NM police complaint reverberates.
When New Mexico State Police returned home from Hurricane Katrina relief duties in Baton Rouge they were stunned by all they'd seen. And the natural destruction wrought by Katrina was the least of it.
While patrolling the rough-and-tumble streets of Baton Rouge on Sept. 9-10, New Mexico officers say their Baton Rouge counterparts shot innocent bystanders with taser guns, struck suspects in handcuffs and destroyed personal property for no reason. The alleged incidents were so bad, New Mexico State Police withdrew from joint operations after just two days, filed a complaint with Baton Rouge Police and are working on one for the US Dept. of Justice [Outtakes, Oct. 26:
]. (A team of Michigan state troopers filed a similar complaint.)
And last week the State Police were contacted by the Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office.
"The DA wanted our reports on the incidents because they're considering an investigation," Department of Public Safety Spokesman Peter Olson says.
Officials with the office of Doug Moreau, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney (which includes Baton Rouge) did not return phone calls.
Meanwhile, Baton Rouge media outlets have been awash in stories on the New Mexico Police's allegations.
"Last week, we've got a call from a Baton Rouge journalist who said she'd read [SFR's] story," Olson says. "After that, all the Baton Rouge television stations called for interviews."
Also in the wake of the New Mexico complaint, the NAACP's Baton Rouge chapter fired off a Nov. 23 press release criticizing Baton Rouge Police Chief Jeff LeDuff. Chapter President Kwame Asante tells SFR in the days following Katrina, his office received 50 to 75 calls from African-Americans complaining about mistreatment by Baton Rouge police. Some of those calls, Asante says, involved taser guns, seeming to support the New Mexico police complaint.
LeDuff was not available for comment. Baton Rouge Police Spokesman Cpl. L'Jean McKneely, Jr. says the department's internal affairs division is winding down its investigation of the New Mexico Police complaint and will likely conclude that "some violations of policy did occur, and there will be some action taken."
McKneely, Jr., however, denies New Mexico State Police's assertion that innocent bystanders were tased.
"There is one incident we know about in which one of our officers was trying to clear a parking lot where there'd just been a shooting moments earlier and tased an individual who refused to leave," McKneely, Jr. says. "That individual was arrested, charged and released. This guy had been causing a disturbance and cursing out the officer."
McKneely, Jr. also notes the Baton Rouge Police officers allegedly involved are not all white.
Says Peter Olson: "Our hope has always been that citizens are treated respectfully and that police officers maintain a high standard of decorum and professionalism. When there is one bad cop, everyone suffers."
