Another blatant beating by police abusing thier power....the difference is this one was caught on tape. Yes thnere is terrorism in America but the perpetrators are most often the ones in charge.

Date:   10/12/2005 1:14:23 PM ( 19 y ago)

Watch video here.Three New Orleans police officers plead not guilty to assaulting African-American Robert Davis in the French Quarter, caught on videotape by journalists. We speak with longtime New Orleans activist Malcolm Suber who has led the struggle against police brutality in the city for more than 25 years. On Monday, three white New Orleans police officers pleaded not guilty to assaulting a 64 year-old African-American man and beating up a journalist. On Saturday, the police began hitting Robert Davis in the French Quarter. They hit Davis at least four times in the head and he was dragged to the ground when another officer kneed him in the back. He was bleeding profusely from the head. The incident was caught on tape by a crew from the Associated Press. Once the police realized they were being videotaped they ordered the AP to stop filming. When the AP producer held up his press credentials, an officer grabbed him, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and started screaming at him to leave the scene. Robert Davis was then arrested and charged with public intoxication, battering an officer and resisting arrest. Davis and his lawyer refuted the charges and Davis also said that he hadn’t had a drink in 25 years.

Yesterday, Davis told his version of events to the press. He said that had been walking to buy a pack of cigarettes when he approached a mounted police officer to ask about curfews in the city. Davis is a retired teacher who had returned to New Orleans over the weekend from Atlanta to inspect six of his family’s properties that had been damaged or destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. The police officers have been suspended without pay and a trial has been set for January. Justice Department officials said they will review the results of an FBI civil rights investigation to determine whether to pursue federal civil rights charges.

* Malcolm Suber, Longtime New Orleans community activist who has led the struggle against police brutality in the city for more than 25 years. He is also a member of the People’s Hurricane Relief Committee




 

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