TASK FORCE BLASTS NOPD LEADERSHIP
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‘SHOCKING’ LACK OF TRAINING

Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)-June 4, 1994

Many of the report’s conclusions echoed observations already uncovered by the media, harped on by council members and emphasized by blue-ribbon panels: Abysmal morale, a department that can’t keep its patrol cars operating, a bloated staff that puts beat cops at desks and a management staff that is unaware of or unwilling to address the problems of a seriously undisciplined force

“to read the full article”:http://www.squanderedheritage.com/task-force-blasts-nopd-leadership/

I have been thinking a lot about our crime situation and the ongoing frustration that citizens have when they try and improve the situation in their neighborhoods. I received this message this morning on a list serve.

I’m ready to march if needed. I had a similar story. Only it happened to me. After complaining for the 2nd time in a year about the “slum lords” garbage out in the street; two policemen tried to harass me into an argument over garbage pick up!. I was handcuffed, and hauled down to central lock up. (I mentioned that I was going to report him.) It was a cruel experience for me. Barbara Schmidt

Ironically I was attending a meeting of the NCDC which oversees demolition. The Barreca family was there trying to get one of their houses torn down. They drag along some poster board and try and make it sound like they are pillars of the Community. Invoking the name of Chep Morrison as an example of their community involvement. Chep Morrison who died in 1964.

Funnily enough when I went looking for information on the death of Chep Morrison this “paragraph”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison jumped out at me.

Throughout most of the 1950s, scandals continued to emerge concerning the involvement of the NOPD in graft and vice. Not only was the NOPD accused of refusing to stop prostitution and gambling, but there was evidence of NOPD involvement in protection rackets for vice operations. In 1952, the Metropolitan Crime Commission was established as an independent monitor of the NOPD and the Morrison administration’s approach to vice. State Police Colonel Francis Grevemberg, later a two-time gubernatorial candidate, led a series of high-profile raids on New Orleans gambling establishments that embarrassed Morrison and the NOPD for its inactivity. Eventually, Aaron Kohn was sent from Chicago to investigate NOPD involvement in vice; he soon complained that Morrison was obstructing his efforts. Morrison refused to fire Joseph Schuering, the NOPD superintendent implicated in the scandals, until sustained political pressure forced the mayor to ask for Schuering’s resignation in 1955

All of the stories here are told in a cyclical nature with new names replacing the old and former business and property owners refusing to see that they are now the problem.