One of the most striking moments in the federal civil rights prosecutions arising from the death of Henry Glover came when Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann, a police officer lauded in New Orleans for his heroic work after Hurricane Katrina, took the stand.
Scheuermann told jurors he watched his colleague, officer Greg McRae, set fire to a car containing the corpse of the 31-year old man, igniting a blaze that reduced the body to little more than bone fragments, ashes, and scorched meat.
McRae burned Glover's body so thoroughly that a forensic pathologist had to saw off a piece of bone and send it out for DNA testing so the remains could be identified. For about nine months, Glover was known only as coroner's case number 06-00189 while his family members searched to find out what had happened to him.
The jury found McRae's behavior a crime, and reasonable people might view it as the sort of horrific conduct practiced by the security agents of authoritarian regimes. Yet as Scheuermann told the story, there was no indication he did anything to alert his superiors or co-workers or anybody else to the incineration of a human being -- one who it turns out had just been shot by another police officer.
A federal jury last night convicted three current or former New Orleans police officers in connection with the death of Henry Glover, a 31-year old man who was shot by a police officer and died in custody shortly after Hurricane Katrina tore through Louisiana in 2005.
I woke up this morning to the news that the New Orleans Police Department arrested two Catholic parishioners holding a peaceful vigil protesting the closure of Our Lady of Good Counsel here in New Orleans.
It amazes me that the NOPD finds the time and effort to arrest two Catholic parishioners attempting civil disobedience against the leader of their church here in New Orleans, but can't for the life of them correctly fight the real crimes happening here in New Orleans. (Hat Tip to Oyster for the link)
Perhaps Cardinal O'Malley has a little more of that old fashioned shame that the Catholics instill in their parishioners oh so well, as the church, where the vigil has lasted more than four years, occupies prime real coastal real estate outside Boston. Might that be the reason that Our Lady of Good Counsel is slated for closure here in New Orleans? After all, it is a "Gothic-style brick building [that] is arguably the most precious jewel in the crown known as New Orleans's graceful Garden District." It's also a National Historic Landmark, which will help protect the building itself, but won't force the Archdiocese to keep it as a church.
Might this just be a money-grab by the Archdiocese? If so, how utterly shameless of the Archbishop to employ the New Orleans Police Department in his quest to make a quick buck.
If I was a good church-going Catholic, I'd organize a campaign to withhold the donations until the Archdiocese gets the point. Make do without the cell phones and whatever other luxuries y'all have before shuttering parishes. Y'all did take a vow of poverty, did you not?
