The Glade 4.0

trina

But remember folks police are there to "protect" you.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100311/ap_ ... e_shooting

Ex-New Orleans officer pleads in shooting cover-up

MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer Michael Kunzelman,

Associated Press Writer – 12 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – A second former New Orleans police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to covering up the deadly shooting of unarmed residents after Hurricane Katrina, with a judge calling the plot a "despicable" scheme that immeasurably compounded the storm's damage.

Jeffrey Lehrmann, who left the police department in 2006 and is a special agent at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix, pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony, which means he had knowledge of a crime and didn't report it. Another former officer pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge.

"I have neither imagined or heard of more despicable conduct by law enforcement officers," U.S. District Judge Lance Africk said of the case against the former homicide detective.

A court filing Thursday outlines new details about the alleged cover-up that followed the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings on the Danziger Bridge, which also led to a Justice Department investigation.

The filing says police fabricated two nonexistent witnesses, kicked spent shell casings off the bridge weeks after the shooting and held a secret meeting in a gutted-out police building to make sure officers who shot at unarmed civilians got their false stories straight before taping interviews.

The filing also reveals how police investigators carried out a plot to plant a gun to make it appear the shootings were justified.

Several weeks after the shooting, Lehrmann went to an unidentified investigator's home, where the investigator retrieved a bag from a storage container in his garage. When Lehrmann asked him what was in the bag, the investigator responded, "a ham sandwich." Inside was a revolver.

"After the investigator assured the officers that the gun was 'clean,' they all went along with the plan to plant the gun," the filing says.

Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, who has been informed by prosecutors he is a target of the probe, apparently is the unidentified investigator referred to in the filing, according to his lawyer, Steve London. London denied his client participated in any cover-up.

"There would be no reason for my client, with 30 years of unblemished service, to do what this individual alleges he did," London said. "It makes no sense. He wasn't a shooter. He didn't have anything to cover up."

Prosecutors said investigators didn't collect critical evidence from the scene, including spent shell casings. In fact, Lehrmann allegedly saw an unidentified sergeant kick casings off the bridge.

And in the weeks after the shooting, Lehrmann and other investigators discussed how they could blame their failed investigation on Hurricane Katrina and "use the storm to help make the entire situation 'go away,'" the filing says.

After Thursday's hearing, a reporter approached Police Superintendent Warren Riley in a coffee shop near the courthouse and told him about some of the details in the filing.

"Unbelievable," said Riley, who has said he felt betrayed by the cover up. "All I can say is, 'Wow.'"

The shootings initially were seen as a symbol of the confusion and lawlessness that followed in the weeks after Katrina hit — only to become a mark of shame on the police department once the cover-up emerged.

Lehrmann, 38, of Anthem, Ariz., faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing has been set for June 10. He is free on $25,000 bond.

Michael Lohman, a retired New Orleans police lieutenant, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to obstruct justice, but prosecutors said Lehrmann was the first to agree to cooperate with the Justice Department probe. State charges of murder or attempted murder against seven other officers were thrown out by a judge.

Ronald Madison, 40 and mentally disabled, and James Brissette, 19, were killed and four others shot as they crossed the bridge in search of food. The officers claimed they opened fire only after being shot at. Lance Madison, who accompanied his brother, Ronald, testified less than a month later that a group of teenagers started shooting at them before they encountered police.

"This has been a devastating time for our family and for the citizens of this city," Romell Madison, one of Ronald's brothers, said after the hearing. "We want to ensure that this doesn't happen to anyone else."

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

But remember folks, reprehensible acts by a few people justify Hasty Generalization.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I didn't say all cops DE, just that the idea of implicit trust is foolish. Thanks for the strawman though, always appreciated.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

You did not say "implicit trust is foolish", you mocked the idea that police in general are there to protect you. You cannot change your argument after the fact in order to create the appearance of a strawman, nor is pointing out an error in logic a strawman. I did not distort, caricature, alter, or even rephrase your argument at all.

In fact, even arguing that "implicit trust is foolish" based on this incident is still a hasty generalization. Try not to use logic that's **** atrocious when you're sigging around on the internet for excuses to complain about cops.

If you're trying to argue that people shouldn't "implicitly trust" the cops because of this and other incidents int he past as an aggregate, come right out and say that, and explain what "implicitly trust" means to you. I don't implicitly trust anyone, but I ahve a feeling that you feel any trust of the police is foolish.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

There are no perfect policemen.

However i'm not sure the alternative is reasonable for this age.

I think we do a decent job of catching the bad ones.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I disagree.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Somewhere, there are donuts happening.

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Holy shitsnacks!

You're fired.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Who is fired??? And I want donuts!!

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"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

Yuppers, them poleecemans... they be a naaasty bunch, the lot of em....

Jasmy, note the one and only image posted in the thread, think about the climax of the movie.

I'm curious how many of the outraged citizens are thinking the cops involved were a bunch of

1) racist, specifically black hating, murderers using the disaster as an open season declaration
2) trigger happy sociopaths killing people for fun
3) cops reacting to situations poorly while trying to do their jobs
4) cops shooting looters, vandals and other criminals
5) cops in fear for their lives, then finding out after they pulled the trigger that their opponents were unarmed

then trying to cover it up out of fear for the consequences of their actions.

Me, I think that for the most part, they were already stressed out from the disaster, and didn't handle confrontational situations well. I don't think a bunch of New Orleans cops went on a shooting spree killing people out of hand in a street justice manner. Someone is crazy yelling at a cop in the aftermath of a disaster of that scope you will get overreactions. The way they handled it afterward was typical cop cover-up bullshit, true, and they should pay the price for it, but I don't think it was the sensationalist murder of the thread title.

Of course, I'm all for thinking that cops in general are out there trying to do their jobs, but there are bad apples in every profession.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

LOL Micheal...I was a bit tipsy when I posted last night...didn't even see that picture!

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"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

You know that scene in the Holy Grail with the writing in the cave?

"He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle Aaaaaagggghhhh...."

That's how I read this thread title.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.