New Orelans Police State : NOLA Indymedia

Yesterday I have had three disturbing encounters with police.

The first encounter was at 3 PM. I was driving to the library when I noticed the road was blocked by Humvees. Eight cops were busy maintaining law and order at the neighborhood high school, mostly by blocking the ingress and egress of traffic and shooing the teens away so as to ensure any fights happen off school premises.

The second encounter was the most disturbing. On the way to a friends house I was stopped at a police checkpoint. As I exited the I-10 at Carrolton I saw a cop car with its lights off pulled over on the shoulder. It was 8 PM. I was asked to pull over so that the police could check my vehicle for any obvious minor infractions. You see, this gives them a chance to “sweat” you, looking for any signs of nervousness which they then claim is probable cause for a search. While calmly waiting, I counted EIGHTEEN police cars plus a paddy wagon in the vicinity. Car 3129 from the 2nd, car 279, Traffic 232, cars 3807, and 3812 were and many more. Anger boiled over. “This is bullshit” leaped out of my mouth. I couldn’t believe “You just want to push people out of New Orleans.” Officer Williams verbally communicated a court date and I was given an illegible copy of a citation. I guess I’d better do the research to see what I’m being charged with. I could not believe it.

Then finally getting home at night and beginning to calm down, I see a black and white cruising down the residential street at what must be 50 mph. No siren, no lights, no reason to be flaunting the law. But again, this is New Orleans.

New Orleans has a police problem. In one of the most historically corrupt police departments, it is a MISTAKE to give these jackbooted thugs more power. These are the same police that murdered Delgado College student Jenard Thomas in the ninth ward less than a year before Katrina. It’s no wonder regular people in many neighborhoods hate the cops. Random checkpoints and issuing more traffic citations- even issuing more DUI and simple drug possession charges- will not address the systemic problems that cause violent crime in our city. If anything it will just create more fear among the populace- fear each other and fear of the police.

Louisiana already has a higher incarceration rate that China under Mao. As of 2005, Atlanta has 354 police per 100,000 residents. Boston had 367, Oakland had 176. ***New Orleans already has 608 police per 100,000 residents***

Random checkpoints between 2-6AM, random checkpoints any time of day or night, talk of curfews. When will it end? We have to stop the politicians before our city is negatively transformed and we wake up in a police state.

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SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

ACLU says get tough on crime and protect our freedom; checkpoints, FEMA lists & cameras will not make us any safer, only less free

Strengthen communities and families and rebuild support structures.
Independent oversight of police needed to root out bad guys, build trust

For immediate release January 10, 2007: Contact Joe Cook at
504-522-0628

NEW ORLEANS-In response to the severe crime problem in New Orleans, the ACLU
of Louisiana says get tough and lawfully target known criminals, while
respecting and protecting our constitutional freedoms. At the same time,
independent oversight of the police is needed more than ever to help root
out the unfit and build trust with the public. Furthermore, we call on
public officials to engage in preventative measures to strengthen
communities and families and rebuild support structures.

"Use smart policing to lawfully target known murderers, rapists, robbers,
and assaulters and bring them to justice," said Joe Cook, Executive
Director, ACLU of Louisiana. "Simultaneously, Chief Riley needs to act
quickly and decisively to make sure officers are fit for duty or remove them
from the force, so people will cooperate and have confidence in the system."

Immediately, public officials need to get down to business with some common
sense alternatives to their failed 'get tough on crime' tactics of the past.
That has led Louisiana to have one of the highest crime and incarceration
rates in the world. As such, higher numbers of arrests will not necessarily
make us safer, but precise targeting of individual serious and violent
offenders can help. The problem with our criminal justice system is not
softness but low apprehension rates in that 85% of offenders are never
caught.

The ACLU strongly opposes the automobile checkpoints as announced by Mayor
Nagin and Chief Riley at yesterday's press conference. Police will just
waste valuable time on a fishing expedition, instead of using credible leads
to pursue known bad actors. Checkpoints to gather general evidence of
criminal wrongdoing have been declared unconstitutional. Innocent people
should not have to suffer even more with the loss of their right to travel
freely.

Likewise, Senator Landrieu should scuttle her proposal to make FEMA violate
a federal privacy law and give identifying information of aid recipients to
the police. People who have lost their homes and live in a trailer should
not have to lose their privacy as well. No evidence has been presented to
show that disclosure of the sought after information would aid in fighting
crime. The federal law at issue protects all FEMA aid recipients from going
into a criminal database, which includes virtually everybody in the New
Orleans metro area. Turning innocent people's social security numbers and
addresses over to the police will do nothing to make us safer from violent
criminals.

Senator Landrieu's proposal for surveillance cameras raises even more
questions. No objective data exists to support the use of video
surveillance by police in public places to prevent or solve crimes. In
London, where 150,000 cameras were installed to reduce crime, certain
incidents of violent crime actually rose after the network was installed.
In-studio staff, however, were found to engage in violations of civil
liberties: They focused almost exclusively on people of color, gays and
young people, along with monitoring public meetings, marches and
demonstrations. Instead of cameras, use the money on fundamental reforms
proposed below to lower the crime rate.

ACLU 5-point Action Plan:
1. Invest in real crime prevention. Young men 15 to 29 years old commit most
of the alarming street crime in New Orleans and across the nation. The key
to crime prevention lies in strong families and communities--jobs with a
livable wage, decent housing and neighborhoods, quality schools for
everyone-not more prisons.
2. Move forward with staffing and funding the office of the Independent
Monitor for the NOPD to hold the police accountable to the people who pay
their salaries. People will not cooperate with police officers that they do
not trust or respect.
3. Expand non-prison sanctions for non-violent offenders-tickets instead of
jail for minor offenses; wider use of release on personal recognizance, home
detention, restitution, etc. Save costly prison space for those who should
be removed from society. Cease wasting taxpayer money on wasteful
incarceration in Louisiana's state and local jails that already cost
taxpayers close to one billion dollars a year.
4. Treat non-violent drug abuse and small quantity possession as a public
health issue, not a crime problem. Nearly two-thirds of today's prisoners
are non-violent drug abusers. They need treatment, not a jail or prison
cell.
5. Stop enacting or considering ineffective "anti-crime" laws or policies
like check points, surveillance cameras, and release of FEMA lists to law
enforcement that reduce our freedoms - but not our crime rate. Many police,
prosecutors and corrections officials agree that constitutional rights do
not hinder effective law enforcement.

"Again, we need to think creatively and make changes already proven to work
elsewhere, like those presented at the most recent crime summit," emphasizes
Cook. "Invest heavily in prevention that stabilizes and strengthens
families to prevent crime, which makes more sense than just trying to catch
criminals after people have been murdered, raped, or robbed. Stop wasting
valuable police resources on arresting and incarcerating people on municipal
offenses for which a citation would suffice."

Cook goes on to say, "Effective law enforcement and protection of civil
liberties are both essential in a democracy with individual liberty. The
ACLU believes that we can be both safe and free."

The government after passed laws to protect criminals and allow more crimes, so that police expansion could be justified. Look for more police controls. Look for more Rex 84 cells to be opened. IT'S GOING TO GET ALOT WORSE as tyranny of government progresses. BTW, SCREW THE ACLU. The REFUSE to assist in stopping the main resistance to government oppression - THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY UNIT that makes the government the head of the family.

Downsize DC, http://www.downsizedc.org/mission.shtml - Read The Bill Act, http://www.downsizedc.org/rtba_legislation.shtml. Many other quick and simple ways to email your voice on Constitutional rights and organizing for activism - https://secure.downsizedc.org/rtba/coalition/.

SAVE AMERICA!
STOP SPENDING AND START SAVING! - CUT THE GDP - MONEY IS THE ONLY THING THE US GOVERNMENT UNDERSTANDS - WHEN THEY START RETURNING THE CONSTITUTION - WE CAN START SPENDING AGAIN.

Dei Jurum Conventus

Ed Ward, MD; http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/arc_ward.htm
Independent writer/Media Liaison for The Price of Liberty; http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/