No limits to the law in NoLa

[lewisipso]

Something terrible lies at the heart of New Orleans - a rampant, widespread and apparently uncontrollable brutality on the part of its police force and its prison service. The horrors of its criminal justice system from decades before Hurricane Katrina and up to now lie somewhere between, with little exaggeration, Candide and Stalin's Gulags.

Spit on the sidewalk here, and you may be arrested (true) - New Orleans has the highest incarceration rate of any city in the United States - and if you're poor and black and can't pay bail, you will enter a place where any protection under the American constitution and the Bill of Rights is stripped away. You will wait weeks or months to be charged, whether innocent or not, and in the meantime you will be subjected to foul, overcrowded jail conditions, prisoner-to-prisoner violence and the brutality of the deputies who guard you. God help you if you have a medical condition, or a mental-health problem, or if you're pregnant (you may deliver in leg chains - it has happened). "A minor offence in New Orleans," one civil rights attorney told me, "can get you into a hellish place."

On 17 March this year, the federal department of justice (DoJ) decided that enough was enough and it has made moves to have the New Orleans police department (NOPD) placed under the supervision of a federal judge. The New Orleans jail system will likely follow.


New Statesman - No limits to the law in NoLa

[jcsdscott]

Wow, this article floored me...I knew conditions were great but this is a bit much.

[MacLean]

How do you hold someone without immediately charging them?

If the charging information doesn't hit the jail within 72 hours, they're released here.

Also, seriously, I can see an infraction for spitting, but an arrest?

[ChesCopPodz]

How do you hold someone without immediately charging them?

If the charging information doesn't hit the jail within 72 hours, they're released here.

Also, seriously, I can see an infraction for spitting, but an arrest?

It's not even 72 hours here. 99% of the time, if the charging paperwork isn't arriving with the perp, they won't take them.

The 1% comes with really violent people. We still fill out the booking paperwork with the charge, but the actual PC affidavit gets delivered as soon as it's done, and they definitely ask if an officer is working on it at the time.

[MacLean]

Oh, our PC statement has to be there when they are booked.

The charging documents have to be there and they have to see a judge within 72 hours.

[Twan007]

NOLA - it's kinda like a blackhole around here

no one can really explain it :/

[MacLean]

It sounds like it needs to be steam cleaned.

[pgg]

The Feds are trying this all over the country. It has nothing to do with "civil rights" it only has to do with putting federal control over an agency.

As far as New Orleans goes. Don't do the crime if you can't handle the time

[MacLean]

Sorry, but I have to disagree.

Holding someone without a charge is a direct constitutional violation. That's brightline case law, not "soft on crooks."

Abuse of a prisoner, if true, is a crime.

I know you wouldn't do any of those things, so why would you say that this was not a civil rights issue?

[pgg]

Sorry, but I have to disagree.

Holding someone without a charge is a direct constitutional violation. That's brightline case law, not "soft on crooks."

Abuse of a prisoner, if true, is a crime.

I know you wouldn't do any of those things, so why would you say that this was not a civil rights issue?

In this day and age I find it hard to believe that any agency would tolerate this. I know if anyone tried that here they would be fired, arrested, and charged. Look at what we see the Feds trying to do in Seattle. Just seems like every where I look the DOJ wants to have oversite of local agencies.

[MacLean]

In this day and age I find it hard to believe that any agency would tolerate this. I know if anyone tried that here they would be fired, arrested, and charged. Look at what we see the Feds trying to do in Seattle. Just seems like every where I look the DOJ wants to have oversite of local agencies.

I agree that the DOJ likes to run amok. I also agree that if it were done here cops would be fired, arrested, and charged.

I'm not sure I believe that "any agency would not tolerate this."

Even some of our very own friends here on the board say some of this stuff goes on.

This is a real black mark on all of us if it is tolerated anywhere.

[lewisipso]

Media caters to ratings. Not everthing is done as they say it is. Except for minor details an arrest in NO is pretty much the same as it is elsewhere. Upon arrival to the jail the prisoner is turned over to a jailer. Gist paperwork (Probable Cause) and charges are completed while officers are at the jail. Jailers receive the paperwork and process the inmate. A person must "appear" in front of a judge within 72 hours here as well for arraignment and bond/bail set.
In my days of working in NO I do sometimes wish I could have show others how it was done. Sometimes not. I've never known of such things again.

[Cidp24]

I've spent a lot of time in N.O., much of it during Mardi Gras because it's such a big family thing for us. I've been in the Quarter during Mardi Gras and I've been in some much quieter areas to watch parades. I've never had any other than cordial contact with the police. I do, however, follow one simple rule - I ACT RIGHT!

I have no clue about the constitutional issues or how the charges/detention is handled.

[lewisipso]

I do, however, follow one simple rule - I ACT RIGHT!

That is indeed the key ingredient to a pleasant visit.

[MacLean]

Media caters to ratings. Not everthing is done as they say it is. Except for minor details an arrest in NO is pretty much the same as it is elsewhere. Upon arrival to the jail the prisoner is turned over to a jailer. Gist paperwork (Probable Cause) and charges are completed while officers are at the jail. Jailers receive the paperwork and process the inmate. A person must "appear" in front of a judge within 72 hours here as well for arraignment and bond/bail set.
In my days of working in NO I do sometimes wish I could have show others how it was done. Sometimes not. I've never known of such things again.

I'm certain the media always has a slant.

If anything in that article is true, it needs to be addressed. If it isn't true, they got nothing to worry about.

[sgtbear111]

Ronal Serpas came to the WSP and left for Nashville and back to NOPD. as Chief He was known to be ruthless with line supervisors and middle management. Like the good old Navy that eats it's own : ZERO DEFECTS.

Serpas could not understand the concept of Leadership so he dug out another former lawer Chief's bag of IA tricks, and created a world massaged by statistics, micromanagment, and IA. "SAF" Strategic Advancement Forums were his dog and pony shows. Leaderhip became management and number crunching. He publicly destroyed the careers of many mid level officers. It became a joke for the brass to massage the stats to keep him off your ass.

I first and last met the man when I was a Narcotics Sgt. My boss introduced me to this guy in civvies at one of our endles staff meetings. He fired a bunch of actuarial questions as iunderstandable as Federal acronym speak, at me, I replied "I don't know what f**k you are talking about". Another Sgt said "that's the Chief" my boss mumbled an excuse and eased him off me, I could only say that with 2 months left to retire.

I agee with pgg on Federal oversight, or takeover of municipal and county departments. The present Obama administration is essentially dishonest and their behavior doesnt bring any examples of great credibility or trust to "we the people". The Fed agencies FBI and ATF need a cleanup (public accountability) before they can be trusted. I refer to beating two dead horses Waco and Ruby Ridge where Mr Eric Holder was #2 man at DOJ. Perjury by supervisors and criminal acts or inaction by supervisors on use of lethal force have been hidden. Sgt Stacy Koons of LAPD went to prison for Fed Civil Rights violation for failing to supervise his officers beating Rodney King. North Idaho and the Branch Davidians are still waiting...............Now ATF is walking "hundreds" per Wm. Hoover, of AR15 rifles across the border and line agents have gone whistleblower, and the ATF brass still lies to Congress. Then or now? NOPD has it's problems but they need to get the dirt out in the public eye. Louisianans can handle that. DOJ Federals will bring in a bunch of DC lawyers offering nothing but a different complexed way to massage the complaints and the numbers, perhaps conceal the evidence. a bit more smoothly, and select a few scapegoats.? History to some is old info, but history is human behavior too, and some of that old behavior left uncorrected can hurt you too.