New Orleans cops suspended for beating caught on video
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 at 07:33 JST
NEW ORLEANS ? Three New Orleans police officers filmed beating a 64-year-old man during a weekend arrest in the city's French Quarter were suspended and arrested on Monday.
Graphic footage of the brutal beating, aired on television, showed two white officers punching the African-American man while detaining him late Saturday.
The film later showed the man lying on the ground, his arms restrained behind him, his face and shirt covered in blood on a Bourbon Street sidewalk.
"They did him like Rodney King," said Frank Anderson, a 40-year-old African-American construction worker on Bourbon Street. "Those officers ain't no better than these guys who are stealing things."
The officers were suspended and arrested after commanders viewed the video footage of the confrontation, which ended with the 64-year-old man handcuffed.
"What is obvious is that our officers used more than the force necessary," acting police superintendent Warren Riley said after viewing the tape shot by a news camera crew who happened across the incident.
"To see this tape, it's troubling," he told CNN television.
The police officers were arraigned on battery charges in court on Monday and then freed on bail pending trial. The officers left the court with their attorneys who told reporters the men were innocent.
"We are endeavoring to ascertain why this encounter occurred at all," Riley said. "We will take swift and decisive action."
The beating victim, who was hospitalized and later released, was charged with public drunkenness, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. The man did not appear to struggle in the taped portion of the clash with police.
Riley cautioned against a rush to judgment however, saying that unseen factors may have been in play during the confrontation.
The officers allegedly also clashed with the camera man who filmed the incident.
As officers pounded the beating victim, a mounted police officer appears to maneuver his horse to block the camera shot.
Another police officer allegedly shoved the camera crew producer onto a parked car and reportedly cursed at him and shouted "I've been here for six weeks trying to keep alive. Go home."
Local police officials have said the stress of working through the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, exacerbated by personal loss and suffering, could have pushed some officers over the brink.
"Everyone's a little tense right now, that much is to be expected," said Wallace McGill, a 32-year-old New Orleans native. "But, if you are that tense, you shouldn't be out on the street. You need a leave of absence."
McGill and his companion, John Evans, were among the African-Americans in the French Quarter on Monday who were appalled, but not surprised, by word of the alleged police brutality.
"That isn't anything new," said a man with a complete set of gold teeth. "That's why I don't come out here at night. Next time, they'll take me for a beating and no one is going to get it on camera."
Anderson, who is from the state of Georgia, said he was already cautious about local police.
"I know where I'm at," Anderson said. "You have to watch your back anyway."
The New Orleans police department has been criticized for its performance in the wake of the hurricanes that lashed the city beginning Aug29.
Officers have been accused of looting, taking cars, desertion, and shooting dogs left behind by fleeing residents.
Riley defended the integrity of his department, saying that acts of sacrifice and heroism by officers abounded in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
He said there were "a few bad cops like you have everywhere.
"That handfull of officers we have who have been involved in incidents that embarrass this police department, we want to weed them out," Riley said. (Wire reports)
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