Hooligans on Bourbon Street

On October 8,2005, a man was beaten until he was laying on the ground, his blood running into the gutter at the intersection of Bourbon and Conti Streets in New Orleans, Louisiana. Law enforcement, although present, did not intervene to prevent this from occuring. Law enforcement provided the beating. On film.

Robert Davis was interviewed on our local news channels tonight. Shockingly, he does not blame the police officers, and states he believes this matter is not racially motivated. He believes the way he was dressed, in a white T-shirt and shorts with grey whiskers on his face made him look like a homeless person. He stated he may have had cigarette smoke on his breath, but no alcohol, and is sure the ER physician who attended him will acquit him of any charges that he was drunk from his bloodwork. I have to say that Mr. Davis is a gentleman of the highest order. His response is so unlike that of Rodney King, that he will prevail in this matter.

Some are saying the NOPD is operating under a great deal of stress. Excuse me. They are living on a cruise ship, working 12 hour days, five days a week. They are having to share cabins. To say these conditions are arduous is laughable to any man who served in the US Navy. Mr. Davis had recently returned to New Orleans from Atlana to check on property he owns. He and his family has been under a great deal of stress if anyone was. Operating under stress, assuming it is even present, does not give law enforcement license to beat citizens.

Mr. Davis asked a mounted policeman about the curfew time. Then another policeman smarted off to him, and Mr. Davis asked to be left alone. Mr. Davis turned to leave. For that he was beaten to the ground and falsely accused of public drunkeness, and the police had the audacity to suppress and rough up a journalist who filmed their criminal activity and now they want to justify it all. There is something very very wrong here, and it is NOT a black man with whiskers asking a mounted policeman about a curfew!

I usually give the police the benefit of the doubt. In this case, that is very difficult.
I have to say, as inflammatory as the statement may be, that this kind of uncalled for attack on a man's physical safety and life is exactly why many law abiding citizens carry a gun. I wonder..........If these attackers had not been cops, but Cripps, and Mr. Davis had pulled his Glock out and ventilated a couple of skulls, would he be held at fault? If not, then why are the police any different when they commit the same act?

The NOPD has still not dropped the Public Drunk charges against Mr. Davis, evidence that the NOPD is standing behind it's officers. The attorney for the accused police officers has deemed Mr. Davis' beating "reasonable."

Some events elicit righteous anger and demand powerful statements of universal condemnation. When law enforcement fails to enforce laws to the point that law abiding citizens lay bleeding into a gutter, the public must demand justice. The beating of an old man in Vieux Carre, like the CHP attack on an old woman in New Orleans, are just such incidents. This is not police bashing. It's simply a civilized response to uncivilized conduct. Justice was demanded for much less in Abu Ghraib. Who cries for justice in New Orleans?

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