FEATURES
RACE
by Lovell Beaulieu
Dillard Mayoral Debate Defines The Campaign
by Lovell Beaulieu
A Quality Start for our Littlest Learners
by Orissa Arend
Sisters Offer a Heap of Healthy Food at Salads Galore and More
by Fallon JaiBackstreet Cultural Museum A Community Treasure Needs Our Help
by Judy Boudreaux
Columns & Departments
Letters to the Editor
Month in Review
George Curry
Month in Review
Danziger 7
Last month’s plea deal involving a retired New Orleans Police Department lieutenant involved in a cover-up of the police killings on the Danziger Bridge in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina reverberated throughout the city in what ranks as one of the department’s darkest hours.
Police Superintendent Warren Riley, clearly troubled by the developments that saw Lt. Michael Lohman plead guilty to obstruction of justice among more than a dozen charges, told reporters at a press conference he was shocked at what happened, while making it clear that he was the one who initiated the investigation into the shootings. Riley’s assertion that he did not read the entire report has drawn the ire and condemnation of local media, especially for such a monumental case as the Danziger Bridge killings.
The shootings, which occurred Sept. 4, 2005, five days after Katrina made landfall and led to the flooding of 80 percent of New Orleans, resulted in the deaths of two African American males, Ronald Madison, 40, and James Brissette, 19. Four other people were also wounded in the police killings.
Lohman’s indictment targets the false charging of Lance Madison for attempted murder of police officers. It was Lance Madison who was trying to cross the bridge with his mentally challenged brother Ronald, seeking refuge at their brother, Dr. Romell Madison's dental office. Lohman concocted a story that involved the planting of a gun after having queried another officer about whether the gun was “clean” and whether it could be traced to another crime.
The indictment was issued a year and a half after Criminal District Court Judge Raymond Bigelow dismissed the criminal charges against the seven officers. The Madisons, mostly through the portrayals by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, were clearly not the band of villains supporters of the seven police officers tried to make them. The officers involved – and by extension Lt. Lohman – attempted to portray the area where the cover-up took place as a war zone, rampant with lawlessness and thugs committing crimes.
In the case of the Madisons, the opposite was true. They were among the thousands of law-abiding citizens seeking higher ground, food, shelter and safety only to be met by police officers drunk on power while depriving individuals of their civil liberties.
Based on Bigelow’s handling of the case and the one-sided racial response by those who supported the Danziger 7, the obvious hero in all of this is not U.S. Attorney Jim Letten but his boss, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was in town recently.
Throughout the administration of former President George W. Bush, under whose watch the Danziger Bridge violations occurred, chances of the Republican US Attorney taking on a case such as this appeared remote. There is still the matter of the Georgia Southern student, Lavon Jones, who was murdered by bouncers at Razzoo’s in the French Quarter, on New Year's Eve 2004, still languishing. There is the case of the retired Orleans Parish schoolteacher who was brutalized by New Orleans police officers on Bourbon Street still waiting for justice. And there is the case of the RTA bus drivers and police at the Beachcorner on Canal at the end of the streetcar line.
While vigilante police officers who shoot, maim and kill are nothing new in New Orleans, indicting and convicting them is. It’s unfortunate it took an African-American attorney general working for an African-American president to bring to justice a band of mostly white police officers who find themselves being defended by portions of a white citizenry that refuses to see truth even when it’s looking them in the eye from the top of a bridge.Search for a chief
Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu appears to have gotten off on the right track with the announcement of his special task force to find a new police chief.
Heading the list are Xavier University President Norman Francis and Nolan Rollins, president of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans. Both are familiar with the inner workings of New Orleans and both have played key roles in the post-Katrina recovery of New Orleans.
It’s also a positive sign that Landrieu named former police chief Richard Pennington to the search team. It was Pennington who under former Mayor Marc Morial instituted far-reaching institutional changes to the NOPD, and who also enjoyed success in his role as police chief in Atlanta.
Some have gone so far as to speculate that Pennington may in fact be on the committee to land his old job. That is not likely to happen, as Landrieu has pretty much made it clear he plans to look across the nation for the city’s next top cop.Desiree Rogers steps down
Desiree Glapion Rogers, President Barack Obama’s social secretary and native New Orleanian, announced late last month she would be stepping down from her high-profile and high-pressured job in order to pursue opportunities in the private sector.
Rogers said her intention all along was to serve as social secretary for just the early stages of the Obama administration before leaving.
Rogers in a short time managed to change the way the White House’s social scene operated, from the exclusivity of the George W. Bush administration to a more people centered White House.
Unfortunately, Rogers’ legacy, will include the state dinner crashing by a couple seeking their own 15 minutes of fame. If she could do it again, Rogers would probably have been on the floor more engaged, scrutinizing the guests and the guest list. But that’s speculation by those who weren’t there.
Ultimately, the U.S. Secret Service took responsibility for the breach.
Rogers was one of three high profile African Americans in the Obama administration from New Orleans who boosted the city's image nationally.
