Wexler said his first impulse was to file a complaint with the NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau, but he doubted the independence and effectiveness of the unit. If the police department can’t be trusted to treat citizens with respect, how can it be trusted to investigate allegations of abuse against its own officers, Wexler said.

Even his attorney, Sam Dalton, tried to discourage him from filing a report.

“I’ve seen what happens when people bring complaints,” Dalton said. “The police try to intimidate them from continuing their protests. It’s a very uncomfortable situation. One thing I know is that this officer won’t be punished.”

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Had  to dig this allegation up from 7 months ago....

Slow day?

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With apologies to our own scotchymcdrinkerbean, defending the NOPD is not the hill you want to die on

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 No defense implied.  But usually the trolls will post something that happened recently and not last winter.

After the incident, my attorney and I wrote a letter to the DA, Leon Cannizaro, asking him to investigate the matter. His office wrote back declining to investigate, saying the matter would more appropriately be handled by the Public Integrity Bureau (which investigates police misconduct, but is run by the NOPD, not an independent commission).

I was strongly dissuaded from filing a complaint with the PIB by my attorney, Sam Dalton. Sam, who is the most experienced civil rights lawyer in Louisiana, told me that there was no way the PIB would discipline the officer and that they often treated complainants very shabbily.

However, Rich Webster of City Business Journal wrote the above article which led to the PIB very politely taking my complaint. I was told that the investigation would take up to a month to complete. In the intervening time, my seat belt ticket was thrown out before trial (the ADA issued a “nole prosequi”). But, after a month I did not receive the promised report on the outcome of the investigation.

I spent several days on the phone, getting the run around from various PIB and NOPD members. However, at one point I got to speak with the officer who actually performed the investigation. He told me that the cop (Torres) told a different story than mine and that his recommendation was to find the complaint “false” (or some thing equivalent to “false”- he could have recommended a finding of “unsupported” which would have meant there just wasn’t enough evidence to find the claim “supported). The investigator also told me that if he were the officer in question, he might well have arrested me for interfering with investigation/arrest of the pedestrian (I want to say here that I never got closer than 7 or 8 ft from the officer when he was holding the pedestrian).

I still haven’t received a report on the final PIB police findings, so I don’t know what the final outcome was. I think it’s safe to assume that—if they bothered to finish processing it at all—they dismissed the complaint.

Thanks to Mr. Balko for the thoughtful post and to the commentators for the overwhelming support here. And, thanks for the many nice comments about my testicles. However, it really wasn’t as “ballsy” as you might think. It happened in broad daylight with plenty of potential witnesses around. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have gotten out of my car. And when the cop started threatening me, I shut up and handed over my license and registration instead of risking going to jail (and worse) with any further provocation.

I have added the Qik application to my phone, after Balko alluded to it in a recent post. I wish I had it that day to make a record of the officer’s misconduct. Hopefully, apps like Qik will allow folks to better protect themselves and others from police abuse in the future.

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From the victim:

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 No defense implied.  But usually the trolls will post something that happened recently and not last winter.

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Actually, a troll would attack someone who posts this story and not the "officer" who was involved in the asshattery. Some folks may not have seen this yet & you jump the gun, moreso than any that you would call a "Troll". True to form.  

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 No defense implied.  But usually the trolls will post something that happened recently and not last winter.

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Once again we see how the Bluthers generate the mistrust that the public has for law enforcement.  

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Gee, I thought they claimed to have cleaned up NOPD after Katrina?  

I guess some things never change.  

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It is cleaned up.  Before Katrina, members of the NOPD were involved in drug deals that resulted in the murder of a witness (the NOPD officer who got a street thug to murder the witness was caught on an FBI surveillance bragging about the hit) and another of NOPD's finest robbed a convenience store and murdered two people.  She was caught when she had the audacity to respond to the call and a girl (whose parents were murdered in the robbery) pointed out the killer cop to the other cops at the scene.

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It is cleaned up.  Before Katrina, members of the NOPD were involved in drug deals that resulted in the murder of a witness (the NOPD officer who got a street thug to murder the witness was caught on an FBI surveillance bragging about the hit) and another of NOPD's finest robbed a convenience store and murdered two people.  She was caught when she had the audacity to respond to the call and a girl (whose parents were murdered in the robbery) pointed out the killer cop to the other cops at the scene.

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It is cleaned up.  Before Katrina, members of the NOPD were involved in drug deals that resulted in the murder of a witness (the NOPD officer who got a street thug to murder the witness was caught on an FBI surveillance bragging about the hit) and another of NOPD's finest robbed a convenience store and murdered two people.  She was caught when she had the audacity to respond to the call and a girl (whose parents were murdered in the robbery) pointed out the killer cop to the other cops at the scene.

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Troll apologist  

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Wow..  This JBT has a 10,000 lb. badge.