Black Beating Victim With Knots All Over His Head, But No Anger Towards Police
Some Blacks in this country may want to forgive America for it has done against US, but God won’t!
By Sinclere Lee
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (BNW) – While he didn’t spend 27-years in prison like Nelson Mandela for a cause he was ready to die for, nor did he die like Martin Luther King for a cause he didn’t really understand, Robert Davis forgiveness of the white racist cops in New Orleans who beat him to a pulp for “Walking While Black,” is no less honorable, if he’s sincere.
Robert Davis, the retired teacher injured during a videotaped beating by New Orleans police says he feels no anger toward the department.
But, what if, the beating had not been taped like so many others Black beatings that the cops get away with each year? I think Davis would be singing a different tune. First, the trumped up charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and public drunk would be increased to inciting a riot, assault on a police offers with a deadly weapon, drug possession and any other lies the cops can makeup to stick it to a Nigger.
The point I am trying to make is that while Davis is so incline towards showing humanity to the racist cops, the racists are ready to throw the book at him if the act hadn’t been taped, and he would be probably still in jail today.
"I hold no animosity against anyone. I want to thank the new police chief for his quick action. I really do," 64-year-old Robert Davis, said Tuesday.
Three officers have been suspended and local and federal authorities have launched investigations into the October 8 incident.
Joseph Bruno, the attorney for Davis, said his client does not believe the assault was racially motivated.
"I know there is a big temptation to go there, but my client firmly believes that is not what is involved here," Bruno said in an interview.
Instead, Bruno said, Davis believes he was assaulted by "a couple of rotten apples that need to be dealt with."
Davis is scheduled to appear in court this week as federal authorities investigate whether his civil rights were violated.
Davis faces charges that include public intoxication, battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. He denied he was drunk.
"I haven't drank in 25 years," Davis told reporters. "That's the amazing part."
Davis said he stopped drinking 25 years ago after he had a blackout incident.
"Since then, I have put alcohol down. I don't even entertain the thought of alcohol," he said.
Lawyer wants charges dropped
Bruno said he would ask for the charges to be dropped. Earlier, he told CNN his client was not asked to submit to a sobriety test.
News crews captured the beating on tape on Saturday. Videotape shows Davis' face and shirt soaked with blood after police pummeled him.
Davis suffered fractures in his cheek and near his eye.
Davis said Tuesday that his back still hurt and that he might have to have surgery on his eye.
Bruno said they would likely file a civil suit, but under the "best" scenario his client could "break even" because of the limited nature of punitive damages under Louisiana law.
"This is not the lawsuit lottery," he said.
On Tuesday, Davis told said he had come to New Orleans to check on property he owns in the flooded 9th Ward. He was walking in the French Quarter when he became concerned about the curfew and asked a police officer about it.
'He didn't do anything'
Davis said they were interrupted by another police officer who was walking by.
"He interrupted our conversation. I told him that was very unprofessional," Davis said. "I proceeded to walk on across the street, at which time he punched me, I guess, and from there I don't remember much other than a lady in the crowd, I guess just a bystander, who kept hollering, 'He didn't do anything.' "
Davis said his daughter has prevented him from seeing the video in which he can be seen being pummeled, his face soaking in his own blood.
Federal officials launched a civil rights investigation Monday as three white New Orleans police officers pleaded not guilty to battery charges.
FBI agents have joined the investigation, along with the New Orleans Police Department's Office of Internal Affairs.
Officers free on bond
Officers Lance Schilling, Robert Evangelist and A.M. Smith were released Monday on bond. They have been suspended from duty without pay, and a trial was set for January.
Acting Police Chief Warren Riley vowed to take "decisive action once we gather all the facts."
He told reporters, "There was too much force used in this particular situation," adding that officers are trained to use "reasonable and necessary" force during arrests. But the officers appear not to have followed procedure.
The force used, Riley said, "was beyond reasonable." He said he did not believe race played a role in the beating.
"There is no evidence to prove that this was race-related," Riley said.
The police department has been plagued with problems since Hurricane Katrina struck at the end of August.
Some officers walked off the force. Others were accused of looting. Officers who remain lost nearly everything in the storm, are separated from their families and continue to work extremely long hours.
Riley emphasized that "the vast majority" of New Orleans police are hard-working professionals who are risking their lives to help rebuild the city.
Video shows blows to head
Photographers from CNN and The Associated Press captured much of the beating, which took place at 9 p.m. Saturday outside a bar in the French Quarter.
The video shows two officers apparently trying to arrest Davis and then punching him, delivering several blows to the head. At one point, four men -- two clearly identified as police — pushed Davis to the ground, placed him in a headlock and apparently tried to handcuff him.
One can be seen hitting Davis two more times. Soon afterward, the police officer who identified himself as A.M. Smith pushed an AP producer and pinned him against a car.
In a profanity-laden tirade, the officer said, "I've been here for six weeks trying to keep myself alive. ... Go home."
Davis can be seen covered in blood, handcuffed with his arms behind his back. Several times, officers used their feet to prevent him from turning from his stomach onto his back. He was taken from the scene by ambulance about 10 minutes after the beating.
Union: Officers 'upset'
The Police Association of New Orleans, the local police union, said the three officers were "upset" at how the situation was handled.
Riley said most of the police force has conducted itself heroically since Katrina and that they will continue to do so -- an assessment that Bruno and his client agreed with.
"There are a lot great, heroic guys on that police force. There are a couple of rotten apples that need to be dealt with, " Bruno said.
Bruno said Davis doesn't want to return to New Orleans. The beating, he said, "scarred him."
Police charged with battery in New Orleans
Three police officers in New Orleans were charged with battery Sunday after an incident in which two repeatedly struck a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication as another officer confronted a TV producer.
A cameraman taped the confrontations.
The three officers were suspended without pay, then released and ordered to appear in court at a later date, Capt. Marlon Defillo said.
"We have great concern with what we saw this morning," Defillo said after he and about a dozen other high-ranking police department officials watched the Associated Press Television News footage Sunday. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it. ... This department will take immediate action."
The charges come as the department, long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption, struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass.
The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the man at least four times in the head Saturday night as he stood outside a bar near Bourbon Street. The suspect, Robert Davis, appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as four officers dragged him to the ground. Another of the four officers then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was facedown on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter.
Meanwhile, a fifth officer ordered APTN producer Rich Matthews and the cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials and explained he was working, the officer grabbed the producer, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade.
"I've been here for six weeks trying to keep ... alive. ... Go home!" shouted the officer, who later identified himself as S.M. Smith.
Defillo identified the patrolmen as Stuart Smith, Lance Schilling and Robert Evangelist. Smith is an eight-year veteran of the department, and the other officers have each been on the force for three years, he said.
Police said Davis, 64, of New Orleans, was booked on public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. He was treated at a hospital and released into police custody.
A mug shot of Davis, provided by a jailer, showed him with his right eye swollen shut, an apparent abrasion on the left side of his neck and a cut on his right temple.
"The incidents taped by our cameraman are extremely troubling," said Mike Silverman, AP's managing editor. "We are heartened that the police department is taking them seriously and promising a thorough investigation."
Davis, who is black, was subdued at the intersection of Conti and Bourbon streets. Three of the officers appeared to be white, and the other is light skinned. The officer who hit Matthews is white. Defillo said race was not an issue.
Three of the five officers -- including Smith -- are New Orleans officers, and two others appeared to be federal officers. Numerous agencies have sent police to help with patrols in the aftermath of Katrina.
Under normal circumstances, it takes unusually offensive behavior to trigger an arrest on Bourbon Street. But New Orleans police have been working under stressful conditions since the hurricane.
Officers slept in their cars and worked 24-hour shifts after the storm. Three-quarters lost their homes and their families are scattered across the country.
"Our police officers are working under some very trying times," Defillo said. "So it's a difficult time, but it doesn't excuse what our jobs are supposed to be."
Many officers deserted their posts in the days after Katrina, and some were accused of joining in the looting that broke out. At least two committed suicide.
Conditions have improved -- officers now have beds on a cruise ship -- but they don't have private rooms and are still working five, 12-hour days a week.
Compass, the police superintendent, resigned September 27. Despite more than 10 years of reform efforts dating to before he took office, police were dogged by allegations of brutality and corruption.
On Friday, state authorities said they were investigating allegations that New Orleans police broke into a dealership and made off with nearly 200 cars -- including 41 new Cadillacs -- as the storm closed in.