Raw Story - Agence France-Presse
June 19th, 2011
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Five New Orleans police officers accused of indiscriminately shooting people in the chaos unleashed by Hurricane Katrina face a high-profile trial in the coming week.
The deadly 2005 shooting on the Danziger Bridge and resulting cover-up came to epitomize the city's failure to protect its citizens and exposed deep-rooted corruption in the police department which many say remains unaddressed.
"This trial is going to show the country and the world that we have a serious problem with our police department," said Eddie Jordan, the city's former District Attorney.
"This department is engaged in horrendous acts against its citizens."
Fear soon followed the deadly floodwaters which swallowed 80 percent of New Orleans and left thousands stranded on their rooftops after Katrina smashed through the city's poorly maintained levees on August 29, 2005.
Reports of widespread looting and armed gangs roaming the city shifted the government's already botched response from humanitarian aid to a military operation.
Then-Governor Kathleen Blanco sent in National Guard troops, announcing "These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will."
Warren Riley, then-second in charge of the New Orleans police department (NOPD) reportedly instructed officers to "take the city back and shoot looters."
In the following days, six people -- almost all of them African American -- were killed under suspicious circumstances in incidents involving police. Scores more were injured.
"We had more incidents of police misconduct than civilian misconduct," Jordan, the former district attorney, told AFP. "All these stories of looting, it pales next to what the police did."
The Danziger Bridge case is the most notorious of at least nine incidents being investigated by federal agents.
A group of officers, who had apparently heard a misleading radio report about shootings in the area, began firing on two families who were simply trying to escape the floodwaters.
Ronald Madison, a mentally challenged man, was shot in the back at least six times, then stomped and kicked by an officer until he was dead, officers who pleaded guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence have testified.
James Brissette, a high school student, died after he was shot seven times.
Four others were badly wounded, including Susan Bartholomew, 38, whose arm was shot off her body.
For years, family members and advocates called for official investigations and were rebuffed.
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