New Orleans police charged after taped beating
Jamie Wilson in Washington
Three police officers yesterday pleaded not guilty to charges of battery after they were filmed repeatedly beating a 64-year-old man outside a bar in New Orleans.
Mr Davis, who is black, was allegedly assaulted on Saturday night in the historic French Quarter, which has reopened for business after the hurricane. Three of the police officers appeared to be white, the other light-skinned.
Footage from Associated Press showed Robert Davis being punched in the face, his head striking a wall, before being bundled to the ground by four officers and subjected to blows and kicks. He was handcuffed and left lying in a pool of blood. A fifth officer grabbed an Associated Press TV producer, jabbed him in the stomach and launched into a tirade, shouting:
"I've been here for six weeks trying to keep alive. Go home!"