Quote of note:

"We feel no joy in the knowledge that these two men are fired," Bruno said. "By the same token, my client is on record that these two men should have never been permitted to serve as police officers in the first place."

Davis has said he has not had a drink in 25 years. Police did not administer a sobriety test at the scene or at the hospital where Davis was treated for a fractured cheekbone, a broken nose and cuts.

Police officials have suggested that the stress shouldered by many officers after the hurricane might have contributed to the incident. As much as three-quarters of the force was left homeless.

2 New Orleans Police Fired in Beating
One officer is suspended in the French Quarter incident, which involved an unarmed man.
By Scott Gold
Times Staff Writer

December 22, 2005

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department said Wednesday that it had fired two officers involved in the beating of an unarmed man who said he had gone out for cigarettes when he was accosted on Bourbon Street.

Police Supt. Warren J. Riley announced that Robert Evangelist and Lance Schilling had been fired.

A third officer accused of grabbing a reporter during the incident, Stuart M. Smith, was suspended for 120 days, the department said.

The three officers have been charged with criminal battery. They have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to appear in court in January.

The department declined Wednesday to discuss its decision in detail.

The officers' attorney, Frank DeSalvo, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

He previously has said that the officers had been turned into "political whipping boys."

The incident happened Oct. 8, when Robert Davis, 64, a retired schoolteacher who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina and now is living in Atlanta, returned to New Orleans to check on his property.

Davis was trying to buy cigarettes in the French Quarter when the officers assaulted him, he said.

An Associated Press videotape shows officers striking Davis and then dragging him to the ground.