4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2005
HURRICANE KATRINA
Mel Evans/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY MARY FOSTER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police under scrutiny
Robert Davis shows scrapes on his elbows Monday near the intersection of Bourbon and Conti streets in the French Quarter in New Orleans where New Orleans police officers arrested him on Saturday night. Davis' arrest was captured on tape and has sparked an investigation into the conduct of the officers who arrested him.
NEW ORLEANS - Their homes are gone, their families scattered, their reputations sliding by the day.
Experts say the personal and professional upheaval is catching up with the New Orleans police force in the form of desertions, suicides, corruption and perhaps even the videotaped beating by officers of a 64-year-old man in the French Quarter.
Home for most New Orleans police officers is a cramped cruise ship, and work is 12- to 14-hour days in a wrecked city. When time off does come along, there is nowhere to go and no one to spend it with.
"This is unprecedented in our country," said Dr. Howard Osofsky, chair of psychiatry at the LSU Medical School Health Sciences Department. "There is no disaster that has
drunk, as police alleged. He said he had just returned to the city to check on his property.
Three officers were suspended without pay, charged with battery and pleaded not guilty Monday. The U.S. Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation Monday.
At least two officers took their own lives in Katrina's aftermath. At the same time, the 1,450-member department said it was investigating nearly 250 officers accused of leaving their posts and 12 suspected of looting or condoning looting. Authorities are also looking into allegations officers took nearly 200 cars from a Cadillac dealership during the storm.
had the amount of trauma for a department that this has, where so many police officers have lost homes, been separated from their families, had loved ones living in other places with no idea when they'll return."
On Saturday night, Robert Davis was bloodied by officers using their fists, and another officer attacked an Associated Press Television News producer who helped capture the incident on tape.
Two other officials in the video appeared to be federal officers, according to police. Numerous agencies have sent officers to help with patrols in the aftermath of Katrina, and police spokesman Marlon Defillo said it would be up to their superiors to decide if they would face any disciplinary action.
"I've been here for six weeks trying to keep ... alive. ... Go home!" shouted the officer.
"The actions that were observed on this video are certainly unacceptable by this department." Riley said.
Davis denied that he had been
Police Superintendent Warren Riley said any misconduct found in the investigation would be dealt with swiftly. He noted the video showed "a portion of that incident."
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Carruth-O'Leary became a women's residence hall in 1964. It remained that way for a year before the headquarters for the English, classics, classical archaeology, German, Romance languages, and family life departments moved in in May of 1965. Those departments eventually moved out and were replaced by the KU Public Safety
Office in 1986.
The Public Safety Office plans to move to the former University Printing Services building at 15th and Crestline streets in the spring of 2006. It has not been determined where the other administrative offices in Carruth-O'Leary will be moved.
Steepsle said it was still to be determined whether the University would tear down Carruth-O'Leary first, or tear it down after the new business facility was built.
Fred McElhenic, University research consultant, said he saw a pattern with both the building and the future destruction of Carruth-O'Leary. Campus is simply growing and needs more space, he said.
Carruth-O'Leary was built to accommodate a growing University, and its demolition would serve that same purpose, McElhenie said.
- Edited by Ty Beaver
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