New Orleans commander investigated for racist comments

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NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans Police Commander Selby has resigned today in the midst of allegations of inappropriate and racist comments. While giving instructions to his Special Operations Division this past Friday, Selby supposedly made some offensive comments about those attending the Essence festival, which is a predominately African-American event.

While the investigation was pending, Selby was moved to Deputy Chief Defillo’s office by Superintendent Ronal Serpas. Serpas personally saw to it that the members of Selby’s team were interviewed about the supposed slurs.

Serpa’s main concern though, is to determine whether these allegedly inappropriate comments resulted in unfair or biased police action. In an interview with New Orleans WDSU 6 Serpas said “To date, we have determined that SOD made one physical arrest over the holiday weekend. Two suspects were detained and positively identified by the victim of an armed robbery event that had just occurred in the 2000 block of Iberville, on July 4 at approximately 3 a.m.”

In the same interview, Serpa assured that the New Orleans Police Department’s Public Integrity Bureau was “continuing its investigation until Chief (Arlinda) Westbrook is satisfied she has obtained all pertinent facts.”