Law and Disorder: After Hurricane Katrina  ProPublica | , A.C.
Thompson | 8/15/2010, 11:22 a.m.  In New Orleans, New Evidence
of a Beating by Police  The New Orleans Times-Picayune has
uncovered evidence that police officers physically attacked two
city residents and a working photojournalist on Sept. 1, 2005,
three days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.  The story
helps explain a mysterious scene we reported about last December
in a joint project with the Times-Picayune and PBS' FRONTLINE,
one of a series of reports documenting violent encounters
between citizens and officers of New Orleans Police Department
in the aftermath of Katrina.  So far this year, federal
prosecutors have charged 16 current and former NOPD officers
with crimes allegedly committed after the levees failed. Two
others have been indicted in connection to the death of a man
just before the catastrophe.  The latest news centers on a
violent encounter that occurred on Religious Street, not far
from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Cente