News update:
...Davis said he had been walking in the French Quarter and approached a mounted police officer to ask about the curfew in the city when another officer interrupted.
"This other guy interfered and I said he shouldn't," Davis said. "I started to cross the street and — bam — I got it. ... All I know is this guy attacked me and said, `I will kick your ass,' and they proceeded to do it."
"THE OTHER GUY (Policeman!) INTERFERED AND I SAID HE SHOULDN'T..."
Uh Oh!
A No Win for everyone involved.
If someone takes an aggressive stance with an officer and threatens him harm, or threatens the harm of a bystander/victim, the officer better damn well do something other than stand there and engage in verbal masturbation with the subject.
When someone decides to put up a fight, the police have a job to do, and sometimes it's an ugly one. It would have been a whole other story if the punches occurred after he was handcuffed and had given up. All the strikes occurred while he was ACTIVELY resisting.
The last I checked, officers are trained and authorized to meet force/resistance with the next level above to gain compliance. You don’t wait until someone shoots you before you can shoot, you don’t have to wait to be punched before you can strike them. And if you underestimate someone due to age or sex, you better have a casket picked out in advance
The cops may have been able to control the situation without so many punches, but we were not there and we don’t know how threatened they felt. These guys are working with raw emotion after Katrina...while that is no excuse...its understandable. As far as the cop going after the journalist...what do you expect? The news reports have ripped the city they live and work in to shreds ...just as much as Katrina did physically. To the cops, any journalist represents the continued bashing of the city...The Hurricane is still causing damage in their eyes and they can’t do anything about it. Every prick with a camera and news badge is out to report on the bad guys.... Technically, the reporter could even be charged with obstruction of justice and inciting a riot. It would be dismissed, no doubt, but it’s not a stretch.
One thing that disturbs me about these videotapes is that they always catch the action mid-incident. We never get to see the disorderly suspect at the onset of the episode before the officers have him (or her) at least partially under control. The media never provides the public with photos of the officers' cuts and abrasions either; we only get to see the suspect's injuries. They also fail to address the fact that facial wounds bleed profusely, and usually look much worse then they are.
Having said all of the above...this incident is and will continue to be sensationalized only because the Sergeant grabbed the AP guy and slammed him against a car. IMHO, it's a media payback for the way the AP guy was manhandled without justification.
Definitely looks like those cops are going to be thrown to the wolves.
To me, the department is overreacting big time. The officer (S.M. Smith) should probably be charged and/or fired for his contact with the reporter, but the others were handing a violent and resistive subject how they were trained.
The NOPD has worked under the most unimaginable conditions of any PD in the United States, ever. With all the military and other LE agencies in New Orleans right now, I don't even know why they still have the NOPD working 12-hour shifts. It's obvious they're at the breaking point, What other PD has 3/4 of its members that have lost everything...including their homes and families?
We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.
Winston Churchill
