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This is exactly why our optimism about the recent federal investigations into civil rights violation during and after Hurricane Katrina was measured. While it seems the federal authorities are taking a serious look at how the rights and lives of Black New Orleanians were trampled on in the aftermath of the storm, some in the state and local justice systems are apparently stuck on stupid.

Two officers were charged with second-degree battery against Robert Davis, a 64-year-old retired elementary school teacher who says he was asking officers about the city’s curfew when they assaulted him. The officers were Lance Schilling and Robert Evangelist. A third officer Stuart Smith was charged with simple battery. Later Smith’s charges were dropped, and he was suspended for 120 days.

Schilling, who killed himself in the summer of 2007, and Evangelist were fired. Evangelist appealed his firing to the city’s Civil Service Commission, which upheld the firing. But now the Louisiana 4th Circuit has ruled that Schilling can go back to work.
What!!!

Evangelist’s bosses at NOPD decided that his acts warranted termination, and indeed they did. The civil service commission agreed. For a state court to allow this cop to resume duties as an officer is a travesty of gigantic proportion, an affront to the city’s Black community, in general, and to Mr. Davis, in particular.

There is only one thing that can keep Evangelist from returning to his job as an NOPD officer—an appeal to and subsequent ruling from the state Supreme Court. We hope that NOPD and the civil service commission intend to fight for their original decision and appeal to the state’s high court. As Robert Davis’s lawyer put it, Evangelist “is not fit to be a crossing guard” let a lone a police officer. We couldn’t agree more. What cha say? Should NOPD let this ruling stand, or should they plan to appeal? Tell us. Better yet, tell them. While no one can control how the Supreme Court will ultimately rule on the matter, the people NOPD has sworn to protect and serve certainly deserve to have the law enforcement agency to at least put up a fight.

We ask the question with some guarded optimism. But we are certainly buoyed to hear that federal authorities are digging a deeper into NOPD activity in the days following Hurricane Katrina. At The Tribune, we were sorely disappointed when charges were refused against police in the Danzinger Bridge shooting and when nothing seemed to be even mentioned about possible police misconduct in the Algiers area. There were eye witnesses and evidence; and still no justice.

In addition to the Danzinger case, federal agents have been looking into other post-Katrina incidents involving allegations of vigilantism among white Algiers residents shooting Black residents and a case involving NOPD officers. In that case, federal prosecutors are trying to determining the role officers of the law (and the term is used loosely, here) played in a gunshot victim found dead in a burned out car behind a Westbank levee. The car belonged to William Tanner, the Good Samaritan who happened upon a shot, but breathing Henry Glover, according to published reports. Tanner put him in his vehicle and drove him to a spot where he knew officers where staged, he said; but instead of help, Tanner said officers beat him while another cop drove off in his car with Glover still inside. Neither the car nor Glover was seen again until the charred vehicle, with Glovers’ remains inside, was located behind the levee.
Yes, justice is long overdue.

We can only speculate why the attitude about these events have changed. But we see it as a simple scientific concept of that involves a variable. These new deeper, probing investigations into possible NOPD wrongdoing are being led by the Justice Department, not George Bush’s Justice Department, mind you, but President Obama’s Justice Department, led by Attorney General Eric Holder who has already promised to increase the department’s focus on civil rights violations, which he astutely notes waned under the Bush administration. A new president and a new attorney general who are committed to justice and parity—ahhhhhhhhhhhh; that was the sound of folks at The Tribune taking in a breath of fresh air. And it’s one reason why The Tribune has been put off by all of the recent hullabaloo about why President Obama hasn’t visited New Orleans yet. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether he ever makes a ceremonial visit to our city, because actions still speak louder than words and matter a whole lot more than a parade, motorcade or speech.

At any rate, the renewed focus, the urgent and righteous pursuit of justice is a welcome change. And we hope it is just the beginning. If NOPD is to ever become the police department this ct deserves, its rogue element must be dealt with and the people of this city, especially those of us who are all too often the target of police rage and misconduct, must know that justice is blind. That’s what we say. What cha say? Do you think this new federal probe into NOPD misconduct in those dark days following Katrina will yield justice for those involved?

It was back in December of 2007 that all eyes turned on Duncan Plaza, the green area just across from city hall. The area had to be cleaned up, not of overgrown weeds or litter, but of people—homeless people. The city worked frantically to move the nearly 200 homeless men and women who had made their home in the park after Hurricane Katrina as plans to demolish the nearby state building grew near.

Here we are, more than a year and a half later; and there are still homeless New Orleanians, but no Duncan Plaza. It has been closed not only to those homeless men and women who made their camps there, but to us all.

It’s time to bring the park back!

Go to the city hall of almost any major metropolitan city across this country, and one thing you are almost certain to find is some type of common space, a green area that adds beauty, nature and serenity to a landscape otherwise marked by concrete sidewalks and towering building where the humdrum of politicking suffuses the air.

New Orleans has lost that. Instead, Duncan Plaza is closed, blocked off and off limits. And for what?

The state building has been demolished, and so the park certainly is no longer closed to facilitate that process. The homeless have been moved. Those not fortunate enough to make their ways on to a short list to receive housing vouchers have simply gone to some other part of the city. In fact, in the days and weeks after they were hustled out of Duncan Plaza colonies of homeless sprouted up in other sites throughout New Orleans. Of course, we cannot say with absolutely certainty that the powers that be refuse to reopen Duncan Plaza to prevent the homeless from making their beds their again. No, we can’t say for certain, but we have our thoughts on the matter. Of course, closing Duncan Plaza to public use does not help the city’s homeless situation, though it has relieved city officials of the burden of seeing hopeless men and women every time they go to their offices.

Still, it’s like trying cure a headache with the guillotine. If city and state officials want to do what’s right, they will work together, pool their efforts, support community organizations and agencies that work to help the homeless and they will reopen Duncan Plaza. That what we think, but what cha say? Would you like to see Duncan Plaza reopened? Do you have any thoughts on why it has been closed so long?