Will the city and the region move forward, demanding justice for all, regardless of the skin color of the victims and the identity of the accused? Will we put aside our differences and demand that police officers be held accountable when they cross the line? Or will some of us fall back into familiar patterns that include a lot of finger-pointing, name-calling and painting signs that read "Heroes" for cops accused of taking the lives of innocent people?

We'll know soon enough.

In the meantime, many New Orleans residents can at least begin to breathe a sign of relief after the Justice Department was able to convince one former NOPD lieutenant to plead guilty to covering up the cold-blooded murders of two unarmed residents and the wounding of four others.

Knowing some of what took place on the Danziger Bridge on that fateful day causes us to ponder many other questions. Among them:

• How deep does this conspiracy go?

• How many other innocent, unarmed New Orleans residents were murdered and/or framed for murder by New Orleans' finest?

• How many people - police officers included - lost their lives because they witnessed police doing something illegal and needed to be silenced or eliminated?

• How does someone take an innocent human life and go home to his or her family and sleep at night?

• How many people in the criminal justice system know about this pattern of corruption and brutality but say nothing?

• How many other people arrested and convicted of drug offenses and murders in New Orleans were framed?

No one has ever tried to say that the job of police officers was easy in the nightmarish days and nights that followed Hurricane Katrina. Many officers lost their homes and found themselves dealing with the same kinds of stress and trauma as the rest of us.

But none of that excuses them - or anyone else, for that matter - for taking innocent lives. No one is above the law. That includes those whose sworn duty it is to maintain law and order.

While many candidates and elected officials have complained about the racial divide and how it impacts New Orleans politics in recent years, very few of them have said publicly that one of the main reasons that race continues to be a major issue in the city is that Blacks and whites are treated differently by the criminal justice system.

That starts with some cops on the street who know that they can get away with doing things to Black people that they wouldn't dream of doing to others.  

It is no huge revelation to the average Black New Orleans resident that corruption is a major problem. It's a reality we live with every day.

We've seen cops bully Black Mardi Gras Indians and those who participate in second lines organized by the city's many social aid and pleasure clubs. We've seen cops standing around joking and shaking hands at murder scenes, We've heard the many stories of young Black men who have been treated like animals by some cops for simply looking at them wrong or being in the wrong place at the right time. We've witnessed how swiftly the cops seem to move when a white New Orleans resident is murdered or assaulted. Many of us have been harassed and intimidated by cops who get off on flexing their muscle. We've read and heard the stories of cops sexually assaulting women and stealing drugs, guns and money from the NOPD evidence room. We've also felt the brazen disrespect and disconcern some cops exhibit in dealing with Black people.

We know. We know.

Given what we've witnessed New Orleans police doing, is it any wonder so many of us have such a hard time trusting and respecting the police?

For the record, we know that there are a lot of good cops in the New Orleans Police Department. We know many of them personally as childhood friends, former schoolmates and neighbors. We thank them for doing their jobs with professionalism and integrity and encourage them to keep fighting the good fight.

We thank you for putting your lives on the line daily and encourage you to remember that you are still members of the community, members who have a right to get tired, discouraged, frustrated and angry like the rest of us. Let us know what we can to do to help you to help us. As the song by Hezekiah Walker says, "We need you to survive."

We have heard some of the stories about the in-house battles between the Black Organization of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police. We want you to know that when you stand up for truth and justice, we got your back. It's not about a Black thing or a white thing; it's a justice thing.

We respectfully remind those who hesitate to put their necks on the line when they witness a fellow officer crossing the line that silence is violence. It is the duty of the police department as well as the local, state and federal government to make it safe for cops who witness wrongdoing to take specific steps to do the right thing. We can't allow a few bad asses and bad apples to intimidate and strong-arm good cops into participating in a conspiracy of silence.

I have a message for federal investigators: Go the extra mile and dig a little deeper.

We are grateful for the good work that has brought one person involved in the Danziger Bridge shootings to justice and applaud your efforts to follow through.

While it is commendable that the Justice Department is looking closely at a number of deadly shootings involving police that took place in the harrowing days immediately after Hurricane Katrina, there are many other cases that also deserve a fresh eye.

Among them are the cases involving Georgia college student Levon Jones, who was strangled to death outside Razzoo Bar & Patio by four white bouncers as NOPD officers were videotaped standing nearby; Hot 8 Brass Band member Joe Williams who was killed by police in Tremé in 2004; Steven Hawkins Jr., who was gunned down by an off-duty cop while defending himself against two men who had just robbed him in the Lower Ninth Ward in 2000. Incidentally, in June 2009 a state appeals court overturned a $700,000 civil court settlement.

Let's not forget about the five cops who were caught underreporting violent crimes in order to make it look like the police were getting a better handle on crime in certain areas of the city. They had a good reason: Districts who achieved the greatest crime reductions were recognized and rewarded by the New Orleans Police Department, Never mind that by underreporting and downgrading crimes they gave residents a false sense of safety and placed lives at risk.

There are also the post-Katrina cases of retired educator Robert Davis who was beaten severely by cops in the French Quarter in October 2005; and 22-year-old Adolph Grimes III, who was gunned down by police who found him sitting in a car outside his grandmother's home on New Year's Day 2009.

As his father, Adolph Grimes Jr., said on WBOK radio station Friday, the NOPD has yet to explain why he was shot at close range in the back of the head.

How smug, cocky and brazen would you be if you know that you could do whatever you wanted to people whose taxes pay your salaries because a state appeals court or the Civil Service Commission would eventually let you off the hook?

Some might describe these shootings as a pattern of urban terrorism, brutality and heavy-handed justice.   I call them murder.

Cops who commit murder have violated the public trust the worst way imaginable and deserve to go to jail.

And just so there's no confusion, the families of those who wrongfully shot and killed by New Orleans police deserve to be financially compensated for their suffering and losses. If former employees of the D.A.'s office deserve to be paid for bing fired, certainly the loved ones of those wrongfully killed need to be made whole.

The community will not stand by quietly when New Orleans officials try to weasel their way out of paying these families the way they did when former death row inmate John Thompson won a $12 million settlement because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Cities who can't afford to pay millions to compensate those who have been murdered or wrongfully convicted of murder should do everything in their power to make sure these unspeakable crimes don't happen.

This article was originally published in the March 1, 2010 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper