Every single day of the year, the police protect and serve the public. Although I think there are too many of them and they’ve been militarized unnecessarily, I reserve the right to change my tune if I’m getting the crap kicked out of me on a city street or assuming a defensive position in a home invasion. All that said, there are more than a “few bad apples” in our local constabulary. I can state without reservation that I have reservations about the police’s ability to screen-out thugs and police themselves. And that’s at the best of times. At the worst of times, this via Reuters . . .
Hunter [above right], in the most detailed account to date of the shooting on the Danziger Bridge, said the officer stood above three men and two women and sprayed them with bullets at close range as they lay terrified on a sidewalk on September 4, 2005.
“He fired indiscriminately at the people,” Hunter testified, identifying the shooter as Sgt. Kenneth Bowen [above left], a New Orleans police officer on trial along with four others in connection with the shooting that day, as much of the city remained underwater after the storm.
His testimony came during the second week of the federal trial of officers charged with civil rights violations in connection with the shooting deaths of two unarmed civilians, the wounding of four others and an alleged cover-up that lasted several years.
Bowen, sergeants Robert Gisevius and Arthur Kaufman, and officers Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso face possible life sentences if convicted.
Good God. How did these people ever get to be police in the first place? Wait, don’t tell me. That’s enough slime for one afternoon.