Watchdogging Investigation of New Orleans Killings

Watchdogging Investigation of New Orleans Killings

Watchdogging Investigation of New Orleans Killings

Two former police members recently admitted to participating in a cover-up of the killings and wounding of unarmed civilians in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina. Nation reporter A.C. Thompson, who first broke the story in December 2008, is continuing to report on the investigation.

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Two former police members recently admitted to participating in a cover-up of the killings and wounding of unarmed civilians in the Danziger Bridge shootings in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina. Federal investigators are looking into three other shooting deaths and one non-fatal shooting involving the New Orleans police department.

Nation and ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson, who first broke the story in December 2008, is continuing to report on the ongoing investigations. He joins Democracy Now to discuss the latest details of the investigations. He starts with the shooting death of Henry Glover.

“What we’re learning about the Henry Glover shooting and his death…is that the police report that was generated documenting the officer involved…looks to have been altered, fabricated, changed from its original form from what was originally submitted to the police department,” Thompson said, which makes the Glover incident similar to the Danziger Bridge shooting, that also had fabricated reports.

The Danziger Bridge shooting, which wounded six and killed two, occurred when police received a call that two officers were wounded under the Danziger bridge. A truckload of officers drove to the bridge and said that they were fired on by citizens. “What we’re learning from the plea deals that are coming out in federal court are that other officers are saying that ‘no, citizens were not shooting, there was no gunfire, the people who started shooting were the police immediately,'” Thompson explains.

Thompson describes the conspiracy by the New Orleans police department to cover up the shootings as “cinematic and mind-blowing.”

–Morgan Ashenfelter

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