Gilligan is dead and other Quick Hits
For a Wednesday morning:
- The world mourns the death of the actor Bob Denver. Sun-times coverage here; Tribune here (registration required); Channel 5 here. Only Ginger, Mary Ann and the Professor are still around.
- CPD in the Big Easy - Channel 7 (text and video); Channel 2
- Court appointed "monitor" has determined that the City has been circumventing the ban on political hiring for some time now. Tell us something we don't know. Ladies and Gentlemen - our new superhero - Master of the Obvious! Trib article here; Times here.
- And here is a lovely article that touches our hearts (registration required). Seems a gentleman went on an online sherrif's registered sex offender database, located two offenders, went to their homes, and killed them. Bravo! We knew those databases would come in handy someday. We don't want to hear any liberal claptrap about how the molesters "paid their debt to society" and shouldn't have to live in fear. Blah blah blah bullshit. These scumbags took advantage of the most vulnerable members of society and, in our humble opinion, NO sentence could be too long, NO torture could be too severe and NO punishment could be too harsh.
posted by SCC at 10:00 AM
23 Comments:
At least my dream of a threesome with Ginger and Mary Ann is still alive. If only that damn professor would die and stop foiling my plan!
^
Mary Ann helped me discover my libido. What babe she was. That chick Susan Carlson on the Ch 2 morning news is a dead ringer for her. She has replaced Mary Ann in my adult lust.
Id rather read daleys name in the Obit's!
As conditions in southern Louisiana deteriorated in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) ceased to function as an effective security force. It can be argued that any police force faced with such devastation and chaos eventually would find itself overwhelmed by the job at hand. NOPD, however, disintegrated faster than a well-organized, well-trained and disciplined force should have. As a result, officers were unable to contain the mass looting that occurred or prevent violence at refugee shelters.
On Sept. 2, just three days after Hurricane Katrina hit, witnesses reported seeing NOPD personnel involved in the looting of the Wal-Mart retail store on Tchoupitoulas Street. According to reports, the officers lost control of the situation at the store, which had been turned into a distribution center for food and essential supplies. Mass desertions and resignations from the force also were reported.
Plagued by repeated scandal, the NOPD is not considered, shall we say, one of the country's least-corrupt police departments. Although steps have been taken in recent years to clean up the department, its near-immediate breakdown after the hurricane certainly raises questions -- at least in the area of discipline within the ranks. A poorly disciplined military or police organization faced with significant obstacles or challenges often disintegrates faster and more completely than would a well-disciplined organization. In fact, the security situation in New Orleans following Katrina is similar in many ways to the breakdown in authority that plagues countries in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia during major natural disasters.
During the 1980s and 1990s, NOPD held the top positions among U.S. police forces in the categories of police brutality, corruption and incompetence, according to Temple University police abuse expert James Fyfe. Between 1993 and 1998, 50 NOPD officers were arrested for felonies, including homicide, rape, and armed robbery, Fyfe reported. During this period, the FBI assigned agents to the force to reform its internal affairs division, and the Department of Justice opened an investigation into allegations of civil rights abuses by the department. While this was going on, the crime rate in New Orleans was one of the highest in the country, earning the city the nickname, "Murder Capital of the U.S.A," during the mid-1990s.
Perhaps the most serious incident occurred in October 1994, when an NOPD officer was arrested and charged with killing New Orleans resident Kim Groves, a 32-year-old mother of three who had filed a police brutality complaint against the officer. The officer was convicted and sentenced to death for ordering Grove's death "under color of law."
Richard Pennington took over as NOPD superintendent in 1994 and began a crackdown on police corruption. In addition, partially as a result of federal scrutiny, New Orleans began a series of police reforms in early 1997. Crime rates and corruption dropped as a result, but many observers believe serious problems with discipline and corruption persisted.
Several cases of officer corruption that have come to light in the recent past, in fact, suggest that the NOPD still has some internal cleansing to do. In May 2004, an NOPD officer was arrested for allegedly plotting to rob the city's Hibernia National Bank, where he worked part-time as a security guard. Two months later, another officer was sentenced to 18 months in jail for extorting money from people in the French Quarter by threatening to arrest them if they did not withdraw money from their ATM accounts. In August, right before Hurricane Katrina hit, a NOPD officer was arrested and charged with the rape of a woman he had detained. Also in August, according to The Associated Press, allegations surfaced that two officers had beaten a man before dropping him off at a hospital. The department said little about the case, but Police Superintendent Edwin Compass ordered an investigation and called in the FBI to help.
Furthermore, the homicide rate has been inching up again. By mid-August, 192 killings had been reported for 2005, compared with 169 at the same time in 2004. Adjusted for the city's size, those numbers dwarf murder rates in Washington, Detroit, Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, according to AP figures.
Following the claims of officer-involved looting, Compass rose to the defense of his beleaguered department Sept. 5, angrily refuting allegations of cowardice and incompetence on the part of his officers. Responding to reports that about 400 officers from his 1,700-strong force were unaccounted for, Compass countered that some of his officers had worked themselves to the point of exhaustion. Compass also reported that two of his officers committed suicide as the situation around them descended into anarchy.
During the days following the hurricane, NOPD suffered a serious breakdown in command and control, as many units -- cut off from department headquarters due to communication failures caused by the hurricane and flooding -- lacked a way to receive information and orders from higher up. This fact certainly made it extremely difficult to maintain discipline and a functioning organizational structure -- but not impossible. There is no way of determining at this point how many of the 400 missing officers deserted their post.
Although many NOPD officers undoubtedly performed their duties with bravery, dignity and valor, the breakdown in law and order indicates serious shortcomings on the part of police force as a whole. Levees, homes and business must be rebuilt if New Orleans is to recover from the devastation. The police force, it appears, also will need rebuilding.
They can place all the blame they want on circumstances and they will never be right. The fact is, NO was not prepared for this event or any event of similar magnitude. Your phones and radios go out?
Its called a "rally" point in some professional circles. They and Chicago should both look into the concept.
Its comical to me in the way that it could only be comical to one of us. Chicago is no better prepared. Its been staring us in the face for years and even decades. And when something happens, they will once again use the excuse that what happens was "unforeseeable".
Funny that the concept of rally points and other simple concepts for emergency and disaster preparedness were foreseen thousands of years ago.
My heart truly goes out to the simple honest workers in the NOPD, whether its one or a thousand.
A note for anybody who is donating through the Red Cross. Unless you specify on the check that the money is for the Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort they can send the money anywhere they choose.
Gilligan wouldmake a better president than Bush!
prove it. all you do is carp and offer nothing to the board. go beat your meat you wannabe
Oh yea, you wouldn't say that if The Skipper were here, right little buddy?
Even the Professor would make a better president than that goof on Pennslyvania Avenue. The President reminds me of Mr. Howell, all money and no brains.
A question too Mr.609 post. A wannabe what?
A wannabe cop? Maybe I is, maybe I isn't.
A wannabe President. No wait, he's already there.
A wannabe idiot. Naw, you have that one.
I think daley has been doing a happy dance since Katrina hit. Whaddaya say?
Anyone know why they changed the name from H.B.T to SWAT??
It seems as it is the same thing as HBT, if it is not, please let me know, I did not get the Pax on this one. And who was able to apply?? Only Sons Of Supervisors (SOS)??
Its still all a load of shit if you ask me!!!
Of course; only SOS applicants. It's even funnier that a few months ago there was an announcement (in the Daily Bulletin) for PO's with experience in firearm and entry tactics to apply for a positon where THEY would ONLY train this new SWAT team. It was OK for these EXPERTS to train the clout babies elected for this new SWAT team, but THEY were not invited to be PART of the team.
The superintendant should be disgraced on not sending anyone down there sooner. I like that Sons of Supervisors (SOS). It is the truth though.
To 6:14 AM...Maybe we should think about the laws addressing deployments rather than name-calling. The law, enacted after 9/11, is there to protect the officers and their families from liability.
Emergency Management Assistance Compact (E-MAC): Public safety personnel wishing to render assistance on site to the local forces operating in Louisiana and Mississippi should not self-dispatch to the area. Illinois is trying to assure all relief efforts from the state are coordinated through the established Emergency Management Assistance Compact (E-MAC) process. For workers employed by state and local public health agencies, please volunteer through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), an agreement among 48 states to share resources during a disaster. The only deployment of any assets that is assured of reimbursement, liability, worker's compensation is through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. That requires the requesting state Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to go to the EMAC desk (located in the LA EOC) and file an official request. Personnel cannot deploy until Louisiana approves the request. EMAC is state law in Illinois and 48 other states. It is to ensure coordinated response, discourage spontaneous deployment, and it also covers many legal issues. Any deployment from Illinois that does not go through EMAC is the responsibility and risk of that individual person and/or agency. It is not covered by the IEMA Act. To date Illinois has deployed more than 150 law enforcement officers to Louisiana and more than 600 firefighters, more than 50 doctors and nurses and other assets. All went through EMAC.
To *:22 poster,
Rubbish! The officers are already protected under law if they go down there. Look,I'm not saying that individual P/O's should trsvel on their own. I'm saying that at day 1 we should have sent out we're available. We didn't asnd look bad.
You mean to tell me state authorities down there said, well we take some NYC coppers,and troopers from some other state, but not the resources of CFD? Rubbish!
Our superintendent should be disgraced. He's an idiot.
To 10:08 AM-
Sorry, he/she's right. If the Department doesn't send you officially, you AREN'T indemified. If something happens to you, it will NOT be in the line of duty. You will just be a good samaritan citizen/civilian down there.
I heard for some reason LA was not part of EMAC and just signed on after the disaster?? Can anyone confirm?
To 10:39,
I know that part, I am saying we should have contactedthem right away andsaid we can come. We didn't
Once the scope was known, the whole nation should have offered to help.
Something could happen to any U.S. city at any time, and we need to know that we can count on each other. This is karma that will come back to bite us on a community-wide scale.
NYC's mayor explicitly acknowledged the quid pro quo when he indicated that NYC will do what it can in the same breath he mentioned that Louisiana certainly helped NYC after 9/11.
And 13th and Racine? That really seems like a bad idea.
No way will that last long though. In a region of 6 million people, I guarantee that any NOLA refugee family headed by an able-bodied person( with a work ethic and no criminal record) will be picked up by someone or other pretty quickly and taken out of the field.
Believe it or not there are some of us in SOS that have no relatives on the job,but did use a phone call to get into a no-bib unit like a few thousand others did to aquire their spots in the Department. And also SOS is laughing at the new SWAT team harder than anyone else!
And I thought you guys wore bibs?? My bad!
If you don't like the current president, maybe we can get good old Jimmy Carter back. With the soaring price of gas a, 29% inflation rate should work out nicely. In case you don't remember old Jimmy he was a Democrat
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