NOPD Assures Public - 'Racial Targeting by Police definitely, definitely not happening'

The above video was released last month showing a gang of white plainclothes overseers (officers) attacking two Black teenagers. Officers assaulted the youths because "they appeared to be in violation of curfew" during Mardi Gras. The video, which lacks audio, shows 17-year-old Sidney Newman and 18-year-old Ferdinand Hunt standing against a wall. The officers approach quickly as the boys appear to have their backs turned to the white men.  All the officers are wearing jeans and other casual attire - one has on a backwards baseball cap, another has beads around his neck. The officers tackle the teenagers to the ground and then pounce on them. [MORE] 

From [HERE] The New Orleans Police Department continues to address concerns about racial profiling, as it works to satisfy terms of a federal consent decree. New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas, in photo below, today on WWL said allegations of racial profiling may be the toughest to handle. "Racial profiling is one of the most important issues of our day.  I would never say that I think it doesn't exist," the chief told WWL's Garland Robinette.

Serpas says cops aren't trained to view potential suspects along racial lines.  Raymond Burkart, lawyer for the Police Association of New Orleans, says better record keeping could help the department rebut those claims when raised by the public. "We've got to do a better job making sure that we have accurate data to insure that racial profiling doesn't exist," Burkart said.

Chief said it's not racial profiling to go look for specific suspects that match the descriptions given by crime victims.  He said in seven out of ten crimes not involving drugs or guns, the victims are African-American, "and nine out of ten times, they described their perpetrator as an African-American male."

Burkart says that's the kind of thing the department needs to keep better records on: "I do know from speaking to officers that they're not looking for specific people of specific races just to stop people for no reason," he said.  "That's not the case at all."