Five New Orleans police officers sentenced in hurricane Katrina killings

Four officers, along with a fifth who helped cover up the 2005 crimes, are sentenced to between six and 65 years in prison

Chris McGreal, guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/04/new-orleans-police-officers-katrina

Four New Orleans police officers have been sentenced to decades in prison over the killing of two people and wounding of four others fleeing the massive flooding of the city by hurricane Katrina.

A fifth officer was sent to jail for his role in a web of fabrications to cover up the true circumstances of the shootings on the Danziger bridge in 2005. The shootings came to symbolise the behaviour of a police force regarded as out of control in the chaotic aftermath of the hurricane which claimed nearly 2,000 lives and flooded about 80% of New Orleans.

The policemen were prosecuted in federal court after Louisiana state authorities declined to charge them. The federal investigation revealed a coverup that involved planted evidence, invented witnesses and falsified police reports that prosecutors said exposed a culture of corruption and a code of silence in the New Orleans police department.
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