Cheers greet police indicted in New Orleans bridge shootings

[High Plains]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/02/katrina.bridgeshooting.ap/index.html

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- More than 200 supporters applauded as seven indicted policemen arrived at a jail Tuesday to face charges in a deadly bridge shooting amid the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina. Each of the indicted men faces at least one charge of murder or attempted murder in the shootings of six people on the Danziger Bridge on September 4, 2005, less than a week after the hurricane hit.

One protester shouted "Police killings must stop" and "Racism must go" as the men arrived, but the protester was shouted down by the crowd yelling: "Heroes, Heroes."

Uniformed police officers from nearby districts joined other supporters embracing the seven policemen and shaking their hands. The Fraternal Order of Police had encouraged rank-and-file officers to gather outside the jail to show their support. One sign in the crowd read, "Support the Danziger 7." Another read: "Thanks for protecting our city."

<snip>

Two men died and four people were wounded in the gunfire on the bridge that spans the Industrial Canal.

<snip>

The facts of what happened on the Bridge, which connects the Gentilly neighborhood with eastern New Orleans, remain murky. Police say the officers were responding to a report of other officers down, and that they thought one of the men, Ronald Madison, had been reaching for a gun. Madison, a 40-year-old mentally retarded man, and James Brissette, 19, were shot and killed on the bridge. The coroner said Madison was shot seven times, with five wounds in the back.

[High Plains]

1. Cops and cop-lovers supporting some of their own.

Do they really excuse the murder of innocents by police? They are accused of killing two people in an uprovoked attack, opening fire without warning.

Why am I not surprised at this reflexive support for the cops? They too often get away with murder. Most questionable cop shootings never get past the grand jury stage--those good citzens love their cops, too--and it is even more rare to see one actually convicted. Let's hope that's not the case this time. The facts are pretty damned clear.

[jus_the_facts]

3. Sickening display...this is what we've become....

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. I reckon you need to change the design of your helmets in some way.

Those lads look so like the old photos of the Nazi troops in the WWII, in which they got annihilated.

[RubyDuby in GA]

2. I don't see anything hero-like about shooting a mentally challenged man in the back

but maybe that's just me...

[cdnwannabe]

5. Not just you, RubyDuby!

What brave police they are - shooting a mentally retarded man 7 times...

[katsy]

4. sick, jaded society.

It would have been more appropriate to ask for mercy for these guys instead of calling them heroes.

But no. No, this is racism on display. Hatred for the victims on parade.

How sad.

[ThomCat]

6. I agree.

x(
This is just blind, knee-jerk support backed up by racism and hatred.

[coalition_unwilling]

7. Racism and classism, I would say. The cruel irony is that the

police and their victims both had way more in common with one another than either had with the power elite in New Orleans, Louisiana or the United States.

[katsy]

8. You're right...

how cruel.

[alarimer]

9. Many cops in New Orleans behaved abominably during Katrina

and its aftermath, at least according to Douglas Brinkley. While there were exceptions, others abandoned their posts and just generally acted like thugs themselves.

[Porcupine]

10. Cops applauding the murder of civilians.

As long as police have the expectation that they can shoot their fellow citizens without consequence they are the enemy. Many people are aware that when they face a police officer in the dark of night they face somebody who can execute them on a whim. We have all seen video of police vicously beating helpless men only to walk free after pretend trials.

This, above all other reasons, is the cause of public hostility towards police officers. Followed by crooked cops, addicted cops, cops on the take, cops speeding, drinking and whoring on the job and cops who invent evidence on the stand to convict innocent men.

Fuck the police!

[uppityperson]

11. It was chaotic right post Katrina, but there was no excuse for this crime.

[NorthernSpy]

15. in the 90s, there was an actual death squad operating out of an NOPD precinct

http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/len_davis/index.html


The NOPD is a profoundly troubled organization, and has been for a loooooong time.

[uppityperson]

17. Wild things happening/happened

It is a reminder to me of how big, how varied this country is. Your sigline link looks like a good thing, will cross-link to my minor blog, thanks.

[Ezlivin]

12. Memories are too damned short

[Hekate]

13. Good gods.I thought people were cheering the indictMENTS of the police, not the police...

:wow: just :wow:

Hekate

[ninkasi]

20. So did I, Hekate

I'm still shocked at people cheering murderers. That's why I just now read this thread. It never occurred to me that people would applaud murder.

[NorthernSpy]

14. in this case, the cops opened fire on members of a respected, fairly affluent family...

... who were crossing the bridge to check on some of their property. Ronald Madison's brother has served on some kind of local government commission.

The cops chose their victims poorly, and that's probably why the Danziger Bridge murders weren't simply buried and forgotten.

[Generic Brad]

19. And the cops are still being cheered?

Can anyone verify if the victims in this case were black and the police white? I have my suspicions, but I want to know for sure before I break into a tirade.

[IronLionZion]

27. The victims were black, 4 cops were black, 3 cops were white

and I have serious doubts that these fellows decided it would be fun to go shoot some people for no reason.

It reminds me of when some New Orleans doctors and nurses decided to euthanize some desperately ill patients and later got tried for murder. I don't know how DUers can seriously think there are people who woke up that morning and decided "I'm going to kill some people today. Who is an easy target?". That's just sick.

The poor bastards who decided to eat bullets took the easy way out, and there were quite a few. This post-Katrina nonsense is heart-breaking. No one gets a break unless they are some high-ranking politician like President Bush. The people on the ground get tried for murder. Shit.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/03/katrina.shooting/index.html

[stillcool]

18. It would be interesting to know...

how many of those two hundred supporters were also police. I'm sure some of those officers from nearby districts were sans uniform. Putting the focus on staged demonstrations is so right up CNN's ally..Julius Streicher fans no doubt.

It may be that Streicher is less directly involved in the physical commission of the crimes against Jews than some of his coconspirators. The submission of the Prosecution is that his crime is no less worse for that reason. No government in the world, before the Nazis came to power, could have embarked upon and put into effect a policy of mass Jewish extermination in the way in which they did, without having a people who would back them and support them, and without having a large number of people who were prepared to carry out the murder themselves. (See Chapter XII on Persecution of the Jews.)



http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Streicher.html

[MadMaddie]

21. The Root Cause of this particular tradgedy goes higher folks...

A national crisis which should have had national leadership from the beginning of the crisis....

A uniform plan whould have been implemented...an effective evacuation should have been implemented...buses should have been on the other side of that bridge....

And the list goes on...

New Orleans and the surrounding Parishes have been corrupt for years....that problem just became magnified with the disaster....

The cops should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law....and if found guilty should be thrown in jail for the rest of their lives...

[KayLaw]

22. Horrifying.

Any cop who supports the murder of innocents is scum. Don't these crooks support law and order, for Pete's sake?

[leesa]

23. To Protect and To Serve...

I hope they get long jail terms.

[LibertyorDeath]

24. Shooting a unarmed developmentally challenged person

7 times in the BACK man those are some tough cops. Think of the courage it takes to shoot
an unarmed person 7 times in the BACK.

Their Family's must be so proud of them.


bunch of yahoo motherfuckers.

Got me a gun gonna shoot me some N$#@ers

Fucking sickening.....

[oasis]

25. Cop mindset: badge=license to kill.(eom)

[IronLionZion]

26. Were the black cops racist too?

4 of the 7 cops were black, and they thought they were responding to gunfire where police officers have been wounded. And it was a chaotic time.

I wasn't there, but to play devil's advocate I wouldn't be so quick to condemn these guys unless the black cops really were racist against their own people and woke up that morning looking to shoot a mentally challenged man for fun. Considering the circumstances, I'd give them the benefit of a doubt. Whether I'm mentally challenged or not is debatable but I'm certainly non-white.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/03/katrina.shooting/index.html