The movement to discredit Warren Riley continues.

Wednesday, on just the 13th day of 2010, New Orleans recorded its 10th homicide.

On Thursday, two New Orleans police officers were booked as the result of two separate criminal investigations. One officer is charged with abducting a woman who authorities say was later raped by his partner. The other was arrested for repeatedly discharging his weapon into his personal vehicle.

Wonder how much they got paid to make the superintendent of the Police Department look bad? As for this year’s murderers, wonder who rounded them up and advised that by shooting and killing other people, they could accomplish still greater destruction by shooting holes in the police chief’s reputation?

warrenriley112809.jpgJohn McCusker / The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans Police Superintendent Warren RileyWe are compelled to ask these questions because during a recent radio interview Superintendent Riley brought attention to the “shadow government” that he says is working hard to make both him and Mayor Ray Nagin look bad. Despite appearances to the contrary, Riley suggests, the New Orleans Police Department is quite the accomplished and well-managed crime-fighting organization. It’s just that damned shadow government that’s brainwashing the public and providing for them a distorted view of the city’s leadership.

People who believe that the Police Department can’t catch criminals on the street or keep them off the force — have merely fallen for the okie doke. When what they ought to be doing is listening to Riley explain the existence of sinister forces.

“There are certainly people in city government and leadership positions who are incompetent, who are blatantly racists, who have done everything they could to make this administration fail,” he said.

Last month the New Orleans Crime Coalition released a poll revealing that only 33 percent of people in New Orleans say they are satisfied with the performance of the Police Department. When the poll was released, Riley said his department had been making improvements over the previous year, but conceded that the satisfaction rates were “far too low, certainly not acceptable.”

“We still have major challenges,” he said, “and we still have a long way to go.”

But in the radio interview Jan. 6 he said that the poll was part of the elaborate plot against him. The New Orleans Crime Coalition announced the poll’s findings Monday, Dec. 7. Candidates for the Feb. 6 municipal election began qualifying that Wednesday. Get it? The aim was to throw cold water on any idea Riley may have had of running for political office. It was for that same reason that this newspaper published negative stories about him and his department.

Riley had already made it clear in August that he wasn’t running for mayor. So it’s unclear exactly why he thinks his enemies would have busied themselves with such a plot.

But that question isn’t as important as why the police superintendent thinks the general public can’t be trusted to know how it feels about the Police Department and the prevalence of crime. Sometimes things are just as they appear to be. Sometimes the public says it’s dissatisfied with the Police Department because murders happen on an almost daily basis. Sometimes the public says it’s dissatisfied because officers on the force are being accused of committing crimes that include preying on the public.

Officer Thomas Clark was indicted Thursday on a count of second-degree kidnapping. His partner Henry L. Hollins was indicted in November after a grand jury determined that Hollins handcuffed a woman at gunpoint and later raped her as she remained shackled. Problem officers are often turned over to prosecutors by the Police Department’s Public Integrity Bureau. But not this time. Clark was indicted after the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office conducted its own investigation. It’s fair to ask why the Police Department itself hadn’t determined that he was a problem.

Officer Patrick O’Hern was also arrested Thursday after he allegedly fired a weapon multiple times into his personal vehicle. Who knows why he did it. But it’s unlikely anybody’s going to believe that he did it in a plot to make Riley look bad.

There doesn’t need to be a plot. Riley looks bad simply because his department does.

Jarvis DeBerry can be reached at jdeberry@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3355. Follow him at http://connect.nola.com/user/jdeberry/index.html and at twitter.com/jarvisdeberrytp.

Without offering evidence, Riley alleged Wednesday on an interview on WBOK-AM that the message from Head referred to him as a “n—–.” The allegations are the latest in a long-simmering feud between the police chief and the councilwoman.

Head called Riley’s assertion, for which he has yet to offer any proof, “absolutely, wholeheartedly, unequivocally not true. It’s against my grain; it’s against my core.”

“I don’t know the genesis of this, but it’s a shame he has stooped to that level,” said Head, who is running for re-election to her District B seat. “It’s below the belt and personal. But I don’t see any need to try and disprove an untruth. I don’t see at this point any need to engage, since our professional relationship is shortly coming to an end.”

Riley’s office did not respond to e-mail messages and telephone requests for comment Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, police spokesman Bob Young said Riley suggested that reporters look through Head’s e-mail messages themselves. Young would not confirm whether Riley actually saw the alleged message or when it was sent. Young declined further comment.

With a closely contested mayoral primary on tap Feb. 6, race - always a hot-button issue in New Orleans politics - has become a dominant theme on the airwaves and on the campaign trail. One mayoral candidate cited it as a reason for dropping out, while another held a news conference to blast the media for focusing on race. Just months ago, recently departed recovery czar Ed Blakely declared that “everyone’s a racist” in New Orleans.

stacy_head.JPGChris Granger/The Times-Picayune archive’It’s below the belt and personal,’ City Councilwoman Stacy Head said.

Riley’s recent comments came in a wide-ranging interview in which the chief, who has said he will leave office in May when Mayor Ray Nagin’s term ends, blasted his critics. He decried the local media, some politicians, business leaders and a “shadow government” — all of whom, he said, have joined forces to make him and Nagin appear incompetent.

“There are certainly people in city government and leadership positions who are incompetent, who are blatantly racists, who have done everything they could to make this administration fail,” Riley said.

Riley said that unnamed “powerful” people have launched a campaign to downplay his and Nagin’s successes as city leaders.

The allegations about Head’s e-mail came up when a radio station caller, who went by the name Malcolm, mentioned the alleged message.

The caller said: “I hear some of our council members are sending e-mails out — one in particular, Ms. Head, sent an e-mail saying she hopes you fail and let’s not approve your budget. But anyway, she’s the failure in all of this anyway.

Riley responded: “You forgot the N-word that was in that e-mail, from what I understand.”

“Well, yeah, you heard about it,” the caller responded. “She said ‘Let’s make this Negro, not Negro, but she used that other one.”

The caller then lambasted the media for ignoring the message. “The news (media) did not, nobody else put that out, nobody else interviewed, nobody made a big story about that. And if it was somebody of color that sat on the City Council who had that kind of behavior, would have been asked to step down.”

Head’s e-mail messages, including some about Riley, have come under intense public scrutiny since a trove of her city electronic messages were released last year. While many were intemperate or embarrassing, none used racial slurs.

In one message, Head wrote of Riley that she was “twisting his balls.”

In others, she called colleague Jackie Clarkson “an ASSS” and “a disaster” and ridiculed the purchases of a woman using food stamps in line ahead of her.

Head responded by saying the messages were released by critics using “tired, old political antics” to gain power.

In the radio interview Wednesday, Riley said there is a “takeover” in the city.

“We have talked about a shadow government. You can decide in your own mind who the shadow government is, and so can your listeners. Has there been an organized effort to make certain leaders in this city look incompetent? Absolutely. With an attempt to ensure that even African-Americans were fed up with African-American leadership,” he said.

Riley said the recent release of a poll - showing that only 33 percent of citizens are satisfied with the NOPD - was timed to dissuade him from entering politics. The poll was unveiled by business leaders shortly before the political qualifying period. Riley also alleged The Times-Picayune chose that week to release several negative stories about him.

“There’s a revolution going on, and we are missing it,” he said.

Riley also criticized the slate of mayoral candidates and promoted his tenure as police chief.

“You know, I listen to the mayoral candidates,” he said. “I run a bigger organization, and have had bigger budgets than any of these individuals. And I’m not knocking any of them. I’m just saying, I have had the ultimate challenge. The only person … there are two people who have bigger challenges than I. And that’s Mayor Nagin and President Obama.”

Riley added that, although several agencies have expressed interest hiring him, he is not going to be a police chief elsewhere.

“I’m looking at a public venture … with a couple people here in the city that I think would be profound and lucrative,” he said. “I also am looking at another position that I will absolutely not talk about. Regardless, I am going to do well no matter what. As I stated, my future is bright. If I don’t work another day in my life I’ll be OK. I’m not just a police chief.”

Brendan McCarthy can be reached at bmccarthy@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3301.

Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen was arrested on Christmas Day after cops in Aspen, Colorado received a phone call from his wife Brooke Mueller claiming that he had allegedly hit her.

When police officers arrived on the scene, they gave both Charlie and Brooke blood alcohol tests. Charlie did fine with just a .04 but Brooke registered a .13.

Let’s make a note that Mueller called the cops at 8:34AM. Who is drunk that early in the morning?

TMZ reports that Brooke even told a female cop right before the bail hearing that she was drunk when she made the phone call.

Charlie was booked for two felonies and one misdemeanor relating to domestic violence but he is claiming that he was just trying to defend himself and his wife happened to be the aggressor.

Charlie is due back in court on February 8.