Friday, July 11, 2008

How NOPD Baits then Arrests the Homeless

Remember there is hundreds of homeless living under a bridge by City Hall. That can't look good for ole' Ray. If you are wondering why they are all living under the bridge, it is because the city of New Orleans has no housing for these people. The city has destroyed most of the public housing.

This story begins a three-part series on how police and prosecutors are spending public resources seeking lengthy prison sentences for non-violent, low-level crimes.

NEW ORLEANS - A pack of Kool cigarettes, a can of Budweiser and a box of Boston Baked Beans sat on the dashboard of an unlocked car with the windows rolled down at 1732 Canal St. Somewhere nearby two New Orleans Police Department officers watched and waited for someone to reach into the bait car and snatch the items.

They wouldn’t have to wait long, as the police parked the car just one block away from a homeless encampment under the Claiborne Avenue overpass, where dozens of desperate, hungry and addicted people lived in a makeshift village of tents.

For stealing less than $6 in items, the police charged the two homeless men with simple burglary, a felony that can carry up to 12 years in prison. Neither suspect had any prior arrests in Orleans Parish.

A month later, the men remain in Orleans Parish Prison awaiting court dates and the possibility they will spend the better part of the next decade in state prison.

At a time when the number of homicides in New Orleans continues to rise to record numbers, many question whether a sting operation designed to entice homeless people to commit felonies is the best use of public resources.

Not only does it take police officers off the street, but it clogs the courts and forces public defenders and the district attorney to use their limited resources and manpower to litigate “trivial offenses” instead of focusing efforts on more serious cases like homicide, said Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans.

“People are still dying left and right and yet we’re playing games with baked beans and Kool cigarettes,” Quigley said. “The police officers who did this should be personally embarrassed and their superiors and the elected officials who knew about this should go to confession.”

The NOPD did not respond to requests for comment, but Superintendent Warren Riley has previously defended the practice of arresting people for minor crimes as a useful way of catching habitual offenders (a way to keep the poor down).

Click here to read the entire story:
http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com

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