The victim of the now infamous NOPD beating is claiming that he was not intoxicated:

A retired elementary teacher who was repeatedly punched in the head by police in an incident caught on videotape said Monday he was not drunk, put up no resistance and was baffled by what happened.

Robert Davis said he had returned to New Orleans to check on property his family owns in the storm-ravaged city, and was out looking to buy cigarettes when he was beaten and arrested Saturday night in the French Quarter.

Police have alleged that the 64-year-old Davis was publicly intoxicated, a charge he strongly denied as he stood on the street corner where the incident played out Saturday.

We’ll have to see exactly how the facts play out on this, but suffice to say that I haven’t been overly impressed with the local police of late. Officers beating up a senior citizen for public drunkenness (which is awfully common in New Orleans) only clouds my view of them further.

I went back to New Orleans last Friday to check my property, and was stopped twice by officers (the first was city police, the other was a parish sheriff). The first office yelled for me to stop, spit on the ground, and swaggered over to me asking if I’d been drinking. I hadn’t, and told him so. Then he told me that my eyes looked glazed, and I responded again that I hadn’t been drinking. He ultimately let me go, but I found the entire ordeal unnerving. I certainly didn’t feel welcome back in the city.

The second time, I was stopped the same night while surveying the damage to Tulane Law. I stayed on a public street and didn’t go on campus, but was stopped anyway, asked my business, and told that I shouldn’t be out at night (this was before 9 o’ clock, hours before the curfew began). Again, I felt like I should just leave.

Mayor Nagin is encouraging people to return, but the police are taking things to the extreme. I understand that the looting during the storm left people yearning for law and order, but right now the city is a virtual police state. They’ve gone too far, and now it’s time to ease up.

On another note, the repeating radio broadcast that plays as you enter Louisiana via I-10 is still telling people that I-10 is shut down and that there are no routes into New Orleans. Considering none of that is true, and the state actually wants people to return, it’s another example of Louisiana’s incompetence in governing itself. Whatever money is given to rebuild the storm-ravaged areas needs to bypass state and local officials, who have not shown the ability to spend federal tax dollars wisely.