The Times-Picayune is reporting today that former New Orleans police supervisor has pled guilty to federal obstruction for his part in the cover-up of the police shooting of 6 unarmed civilians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
For those interested in learning more about the history of New Orleans police corruption and the African-American opposition to it, LSU Press is publishing Black Rage In New Orleans: Police Brutality and African-American Activism from World War II to Hurricane Katrina by Leonard N. Moore. The book will be available in March.
Please see the links below for further information.
Former NOPD Supervisor admits Katrina cover-up (Times-Picayune)
Law and Disorder: An online investigation into the questionable shootings by the New Orleans Police Department in the wake of Katrina (PBS Frontline)
Isn't it horrifically ironic that it may turn out that New Orleans citizens had their own Police and Blackwater guards to fear more so than their fellow citizens?
As a former Probation Officer in Calif., on vacation, a fellow officer and I first witnessed the NOLA PD brutality back in 1985 when we saw 3 men being beat up by the Police. I reported it but nothing was done.
In this same vein I wish the media would do more to correct all the exaggerations it made about the helicopters shootings, and murders and rapes in the Superdome. As a tourist there we believed the rumors as well, but they simply weren't substantiated.
Paul Harris
Author, "Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina"
Posted by: Paul Harris | February 27, 2010 at 02:24 AM