Bad Cops

This is simply one of the most disturbing stories you'll ever read because we'd always suspected it was true. We'd heard the rumors. After all, what happened at Nisour Sq. between Blackwater thugs and innocent civilians on September 16, 2007 couldn't happen here, right?

The circumstances, coverup and subsequent defenses are eerily similar, after all. Groups of dark-skinned civilians were trying to get on with what was left of their lives, moving through what was left of their city in the most chaotic of conditions. Then along came men with guns in trucks, shooting indiscriminately into crowds, obviously as freaked out over the chaotic conditions as their victims.

In the end, the young and other innocents were killed, lies were told, coverups and stories hastily rigged and now Eric Holder is in the middle of it.

Eric Hessler, a lawyer for one of the six accused cops now possibly facing the death penalty actually said in public, "The federal government has clearly forgotten or chosen to ignore the circumstances police officers were working under and clearly chose not to factor in any of those circumstances when they decided to charge them with an intentional act of murder."

In other words, when in doubt, kill as many people as possible and blame the chaos that they helped perpetuate. We've heard that rationale time and again from soldiers who'd been accused or even convicted of murdering unarmed civilians or detainees in highly secure and structured environments: "You weren't there. We were. And in the balance, our lives are more valuable than those we've been sworn to protect."

As in the aftermath of the Blackwater shooting in Nisour Sq in 2007, the officers at the Danziger massacre in the days after Hurricane Katrina tried using the excuse that they were being shot at, a story that had begun with the police dispatcher who'd sent them to that bridge.

And, audaciously, the brother of one of the slain men was actually charged with eight counts of trying to murder a police officer (charges that were dropped after a few weeks). The victim, once again, became a perp. And if he had assaulted an officer or several, could you blame him? After Officer Faulcon had shot Ronald Madison to death with a shotgun, another officer, Kenneth Bowen, then kicked and stomped on the man's dying body.

Those who haven't the memories of goldfish may remember Judge Ricardo Urbina's now-infamous New Year's Eve ruling regarding the five Blackwater mercs who would be acquitted of any charges in the Nisour Square massacre. Urbina's contention is that the Bush and Obama-era Justice Departments so badly bungled the case that any damning evidence was thrown out. This time around, some or even all of these officers may easily face the death penalty.

So what's going to happen this time around?

Well, the same thing that happened in the 60's when three civil rights workers were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi: Charge the defendants with civil rights violations instead of murder. Which is what happens when black people get murdered down south: The defendants are never charged with murder outright, but with "civil rights violations."


What happened in the Danziger case and on that bridge is only the tip of the iceberg, trust me. A Danish film crew that shot a documentary "Welcome to New Orleans", partly in Algiers Point informed us that citizen militias "shot anything that moved" like it was "pheasant season in North Dakota." The documentary also informed us that dozens of homicides took place in the aftermath of Katrina involving mostly black people and that the deaths were not investigated and the bodies not even autopsied by the county coroner.

And if Holder's attorneys bungle this one and if any of those men walk on a technicality, it's going to come right back and bite Obama on the ass. His economic policies are failing and his foreign policies are failing. And if the DOJ fucks up this case, it could prove to be Obama's Waterloo in 2012.