More Katrina/New Orleans Fallout

[mrjarrell]

So, not only did the enforcers and their buddies steal legally owned firearms, now they're being tried for murdering innocent people, wounding innocent people and covering it up. Here's hoping a few bad New Orleans "Only Ones" get what's coming to them and spend the rest of their lives in a nice Louisiana penitentiary. This could happen anywhere when disaster strikes.

From NOLA.com

A New Orleans police officer who fired his gun at civilians on the Danziger Bridge a week after Hurricane Katrina pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday, offering a chilling account of what transpired on the bridge that early September day in 2005.
Michael Hunter, 33, became the first officer who actually participated in the shooting to enter a guilty plea. Two investigators have already confessed to playing roles in a wide-ranging cover-up of the police shooting, which injured four unarmed civilians and left two men dead.

Hunter, who resigned last week after he was charged in federal court, contends that fellow officers shot at people they should have seen were unarmed. The account of events Hunter signed Thursday afternoon, called a factual basis, provides the most specific details to date about officers' actions on the bridge, which spans the Industrial Canal at Chef Menteur Highway.

Hunter, 33, said a New Orleans police sergeant fired an assault rifle at wounded civilians at close range after other officers stopped shooting and after it was clear that the police were not taking fire. He also says he saw another officer in a car fire a shotgun at a fleeing man's back, although the man did nothing suggesting he was a threat to police. That man, 40-year-old Ronald Madison, who was severely mentally disabled, died of his wounds.

As part of his plea, Hunter also acknowledged taking part in a conspiracy with colleagues to conceal the circumstances of what he considered an unjustified shooting. At one point, in a meeting with other officers, a supervisor said "something to the effect of, we don't want this to look like a massacre," the court document says.

Much more at the source.

 

[Protest]

Quotes from linked document in that article

At one point before HUNTER got out of the truck, he saw an older black male raise his head above the barrier, and he saw Sergeant A fire at the black male. The black male did not appear to have a weapon and did not threaten the officers.

Sergeant B, who had also run to the front of the truck, stood nearby, firing an M4-type assault rifle at the same civilians. HUNTER did not see any weapons on these civilians, and did not see them stop or turn around. They did not appear to be a threat to the officers as they ran up the bridge.

Sergeant A suddenly leaned over the concrete barrier, held out his assault rifle, and, in a sweeping motion, fired repeatedly at the civilians lying wounded on the ground. The civilians were not trying to escape and were not doing anything that could be perceived as a threat.

 

[Expat]

I heard Tom Gresham talking about this massacre a month or so ago and did some reading on it. It doesn't sound good. The shooting was bad enough but it sounds like an awful lot of high up people knowingly cooperated with the cover up.

 

[irishfan]

I heard Tom Gresham talking about this massacre a month or so ago and did some reading on it. It doesn't sound good. The shooting was bad enough but it sounds like an awful lot of high up people knowingly cooperated with the cover up.

Nobody likes to admit when their own people went off the reservation whether it is police, military, or politicians. It is amazing how much evidence is probably lost or tainted so that people can make themselves look better than the real people they are.

 

[mrjarrell]

In a further update one of the enforcers has now been sentenced to 3 years for covering up for his buddies.

FOXNews.com - Ex-New Orleans police officer sentenced to 3 years in prison in post-Katrina bridge shooting

 

[Blackhawk2001]

I was hoping this shooting was a mistake; it saddens me to find out it was not.

 

[baldguy637]

Three years for covering up two murders and four attempted murders, glad to see they didn't go easy on him.

 

[mrjarrell]

I was hoping this shooting was a mistake; it saddens me to find out it was not.

Did you ever read any of the evidence presented? There was no chance, from the beginning, that this was a mistake. It was cold blooded murder.

http://media.nola.com/crime_impact/other/michael hunter-factal-basis.pdf

 

[88GT]

I caught bits and pieces of a similar story (might even have been this one) on the PBS station a few weeks ago.

I am afraid our current direction as a country will only increase the prevalence of such incidents.

 

[mrjarrell]

Well, after 6 long years the verdict is finally in and it was what it was expected to be. Guilty. Now all that's left is the sentencing and the final clean out of the cesspool NOPD. At least the families can now have some sort of closure.

Jury convicts 5 officers in post-Katrina shootings - Yahoo! News

 

[ultraspec]

Amazing to say the least, the NOPD had some pretty loose cannons on then. Remember the ones in uniform stealing at the walmart? or the one caught in Texas driving a stolen cadillac?

 

[Kase]

Amazing to say the least, the NOPD had some pretty loose cannons on then. Remember the ones in uniform stealing at the walmart? or the one caught in Texas driving a stolen cadillac?

I believe those were isolated incidents

 

[9mmfan]

I believe those were isolated incidents

Perhaps, but if civilians were the accused in those incident, they would have been in jail at least 4 years by now.

 

[mrjarrell]

The worst part is that they are going to go to jail for civil rights violations and the cover up and not murder.

 

[NYFelon]

well, hopefully they end up in genpop

 

[glockednlocked]

Well, after 6 long years the verdict is finally in and it was what it was expected to be. Guilty. Now all that's left is the sentencing and the final clean out of the cesspool NOPD. At least the families can now have some sort of closure.

Jury convicts 5 officers in post-Katrina shootings - Yahoo! News

Final cleanout? HaHa Dont count on it. I love NO but it is built on swamp and corruption. Oh and dirty democrats

 

[serpicostraight]

Final cleanout? HaHa Dont count on it. I love NO but it is built on swamp and corruption. Oh and dirty democrats

huey p long might be gone but not forgotten. i think hes a role model for the cops and politicians there.

 

[rambone]

If there was one nutjob cop willing to murder people for fun, I get that... he's a bad apple. But five? Really?? The coverup is the disturbing part. There is something very wrong with this 'Thin Blue Line' mentality.

 

[serpicostraight]

If there was one nutjob cop willing to murder people for fun, I get that... he's a bad apple. But five? Really?? The coverup is the disturbing part. There is something very wrong with this 'Thin Blue Line' mentality.

this is only one of a long line. 6 in fullerton 4 in hollywood florida and dont even get me started on the swat raids. and what about quartzsite? or the detective in kansas city. looks like the good cops have went the way of the unicorn.

 

[CarmelHP]

Final cleanout? HaHa Dont count on it. I love NO but it is built on swamp and corruption. Oh and dirty democrats

It's like cleaning out the Augean stables.