| Nagin Defends Use of 'Phantom Police' | |||
|
| |||
| Netlore Archive: Forwarded satire claims New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin padded the city budget by listing 700 nonexistent 'phantom' officers on the police payroll | |||
| |||
Email example contributed by John L., 19 October 2005:
|
Nagin Defends Use of 'Phantom Police' September 30, 2005 Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, lashed back at critics after the FBI discovered that up to 700 so-called members of the city police force simply did not exist. Funding for many of these officers was provided by the federal government. "During the storm and aftermath we'd heard reports that hundreds of New Orleans police officers had deserted their post," said an FBI spokesman." Further investigation indicates that these posts had never been manned and the funds supposedly paid in wages has disappeared." "Sure, we overstated the number of officers on the force,"said Nagin. "We did this to deter crime." |
Comments: Though the above reads like a news story, it is actually a satirical column penned by John Semmens under the heading of "Semi-News" for the Arizona Conservative Web site. The purported quotes attributed to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and an unidentified FBI spokesman are fictional.
Semmens didn't pull the notion of a police payroll padded with the names of nonexistent officers out of thin air, however. The allegation was originally made in a Fox News radio commentary by Tony Snow on September 27, 2005. Snow claimed that "reliable sources on Capitol Hill" told him that 84 percent of roughly 500 New Orleans police officers who allegedly failed to report for duty never existed in the first place. "They are phantom employees," he said. The money allocated for the officers ended up in the pockets of cronies of the former police superintendent, he speculated, "and/or the political establishment."
A story in the November 26, 2005 edition of the New Orleans Times-Picayune cast doubt on Snow's allegations. "No evidence has surfaced to back up the report," the authors noted, adding that "conversations with law enforcement sources suggest it's hard to fathom that one-fourth of the department would consist of 'fake cops' without the FBI or the public knowing about it." A spokesperson for Mayor Nagin characterized the accusations as "unfounded rumors."
In a press conference, a U.S. attorney stated publicly he could neither confirm nor deny reports of an investigation into fraud on the part of Nagin or his administration, the Times-Picayune reported, though federal law enforcement officials said privately they were "not aware of any major investigation."
Sources and further reading:
Nagin Defends Use of 'Phantom Police'
Satirical "Semi-News" column by John Semmens, The Arizona ConservativeNagin Takes a Break from the City
The Times Picayune, 26 November 2005NOPD Phantom Cops: Real or Fiction?
FreeRepublic.com posting, 14 November 2005
Last updated: 11/30/05
