NOPD: When Cops Loot, It's Not Looting
Published March 24, 2006
However, although the four officers were not, let me repeat, NOT looting, they still got suspended "for 10 days without pay for 'neglect of duty' because 'people can be observed illegally inside the store with property in their possession and you took no police action to prevent or stop the looting,' according to their disciplinary letters."
Officer Fontenot was also suspended for three days for being "discourteous" to MSNBC's Fred Savidge.
The message for NOPD officers is clear: Should a reporter catch you in the act of looting, remember to be courteous.
Considering how many NOPD officers stood around while civilians looted, I guess we can expect to see Assistant Chief Marlon Defillo (remember that name!), commander of the Public Integrity Bureau, handing down a few hundred such ten-day suspensions. Hahahaha! Just kidding.
(Public Integrity is often called "Internal Affairs" in other urban police forces. Police departments periodically change the names of such divisions, apparently thinking that a name change can confuse the public about the corruption the division is supposed to ferret out.)
In another case, in which two NOPD officers were photographed looting inside a store, Assistant Chief Defillo did not suspend them, saying that in the photograph, no one else could be seen looting in the store. I know what you're thinking: What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Translation of Defilloese into English: It's ok for NOPD officers to loot, as long as they don't tolerate civilians looting.
This is a new one on me. I've never before heard of an internal affairs division trying to cover up corruption, and whose commander sounded more like a PR flack than a corruption investigator.
Warren Riley became chief when his disgraced predecessor, Eddie Compass, was forced out following the Katrina non-looting. But Assistant Chief Marlon Defillo (remember that name!) now tells us that police looting was a myth perpetrated by the media.
"People were saying a lot of things at that time, but we had to separate fact from fiction. Each of the cases that were presented to my office were thoroughly investigated and based on all the facts and circumstances, we found that officers either weren't looting or they were taking essential items. A lot of media ran stories about looting without proper validation."
- NOPD: When Cops Loot, It's Not Looting
- Published: March 24, 2006
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Politics: Law and Rights, Culture: Society, Culture: Media
- Writer: Nicholas Stix
- Nicholas Stix's BC Writer page
- Nicholas Stix's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
"If I recall on a 60 Minutes profile a few years back, the NOPD is one of the lowest paid police forces in North America."
That's highly unlikely, since all police forces in Mexico pay less than the NOPD.
Plus, at the time Katrina hit, the NOPD's 1450 actual officers also enjoyed a 17 percent fraud bonus, based on th federal taxpayer money that paid for 250 non-existent "ghost" policemen. The ghost money was divvied up among the rest of the department. And that's not even including whatever NOPD officers were "earning" in thefts, bribes, and robberies.
"The other little piece of info that sticks in my mind was the observation that no one arrested for killing a police officer in New Orleans has ever lived to stand trial (despite being healthy when arrested) except one...wait for it...who was a police officer."
Since it sticks in your mind, could you please source that little piece of information? I've done a study of the NOPD, and found that the department seems not to have a lot of shootings and attacks on officers, compared to other cities (like, say, Cincinnati, where the police have the choice between killing psychopaths in self-defense and de-policing).
P.S. New Orleans is more famous for killer-cops than for cop killers. At present, two former NOPD officers are on Death Row for murders they either committed or commissioned while they were officers. Len Davis, who was a crime kingpin while in uniform and during job hours, ordered a drug dealer-associate to murder Kim Greaves, after Greaves had witnessed Davis' partner for beating the hell out of a teenager (her nephew?) for no good reason, and sworn out a complaint. When Davis got word from the killer that the deed had been done, he exclaimed, "Rockabye, baby!"
Antoinette Frank was more hands-on. During a robbery she murdered three people, including one off-duty NOPD officer who was working security, at a Vietnamese restaurant where Frank also worked as a security guard.
Actually I do cite my source - 60 Minutes. Unfortunately 60 Minutes doesn't seem to provide a story archive online that I can point you to. As I noted, I'm going by memory, so no guarantees.
As for Mexico, apologies I was thinking of only Canada and the US, so yes, Mexico is excepted.
Your citing of Antoinette Frank does sound familiar as I believe it was a female police officer that committed the murder.
Sorry for the lack of precise memory.
"Actually I do cite my source - 60 Minutes. Unfortunately 60 Minutes doesn't seem to provide a story archive online that I can point you to. As I noted, I'm going by memory, so no guarantees."
Oh. I didn't realize 60 Minutes was the source in both cases.
"As for Mexico, apologies I was thinking of only Canada and the US, so yes, Mexico is excepted."
No sweat. I think most people forget or don't know thta North America has three countries.
"Your citing of Antoinette Frank does sound familiar as I believe it was a female police officer that committed the murder.
"Sorry for the lack of precise memory."
No sweat. It was 11 years ago; even I had to double-check the date (March 4, 1995). Only hours after being sworn in as chief of police, Richard Pennington finds himself at the crime scene with a detective telling him that he's sure the killer is a cop. Welcome to the Big Easy, Chief!
I was down there for 4 months working electrical contracts.
I met a lot of folks, drank piss warm beer and ate crappy food the whole time.
Wal-mart, rather than throw their damaged goods away told the cops to take what they needed, just keep the store from getting torched by the gangbangers.
So they did! Wal mart was filing claims anyway, and in good NOLA fashion greased a few palms, saved their storefront and were able to get some infrastructure up and running.
I will have to comment that a lot of people on this blog didn't go there, and STILL don't understand the magnitude of destruction, and how massive an undertaking it was to even get power through the destruction to other zones. It was HUGE. And that's just the power side of the recovery. There is still ships up on dry land, fishing boats (BIG FISHING BOATS) up on 4 lane highways, all of which can't be moved, and have to be de-fueled, stripped and cut up (by hand) and trucked off to scrap yards.
So titter tatter away like you have been for months. Most of you (I'm sure there's a few who are from there, and have seen the damage) haven't been there... and the reality is... you cannot fathom the damage sitting your blessed assurance sucking brews and keyboarding like the wind.
"There is still ships up on dry land, fishing boats (BIG FISHING BOATS) up on 4 lane highways, all of which can't be moved, and have to be de-fueled, stripped and cut up (by hand) and trucked off to scrap yards."
There's no such thing as a fishing boat so big it can't be moved.
"So titter tatter away like you have been for months. Most of you (I'm sure there's a few who are from there, and have seen the damage) haven't been there... and the reality is... you cannot fathom the damage sitting your blessed assurance sucking brews and keyboarding like the wind."
What is your point? That we should adoringly accept nonsense you spout about fishing boats, and grant you a monopoly over what can be said and thought about New Orleans? You're the one tittering and tattering away, pal.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/45411)
If I recall on a 60 Minutes profile a few years back, the NOPD is one of the lowest paid police forces in North America.
The other little piece of info that sticks in my mind was the observation that no one arrested for killing a police officer in New Orleans has ever lived to stand trial (despite being healthy when arrested) except one...wait for it...who was a police officer.