Posted on 04/04/2012 1:18:26 PM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
CNN) -- A federal judge Wednesday sentenced five former New Orleans police officers to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for the shootings of unarmed civilians in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, prosecutors said.
The ex-officers were convicted in August on a combined 25 counts of civil rights violations in the shootings, which occurred on the Danziger Bridge on September 4, 2005, six days after much of New Orleans went underwater when the powerful hurricane slammed into the Gulf Coast. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt handed the stiffest sentence to former Officer Robert Faulcon, who was handed a 65-year term for his involvement in shooting two of the victims. Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gecivius got 40 years for their roles in the incident, while Robert Villavaso was sentenced to 38 years.
The lightest term went to former detective Arthur Kaufman, who was sentenced to six years for attempting to cover up what the officers had done, according to the U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans.
Prosecutors argued the officers opened fire on an unarmed family, killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding four others. Minutes later, Faulcon shot and killed Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old man described by Justice Department officials as having severe mental disabilities and who was trying to flee the scene when he was shot, according to the Justice Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Was race involved or is this another buried story.
New Orleans sure has some proud moments. Stuff like the cops looting Walmart in uniform, and threatening the person who was recording their shopping expedition on video.
Then we have this group of individuals.
Then we have the ones’ who abandoned their jobs, “Confiscated” new Cadillacs and drove to Texas.
Thank goodness that most of them are back on the force again in New Orleans .... just think, they could have transferred to your neighborhood.
I love the smell of justice in the afternoon...
Bush’s fault.
Another NOPD proud moment.
I think the weapons the cops were using in this one were AK’s..!
Verrry unusual.
Basically they just machine-gunned them all.
Yup.
The surprise is not that they did it, but that they were actually handed down significant jail time. After all,you want them to be able to go home to their families at night don't you < /sarcasm>
Shame on them.
Good analysis!
True, but I would say that applies to all levels of government -- local, state, and federal. IMO the correct hermeneutic here to explain their actions is a reflexive, panicked power grab. Very much what we saw after 9/11. In all cases in which government in a crisis is shown to be inattentive and helpless, the recovery strategy seems to be to flex muscles and bellow about authority.
There was no justice. A murderer’s life should never be considered to be worth more than the victim’s. When the murderer is part of the government, the execution should be public.
I vividly remember a conversation with our new 0-6 chief as to where ‘his’ map and publications account was after the truly awful man who was the G-3 had had a tantrum about not instantly having maps of Astan. I pointed out to him that ‘his’ shop had no pubs account as the organization policy for purposes of economy was only one such account would exist and it would be controlled by admin services. Unfortunately the woman in charge of that account and the TS clearance officer was floridly bi-polar and had a big ego thing about restricting all pubs orders only to those absolutely mandated by regulation or statue so there were no maps and we could order none. I was treated to a major explosion of command rage which boiled down to ‘how dare you tell me I can't get anything I want and this situation is your fault you stupid lazy civilian’. That was the tenor of life for months as we labored to support the ramp up for Astan and then Iraq. We had done the drill so often during the 90’s starting with Panama in89 we could do it in our sleep but our leaders were shaken, fearful, angry and without a template and they took it out on the people they could control. Loyal US citizens. I often wondered if the same sour angry atmosphere prevailed after Pearl Harbor.
Now what about prosecuting former Mayor Nagin for his complicity in these deaths?
Fascinating.
I too have wondered about the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. I don’t doubt much of the history has been “sanitized for your protection”.
You make an excellent point. However, the outcome represents a whole lot more justice than I thought was going to be realized in this case.
Yeah, me too.
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