The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 28, 2005, Page 7, Image 7
News Orleans police superintendent resigns after four turbulent weeks
Julia Silverman
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS — Police
Superintendent Eddie Compass
resigned Tuesday after four
turbulent weeks in which the
police force was wracked by
desertions and disorganization in
Hurricane Katrinas aftermath.
“I served this department for
26 years and have taken it
through some of the toughest
times of its history. Every man in
a leadership position must know
when it’s time to hand over the
reins,” Compass said at a news
conference. “I’ll be going on in
another direction that God has
for me.”
As the city slipped into
anarchy during the first few days
after Katrina, the 1,700
member police department itself
suffered a crisis. Many officers
deserted their posts, and some
were accused of joining in the
looting that broke out. Two
officers Compass described as
friends committed suicide.
Neither Compass nor Mayor
Ray Nagin would say whether
Compass was pressured to
resign.
“It’s a sad day in the city of
New Orleans when a hero
makes a decision like this,”
Nagin said. “He leaves the
department in pretty good shape
and with a significant amount of
leadership.”
Lt. David Benelli, president
of the union for rank-and-file
New Orleans officers, said he
was shocked by the resignation.
“We’ve been through a
horrendous time,” Benelli said.
“We’ve watched the city we love
be destroyed. That is pressure
you can’t believe.”
Benelli would not criticize
Compass.
“You can talk about lack of
organization, but we have been
through two hurricanes, there
was no communications,
problems everywhere,” he said.
“I think the fact that we did not
lose control of the city is a
testament to his leadership.”
Earlier in the day, the
department said that about 250
police officers — roughly 15
percent of the force — could
face discipline for leaving their
posts without permission during
Katrina and its aftermath.
Each case will be investigated
to determine whether the officer
was truly a deserter or had
legitimate reasons to be absent,
Deputy Chief Warren Riley
Ann Heisenfelt I The Associated Press
New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass talks with an officer at the temporary emergency
services headquarters in New Orleans on Sept. 10. Nearly 250 police officers could face a special
tribunal because they left their posts without permission during Hurricane Katrina and the storm’s
chaotic aftermath, Compass said.
said.
“Everything will be done on a
case-by-case basis. The worst
thing we could do is take
disciplinary action against
someone who was stranded in
the storm or whose child is
missing,” Riley said.
Sally Forman, a
spokeswoman for the mayor,
said it is not clear whether the
deserters can be fired. She said
the city is still looking into the
civil service regulations.
Benelli said true deserters
should be fired.
“For those who left because of
cowardice, they don’t need to be
here,” Benelli told the paper. “If
you’re a deserter and you
deserted your, post for no other
reason than you were scared,
then yoil left the department
and I don’t see any need for you
to come back.”
But Benelli said he believes
only a small fraction of the
officers will wind up being
deserters.
“We know there were people
who flat-out deserted,” he said.
“But we also know there were
officers who had to make critical
decisions about what to do with
their families.”
Riley said some officers lost
their homes and some are
looking for their families. “Some
simply left because they said
they could not deal with the
catastrophe,” Riley said.
Also on Tuesday, the state
Health Department said
Katrinas death toll in Louisiana
stood at 885, up from 841 as of
Friday.
Tuesday marked the second
day of the official reopening of
New Orleans, which had t»een
pushed back last week when
Hurricane Rita threatened.
Nagin welcomed residents back
to the Algiers neighborhood on
Monday but imposed a curfew
and warned of limited serviices.
Nagin also invited business
owners in the central business
district, the French Quarter and
the Uptown section to ins pea
their property and clean up. But
he gave no timetable for
reopening those parts of the city
to residents.
S. C. agencies must pay for failed ‘Choose Life tags
Jim Davenport
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Three state agencies will have
to pay Planned Parenthood’s
legal costs after it won a court
case blocking the use of
“Choose Life” license plates
approved by the Legislature.
The state Budget and
Control Board refused to let the
Departments of Corrections,
Social Services and Motor
Vehicles use a state contingency
fund to pay the $157,810 legal
bill of Planned Parenthood,
which sued the agencies to
block the tags.
Last year, the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals
upheld a federal judge’s ruling
that the anti-abortion license
plates the Legislature approved
are unconstitutional because
they provided one group a
forum to express its beliefs
without giving the opposing
view a similar forum. In
January, the U.S. Supreme
Court declined to hear the case.
hours • connnuED PRom i
the policy is implemented
inconsistently” because many
freshmen who live in housing
with upperclassmen might
enjoy the more open visitation
policies.Plan C is a policy of
opposite gender visitation from
10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday
through Friday, and from 10
a.m. Friday to 2 a.m. Monday,
24-hour visitation is allowed.
The policy is implemented in
the Roost, South Tower and
Sims, where freshmen and
upperclassmen may be living.
Plan D has no set policy, but
is determined by residents. This
is the plan RHA looks to
implement for every dorm.
“It’d be just as easy to have
no visitation policy and leave it
to be determined by roommate
contracts,” Wilkins said. “One
of the main mission goals of
Housing is (to have students)
grow as an individual and deal
with adult situations. Telling
freshmen they can’t handle
(open visitation) doesn’t
coincide.”
The plans have been in place
since the early ‘90s, when there
was a push for the 2 a.m.
policy. Wilkins said some of it
had to do with state senator
influence.
“One of the main fallacies in
the whole setup is that it’s not
decided by the students. We
should have some say about
what goes on in our campus,”
Wilkins said.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocknrws@gwm. sc. cdu
I
Corrections Department
Director Jon Ozmint said the
three agencies didn’t do
anything that would leave them
responsible for shouldering the
legal expenses.
“The Legislature took action
and these three agencies took
no action. We simply were part
of the executive branch and had
to be sued to stop production
of the plates,” Ozmint said. “It
seems to me the Legislature —
somebody else — should bear
some burden for the action that
was taken than brought about
the suit.”
The agencies previously had
asked the state’s Insurance
Reserve Fund to cover the
costs, but the fund denied the
request because Planned
Parenthood only sought an
injunction and attorney’s fees
in its lawsuit.
Senate Finance Committee
Chairman Hugh Leatherman,
R-Florence, refused to go along
with other Budget and Control
Board members to have the
state pay the fees out of a
contingency fund. He said the
Corrections Department and
other agencies have the cash to
cover the expense.
Gov. Mark Sanford,
chairman of the Budget and
Control Board, tried to
persuade Leatherman to go
along with the payment plan.
Sanford said taking the money
from Corrections would hurt
Ozmint’s ability to “basically
maintain law and order within
the correctional system.”
The budget board gave final
approval to several other
projects, including:
— $42 million for research
university bonds for work
related to Clemson University’s
International Center for
Automotive Research.
— $30 million in borrowing
for overdue maintenance at the
state’s colleges.
— $7 million for a new
culinary arts program at a
Trident Technical College
campus in Charleston.
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DERRICK •COnnnUED FROR1I
serving his second tour in
Iraq.
Defrick joined the South
Carolina National Guard
when he was 18 and the
Army two years later, Shealy
said.
“He wanted to make a
career of the Army,” his
father, Butch Derrick said.
“He loved everything about
the Army. The discipline. The
challenges. He had traveled
I
all over the world.”
Joseph Derrick knew the
risk of being a soldier, but felt
the good he did was more
important. “The more he was
over there, the more he saw of
the impact he was having,”
his father said.
Derrick was supposed to
come home for leave in just
over two weeks. In his last
conversation with his mother
and stepfather hours before
he died, Derrick told them he
wanted a steak and tickets to
the South Carol ina
Vanderbilt football game.
“He was very tired,” Shealy
said. “It was 2 a.m. his time
when he called, and he had
had just four hours of sleep.
He had been working 20
hour days. He said he
couldn’t wait to get home to
see us.”
Funeral arrangements are
pending for Derrick, but his
unit plans to hold its own
memorial service in Iraq on
Tuesday, Shealy said.
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