This article was published in the Sunday Herald, on July 17, 2010.

Can American police officers be held accountable when they kill unarmed civilians? Two shocking incidents are putting the criminal justice system’s capacity to prosecute cops on trial.

In New Orleans, four policemen face the death penalty for their role in a notorious shooting, days after Hurricane Katrina struck, that left two dead and four wounded. In Oakland, an officer escaped with a verdict of involuntary manslaughter for shooting a man as he lay face down on the platform of a train station.

Videos recorded by passengers show police confronting a group of young African-American men early on New Years Day, 2009. Officers Tony Pirone and Johannes Mehserle wrestle Oscar Grant to the ground. As Pirone struggles to restrain him, Mehserle can clearly be seen standing up, drawing his gun and shooting Grant in the back.

The trial was moved from Oakland to Los Angeles, ostensibly because local reaction to the killing was so intense that it would have been impossible for Mehserle to receive a fair hearing. In the event, there was not a single African-American on the jury.

William Winters, a campaign manager at the civil rights organisation Colour of Change, blamed systemic bias. “The jury questionnaire would discount many African-Americans,” he said. “One question asked ‘have you or any members of your family had a negative interaction with the police?’ Well, if you’re a young black male, chances are the answer will be yes.”

Mehserle’s defence was that he intended to unholster his Taser, not his gun, making Grant’s death an accident, rather than the execution it appears to be on video. In finding him not guilty of second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, the jury accepted this version. The lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter carries a minimum sentence of two years in prison, although because he used a gun this could be significantly higher.

To John Burris, a lawyer for the Grant family, the verdict came as no surprise. “In my long history being involved in police matters since 1979 and well over 30 homicides with police, never have I had a case when an officer was convicted of any crime against an African-American male,” he said. According to Department of Justice (DOJ) figures, blacks are almost four times as likely as whites to experience the use of force by police.

Two infamous incidents in New York underscore the difficulty of securing murder convictions against policemen. In 1999, Amadou Diallo was shot repeatedly as he ran away from plainclothes detectives who claimed to have mistaken his wallet for a gun. In 2006, Sean Bell was killed when officers sprayed his car with bullets, the night before his wedding, believing they were under fire. In both cases, the defendants walked free.

“The first message communicated by these acquittals is that black lives are not valued in the same way as white lives,” Williams said. “If the victim is black and the killer is a white police officer, it’s very unlikely that justice is going to be served. The second message is that police officers are apparently above the law that they are supposed to enforce.”

In February, Jesse Jackson led protests in Portland, after a grand jury took no action against officer Ronald Frashour, who shot Aaron Campbell as he surrendered, walking backwards with his hands on his head.

Mehserle will be sentenced on August 6. The DOJ has announced that it intends to review the case, creating the prospect of federal charges. This is what happened in the Danziger Bridge shooting, in New Orleans, when the FBI stepped in following a failed Louisiana state prosecution against officers Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso.

On September 4, 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, these officers shot at two groups of people as they crossed the bridge. Susan Bartholomew’s arm was blown off, her husband Leonard was shot in the head, their daughter Lesha suffered leg wounds and their nephew, Jose Holmes, was hit in the stomach. His friend, James Brissette, a 17-year-old student, was killed. Ronald Madison, a mentally-disabled 40-year-old man, died from his injuries.

The official report records that Madison was shot, once, by Faulcon, as he turned and reached into his waistband. The autopsy found seven entrance wounds, five of them in his back. According to the prosecution, Bowen then kicked and stamped on Madison while he was “alive but mortally wounded” on the ground.

The policemen told an internal investigation that they drove to the bridge following reports of gunfire, came under attack and responded with deadly force. The federal indictment alleges that there was no such threat. It accuses officers Arthur Kaufman and Gerard Dugue of orchestrating a cover-up, in which a gun was planted at the scene and witness statements falsified. They deny the charges.

On Tuesday, Gisevius, Bowen and Villasova appeared in court, in handcuffs, leg shackles and green prison uniforms, to plead not guilty to all counts. Along with Faulcon, they face the death penalty, or life imprisonment, if convicted. Five other officers have already entered guilty pleas and are co-operating with investigators.

“In those days, after the storm, it was open season on black people. These were not isolated incidents,” said community organiser Allen James. Another policeman, David Warren, has been charged with shooting an African-American man, Henry Glover, then stuffing his body in a car and setting it alight to destroy the evidence, in a separate case dating back to the lawless period that followed the hurricane.

“Radio communication was at a minimum. [Officers] felt isolated, abandoned. They had no place to live or sleep,” former policeman Anthony Radosti told National Public Radio. “Rumours were wild. Sniper fire, armed individuals on the street. And in some cases, that information was true.”

In May, Mayor Mitch Landrieu asked the DOJ for help in reforming “a police force that has been described by many as one of the worst… in the country.” There are already two New Orleans police officers on Death Row, for crimes committed years before Katrina: Len Davis, who ran a drug ring and was taped ordering a contract killing, and Antoinette Frank, who murdered three people, including her partner, in a botched restaurant robbery.

“I think there can be meaningful change, with federal help,” James said, “but I also believe that the police department is an old institution that is basically a secret society with the impunity to operate according to its own rules. The sense of entitlement that New Orleans police officers have about being able to disrespect and abuse black people is a throwback to another century.”

Two of the accused, Faulcon and Villavosa, are African-American. Winters said racist attitudes have become institutionalised among policemen of all skin colours: “It’s not simply a matter of white police officers abusing black people. There is a culture within police departments that paints black men as a threat, as something to fear, which often has tragic results.”

It is likely that the federal government will impose reform on the New Orleans police department from above, whatever happens in the Danziger Bridge trial. The verdict will matter most for its nationwide impact on the commonly held perception that violent police officers are rarely held accountable.