New Orleans Police Beating Caught On Tape NEW ORLEANS - At least one police officer repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations. There will be a criminal investigation, and three New Orleans Police Department officers will be suspended Sunday, arrested and charged with simple battery, Capt. Marlon Defillo said. "We have great concern with what we saw this morning," Defillo said after he and about a dozen other high-ranking police department officials watched the APTN footage Sunday. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it. ... This department will take immediate action." The assaults come as the department, long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption, struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass. The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the man at least four times in the head Saturday night as he stood outside a bar. The suspect, Robert Davis, appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers. Another officer then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter. Meanwhile, an officer ordered APTN producer Rich Matthews and the cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials and explained he was working, the officer grabbed the producer, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade. "I've been here for six weeks trying to keep ... alive. ... Go home!" shouted the officer, who later identified himself as S.M. Smith. Police said Davis, 64, of New Orleans, was booked on public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. Davis, who is black, was subdued at the intersection of Conti and Bourbon streets. Three of the officers appeared to be white, and the other was light skinned. Defillo said race was not an issue. Three of the five officers involved were New Orleans officers, and two others appeared to be federal officers. Numerous agencies have sent police to help with patrols in the aftermath of Katrina. Under normal circumstances, it takes unusually offensive behavior to trigger an arrest on Bourbon Street. But New Orleans police have been working under stressful conditions since the hurricane. Officers slept in their cars and worked 24-hour shifts after the storm. Three-quarters lost their homes and their families are scattered across the country. Many officers deserted their posts in the days after Katrina, and some were accused of joining in the looting that broke out. At least two committed suicide. Conditions have improved — officers now have beds on a cruise ship — but they don't have private rooms and are still working five, 12-hour days. Compass, the police superintendent, resigned Sept. 27. Despite more than 10 years of reform efforts dating to before he took office, police were dogged by allegations of brutality and corruption. On Friday, state authorities said they were investigating allegations that New Orleans police broke into a dealership and made off with nearly 200 cars — including 41 new Cadillacs — as the storm closed in.
N.O cops have and always been known as one of the most corrupt police forces in the nation. Nothing surprising here, except they caught it on video.
Same with Rodney King's Video People need to understand that this is not hardly rare The picture of the Friendly Cop helping old women cross the street is slowly going the way of the DoDo Rocket River
Umm... I guess I'm missing something. I just watched the video clip from the link provided above, and it only looked like he was being subdued and not beaten. Maybe there's other footage of the incident? EDIT: Just saw the footage on CNN. Holy crap! that guy got beaten! More than that, it's pretty evil that the officer on horseback tried to block the view of the cameraman while his buddies beat on that guy. The footage of the man lying on the ground in a river of blood shows just how bad it was!
The video clip I saw showed him getting punched in the face and head AT LEAST 4 times before an officer on horseback comes and blocks the camera from recording the incident. They showed and talked to the guy on Inside Edition and it looks like his left eye is missing. His nose and cheekbone are broken as well. At the end of the video I saw you can see the man, apparently unconciousess, laying and soaked in a pool of blood.
Here is a small picture of the man Here is a pic of the man laying and saoked in blood: I am still looking for the video from Inside Edition that I saw.
Just saw that. If you find a clip on the net post it so others can see. EDIT: I just watched the clip on cnn.com and OMG!!! They showed a different angle and the man was bloodied and beaten trying to roll over so here comes a cop to kick him in the back. Sick...
Absolutly horrible images. I wish the horse had not blocked the view just before the cops started attacking him, because now we can't know if he provoked their response (the charges filed against him seem to show that the cops are claiming he did).
I'm sorry but I'll just say this. You have a 60+ year old man and 4 much younger , stronger men than him. They already have him tied up every which way is possible. What could he have possibly have done that would justify him ending up the way he did in the pic above? I am calling bulls!+
I'm always skeptical about a lot of these things but from what I saw these cops deserve to be castrated and dipped in lava one limb at a time. One thing that's been bothering me is the fact that a CNN crew just happened to be there to catch the beating. Does anyone know why they were there in the first place?
These cops can get out of this mess..... if they can link the man to Al-Qaeda and invoke Patriot Act.
it won't take that much Slaps on the wrist all around well . . maybe not . .because it is on tape and N O may make and example out of them because of the "Racist" Katrina reaction [not saying it was racist but saying that the perception is out there] Rocket River
I wish I could tie all of those cops up and have a buddy hold them up against a building while I beat them. I'd do it in a heartbeat. Those guys deserve to have their balls cut off and then be shot with their own guns.
It was a Fox News crew that taped the whole thing. CNN wasn't present at the scene. Go find another case to bash 'em, kid. I just wish the National Enquirer got this news first hand -- so everybody, "liberal" or "conservative", would have a chance to discredit it. Like Zboy said, it's quite possible the black man is linked to al Qaeda, or some Muslim/Islamic extremist organization, who tried to ride the post-Katrina wave to destroy our beloved New Orleans. If not terrorist, he must be associated with a notorious local gang.
Looks to me like the POLICE need to be booked for battery and public intimidation. "STOP FILMING THIS!" Sad, sad day. I hope this guy gets a bunch of money out of this.
Lookie here, I wasn't accusing anyone of anything. I was simply wondering why there was a news crew period there. I assumed it was CNN because CNN ran the whole story yesterday under the heading "CNN Exclusive," so I naturally thought the crew that caught it had to be a CNN crew because they also didn't have the obligatory creditline at the top of the video. The "kid" comment could've been kept to yourself as well. And if you read my post I agreed there was an excessive use of force and in no way stood up for the police. There is no reason for kicking the guy after he's already in a pool of blood on the ground. It's sad that you always feel the need to pull a "dailykos" and turn everything into a joke bashing the "conservatives." You would be taken much more seriously by a great deal of posters here if every other post on here didn't have some snide "must be a muslim terrorist" or "why does (insert random noun here) hate america?" As it is, I'm sure your opinions are sound but we never get to hear a straight opinion without a bashing of the other side. Where I come from that doesn't pass for debate. Maybe that's just me though...
