
A veteran NOPD officer, twice accused of rape by young girls in 2001 and 2003, was booked after a third girl accused him of rape. Though he was twice investigated in the past, both investigations ended with prosecutors citing “failure of the victims or the victim’s parents to cooperate.” Neither of the investigations were noted on his civil service record.

 Cops involved in New Year's killing of Adolph Grimes III face other probes
By Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
February 05, 2009, 10:27PM
On the same evening nine officers shot and killed 22 year-old Adolph Grimes III another incident occurred where the same nine-man unit subdued Cleavon Crutchfield with a taser gun and drew guns on his family. Several of the officers involved in the separate incidents are under investigation for other incidents.

 Man 'impersonating' cop was an actual NOPD officer
By Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune
March 20, 2009, 11:35AM
Darrius Clipps, who allegedly forced his way into several area homes and victimized several Hispanic men and women, was not impersonating a police officer as early reports claimed but was in fact a member of the police force.

 NOPD cops lied about bar brawl, inquiry says
By Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
July 10, 2009, 9:23AM
An NOPD internal report concludes that police officers involved in a 2008 bar fight between off-duty officers and RTA workers lied to investigators, and at least one officer coerced false testimony from a witness.

 NOPD downgrading of rape reports raises questions
By Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune
July 11, 2009, 9:02PM
Though the police boast a decline in the number of rapes, in examining complaints, there is a trend where in more than half of the complaints of rape or other sexual assault the matter is classified as a noncriminal complaint. The police attribute the disparity in complaints that are pursued and complaints that are “noncriminal” to the difficulty in coaxing rape victims to come forward. Some experts claim that many of the complaints that are reclassified as non criminal should be categorized as sex crimes.

 State audit blasts NOPD evidence room, notes police leaders may have broken state lawBy Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
July 13, 2009, 10:09PM
The NOPD property and evidence room lost track of more than $200,000, and officials failed to notify the Orleans Parish District Attorney and state auditors in writing of the missing money.

 NOPD cop who stole watch had been cited for two other crimes during time on forceBy Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
September 11, 2009, 7:00AM
An NOPD officer who was arrested amid allegations that he stole an expensive watch from a citizen while on a service call was twice cited for other crimes during his time on the force. In 2008 he was issued municipal summons in September for domestic battery, and in March for public intoxication, public intimidation, and resisting an officer.

 Police shootings after Katrina: Was a gun inside a bag a threat to 5 officers?
By The Times-Picayune
December 13, 2009, 10:00PM
This story was reported by A.C. Thompson of ProPublica, and Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi of The Times-Picayune
A Matthew McDonald was shot and killed by 5 police officers days after Hurricane Katrina after they claimed he reached into a white plastic bag in an attempt to remove a handgun. No crime scene photos were taken, no autopsy was performed, and officers were unable to locate witnesses to the incident. Family members say that when they contacted the police, NOPD informed them that McDonald was killed by a civilian.

 Police shootings after Katrina: How does a man waving down a police car die from a shotgun blast to his back?
By The Times-Picayune
December 14, 2009, 10:00PM
This story was reported by A.C. Thompson of ProPublica, and Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi of The Times-Picayune
Though a police investigation concluded that the shooting 45-year old Danny Brumfield Sr. by police officers outside of the Convention Center following Hurricane Katrina was justified by the threat Mr. Brumfield posed to the officers, further investigation suggests that the police investigation was half-hearted at best. Mr. Brumfield was shot in the back, not the shoulder as the police investigation claims. The police collected no evidence at the scene, and only one witness statement was taken, from Mr. Brumfield’s sister, despite the many onlookers who witnessed the incident.

 Police shootings after Katrina: SWAT team sees armed man, shoots him three times, but where's the gun?
By The Times-Picayune
December 15, 2009, 10:00PM
This story was reported by A.C. Thompson of ProPublica, and Brendan McCarthy and Laura Maggi of The Times-Picayune
In an incident where no civilian witness interviews were taken, 28 year-old Keenon McCann was shot several times by police officers who claimed he was brandishing a gun. No gun was recovered.

 Riley, Compass, New Orleans police officials summoned to federal grand jury
By Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
January 15, 2010, 4:03PM
Current Police Superintendent Riley and his predecessor Compass, with other police officials, were questioned by federal prosecutors concerning two separate inquiries into police conduct following Hurricane Katrina. The prosecutors are probing the Danziger bridge shooting and the mysterious death of a man found burned to death in a car in Algiers.

 Police supervisor encouraged cover-up, knew officer planted gun while still on Danziger Bridge
By Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune
February 24, 2010, 2:16PM
Lt. Michael Lohman has been charged with one count of conspiring to obstruct justice after he and several other officers colluded to falsify reports and plant evidence at the scene of a police shooting.

 Mardi Gras Indians concerned about police antagonismBy Katy Reckdahl, The Times-Picayune
March 08, 2010, 4:18AM
With Super Sunday around the corner, Mardi Gras Indians from several tribes have expressed concern over police antagonism towards spectators and participants. Indians have reported several incidents in which police harassed maskers and participants who claim they were parading peacefully.

 Algiers police shooting report altered, sources say
By Times-Picayune Staff
March 14, 2010, 10:55AM
Inconsistencies lie between the official police report and the police report originally written by Officer David Warren whose name appears on the official document’s cover page. There are other inconsistencies in the report, which concerned the death of Henry Glover who died while in police custody and whose burned corpse was discovered in a car on the Algiers levee after Hurricane Katrina.

 Suit claims police harass journalists and bystandersPosted: Monday, 15 March 2010 1:20PM
Associated Press Reporting
A suit brought against NOPD alleges that police officers have engaged in a pattern of arresting and/or harassing journalists and bystanders who photograph them in public. The plaintiffs cite 11 incidents since 2005 where people were harassed or arrested for videotaping, photographing, or observing police officers.

 Danziger Bridge case suggests culture of corruption at NOPD
By Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
March 21, 2010, 9:45AM
Officers involved in a shooting on the Danziger Bridge following Hurricane Katrina are accused of conspiracy to cover up police misconduct. The coverup included officers of varying rank, who went so far as to meet in a gutted police station to ensure that their fictitious version of the story was uniform among the conspirators.

A CULTURE OF CORRUPTION AT NOPD

There is a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers of the New Orleans Police Department that deprives persons of rights, privileges, and immunities secured and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States. We know this. It’s nothing new; the hurricane didn’t stop anything.

In Black Rage in New Orleans, Leonard N. Moore traces the disturbing history of police corruption in New Orleans since World War II, up to Hurricane Katrina. In New Orleans, crime, drug abuse, and murder have become an unfortunate fact of life. Unfortunately, an underpaid, inadequately staffed, and poorly trained police force frequently resorted to brutality against African Americans. “Endemic corruption among police officers increased as the city’s crime rate soared, generating anger and frustration among New Orleans’s black community,” According to Moore, The NOPD’s abuses read like a bad Hollywood script — police homicides, sexual violence against women, racial profiling, and complicity in drug deals, prostitution rings, burglaries, protection schemes, and gun smuggling. “Documenting the police harassment of civil rights workers in the 1950s and 1960s, Moore examines the aggressive policing techniques of the 1970s, and the attempts of Ernest “Dutch” Morial—the first black mayor of New Orleans—to reform the force in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Even when the department hired more African American officers as part of that reform effort, Moore reveals, the corruption and brutality continued unabated in the late 1980s and early 1990s.”

Dramatic changes in the NOPD cannot come by simply hiring a new police chief. We’ve done this before, yet the City of New Orleans has been beleaguered by the unrealized promise of sustainable reform. We recognize a new mayoral administration is coming, and no doubt Mitch Landrieu has his own ideas concerning needed innovations for NOPD. But one person can't fix this problem, and any assumption that the hiring of a new police chief is the solution simply placates the least vulnerable in our community, while adding salt to the wounds of those of us most likely to be victimized by brutal and/or corrupt police. We need a solution that addresses the systemic nature of the problem.

REMEDY THROUGH FEDERAL INTERVENTION

With an increasing awareness of police misconduct, Congress included a provision in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 that authorizes the Department of Justice to file civil lawsuits against law enforcement agencies that engage in a pattern of violating people's rights and obtain a court order to monitor and reform them.

To establish a claim, Section 14141 requires the Justice Department to demonstrate that a municipality, police department, or other Section 14141 defendant has engaged in "a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers . . . that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States." The Supreme Court has suggested that the term "pattern or practice" has a "usual meaning"—a meaning denoting something more "than the mere occurrence of isolated or 'accidental' or sporadic [unlawful] acts." A "pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers" depriving persons of constitutional or statutory rights, denotes a course of conduct that is "standard operating procedure" within a police department—in the Court's words, a course of conduct that is "the regular rather than the unusual practice."

How is the process initiated? Usually with a “Dear City Attorney” letter. City officials and local law enforcement departments are never surprised when the federal government finally seeks redress but, generally, there is a formal letter that precedes the filing of litigation. Sometime thereafter, civil litigation, much like the sample Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief linked here is initiated.

A Call to Action – Citizens Acting Now to Create the Consent Decree

If a federal action is filed and resolved, it will be through an agreed Consent Decree, which will allow our federal courts to retain jurisdiction and enforcement powers over the matter. While we believe the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights can, indeed, come to the rescue of New Orleans residents who have suffered for far too long the ravishes of a rogue police force, it is our responsibility to direct what is to become “Sustainable Reform.”

We can do this, but the work will require organizing and cooperation from the entire community in developing and agreeing upon the contents of a Consent Decree between the Department of Justice and the City of New Orleans. This document will be the compact that binds reform. We have drafted a model document – New Orleans Community Members’ Terms and Conditions for Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice and the City of New Orleans/New Orleans Police Department – which can begin this conversation, and includes provisions detailing Management and Supervision of Police, Community Relations, Training, an Independent Police Monitor who reports directly to the U.S. District Court, and Complaint Protocol and Procedures.

The bottom line is if we as a community want the culture of our police department changed, and if we want sustainable reform, we must sit at the table and negotiate those terms and conditions that will make NOPD accountable to us!

FEDERAL INTERVENTION CAN BRING LASTING IMPROVEMENT IN LOCAL POLICING

Both the Clinton and Bush administrations used the civil lawsuit provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, successfully, several times: in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Detroit, the State of New Jersey, Steubenville, Ohio, and Prince Georges County, Maryland, among other jurisdictions.

In Pittsburgh—the first city to enter into a consent decree with the Justice Department— most provisions of the decree were lifted after the Bureau of Police was judged to be in substantial compliance. The key factors that enabled the city quickly to comply with the terms of the decree: the leadership of a talented police chief, guidance from the federal monitor, and an engaged community, which had an active, role in the process and access to police data that was given to the police monitor under the decree.


Veda Manual reported that in the end, a jury was seated in the possession with intent case. We understand not all – not even most - New Orleans Police Department officers are brutal or corrupt. But we can’t discern the good from the bad, and we are tired of suffering the consequences of trying. What we know for certain is that in the new rush to incorrectly proclaim crime as the #1 problem for the City of New Orleans, city officials have turned a blind-eye to civil liberties. Police cannot become the law unto themselves, and it is time for the U.S. government, through the Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights, to step-in and step-up, be the good-guys, intervene, and help provide relief for New Orleans residents tired of and broken by our elected and appointed city officials who refuse to take responsibility for our chronically dysfunctional police department.

We deserve this. Justice has been delayed and denied for far too long.


LJI Organizer Saia M. Smith contributed to this article.

Pressure on NOPD Continues in Trial This Week

The right of New Orleanians to observe and question police behavior is on trial this week.

During Mardi Gras 2007, Greg Griffith videotaped police grabbing a young girl by the hair and throwing her on the ground. The girl was soon released, but Griffith continued to film the police involved. Although the police appear to move on, they soon returned. On the video (which Griffith was able to preserve and is posted online) it appears that one of the officers rushes up to Griffith and violently arrests him without cause.

According to a press release from the ACLU of Louisiana, the ACLU (in partnership with Tulane Law Clinic) have jointly sued the New Orleans Police Department, Chief Warren Riley, and several officers for wrongful arrest and suppression of free speech, on behalf of two men who were arrested for filming police interaction with the public.

Greg Griffith and Noah Learned were watching the 2007 Bacchus parade on Canal Street when they saw and videotaped police officers engaging in what appeared to be rough treatment of a teenage girl. When the police realized that they were being filmed, they tackled and arrested both plaintiffs, seized the camera, and erased the video footage. "The public has a First Amendment right to film all activities that occur on public streets, including police activities," said Marjorie R. Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "In fact, public scrutiny of the actions of the police and other public officials is essential to the preservation of basic rights."

The lawsuit...seeks a declaration that the arrests and the seizure of the camera were illegal, an injunction prohibiting any future interference with the public's right to film police activities, and damages.

The case is being heard in the federal courtroom of Judge Jay Zainey, US District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana. We're told it's important for supporters to be in the courtroom.

Exclusive Video of Police Harassment of Mardi Gras Indians

On Monday, journalist Katy Reckdahl ran a powerful story in the Times-Picayune exposing police harassment of Mardi Gras Indians in Central City on Mardi Gras Day. For many community members, this revived memories of previous police harassment, especially on St. Joseph's Night of 2005, when police broke up the Indian tradition by driving through at high speeds, cursing at and threatening Indians and others, and even making arrests.

Below is exclusive video of the Mardi Gras day police harassment of Mardi Gras Indians described in Reckdahl's story. The footage - shot from a cel phone - is very low-resolution and shaky, but it documents the chaos, sirens, and overall atmosphere of terror generated on that day.

The video was shot by Michelle Conerly, a certified nursing assistant who lives on the block the incident occurred. Conerly also managed to write down the car numbers of six of the seven police cars who caused the panic (the seventh was a black undercover car).

The police car numbers were 603, 903, 609, 0088, 03076 and 01020.

In a recent interview, Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu has said our city needs “a complete culture change in the New Orleans Police Department." A good first step would be to bring respect for New Orleans' cultural traditions to the police department.

Police Brutality of Mardi Gras Indians from Lily Keber on Vimeo.

Thanks to local filmmaker Lily Keber for her help in posting the video online.

Is Reform Possible in the New Orleans Police Department?

More news has come forward in Federal investigations of the New Orleans Police Department. According to today's Times-Picayune, Lt. Michael Lohman, a 21-year veteran of the NOPD who was involved in the investigation of the Danziger Bridge shootings but not the incident itself, will be charged in a bill of information. The Picayune notes that "Such a charge usually signals that a defendant is cooperating with the government and thus would represent a major break in the case for federal prosecutors."

However, another news report from today indicates how difficult reform of the police department will be. Sgt. Warren Keller Jr, an officer who was fired by Warren Riley for initiating a racist drunken brawl at the Beach Corner bar in Mid City was reinstated by the city's Civil Service Commission on Tuesday. According to the Picayune, "In its ruling, the commission issued a scathing indictment of Riley, calling his termination of Sgt. Warren Keller Jr. 'arbitrary, capricious, and a clear abuse of his discretion.'"

This news comes a few months after a state appeals court overruled the New Orleans Police Department's decision to fire an officer who was caught on video beating Robert Davis, a 64-year-old retired teacher, in the days after Katrina.

It is extremely rare for an officer to be fired. These two situations were exceptional. In one case, the officer was shown on a video, replayed on news stations around the world, beating an elderly man; and in the other case the officer was one of the instigators of a racist clash that seemed like it must have happened in 1950, not 2008.

Yet in both these cases, the decision to fire the officer was overruled, and the officers will likely receive cash settlements and have the option to get their jobs back.

If officers caught in high-profile abuse of their power cannot even be fired, can the NOPD be reformed at all?