New Orleans Dismisses 60 Officers, Suspends 25 Others

New Orleans Dismisses 60 Officers, Suspends 25 Others
Date: Jan 2, 2006 6:33 PM
The New GUN WEEK, January 1, 2006
Page 2

New Orleans Dismisses 60 Officers, Suspends 25 Others

by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

Sixty police officers have been fired by the New Orleans
Police Department and 25 others were reportedly suspended as
fallout continues over police conduct in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina.

According to Associated Press (AP), 51 of the fired officers
were dumped before disciplinary hearings on their conduct
even began in December. The report said that a total of 228
officers have been involved in disciplinary hearings,
apparently for having left the city without permission in
the days following the hurricane and dike failure, which led
to flooding of large segments of the Crescent City.

Police Chief Warren Riley said that even though officers
have returned to the city, the fact that they left at all is
“not acceptable."

This all happened as the city still faces a lawsuit filed by
the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle
Association (NRA) over widespread confiscation of firearms
from private citizens in the city following the hurricane.
Those confiscations were apparently conducted on orders from
the police administration, but without the authority of
state or federal law, or even emergency statute. In many
cases, citizens were disarmed at gunpoint by police and
National Guard troopers, and there are reports that many of
the seized guns have not been returned, or even accounted
for.

Attorneys for SAF and NRA obtained a temporary restraining
order from a federal judge almost immediately, and they are
now pursuing a permanent injunction against the seizures.
New Orleans officials have reportedly insisted that they
did not confiscate guns despite citizen complaints to the
contrary.

In the wake of the Aug. 29 hurricane and subsequent
flooding, reports circulated that some police officers even
participated in looting. At least two female officers were
caught on film removing items from a store.

Just days after SAF and NRA won their restraining order,
former Police Chief Eddie Compass resigned. His was not the
only resignation. AP reported that at least one police
captain resigned under investigation, while other officers
were terminated.

In the chaos that followed the hurricane, police from other
jurisdictions were brought to the city as reinforcements to
help restore order. There was widespread looting, reports
that several people were shot, and that other crimes were
being committed at a time when officers were unable to
handle the situation, yet were given a priority to disarm
citizens who could not evacuate from the city.

Adding insult to injury, a news crew captured on video the
beating of a retired school teacher, and an assault on a
news reporter by several police officers in the French
Quarter.

Starting this month, according to AP, the FBI and federal
drug enforcement agents will assist in training New Orleans
officers in leadership and behavior skills.