And this:
Nagin forces out Compass
Nagin forced Compass out
Chief fired after heated confrontation
'He had tears in his eyes. He didn't want to go.'
By Trymaine D. Lee
And Walt Philbin
Staff writers
After announcing his retirement Tuesday, New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass told several high-ranking officers that he had been forced out by Mayor Ray Nagin, the officers said Wednesday.
They said Compass told them the decision came on the heels of a heated confrontation with the mayor. The officers spoke only on condition that they not be named.
Reached Wednesday by e-mail, Nagin said that those accounts were "inaccurate."
Compass could not be reached for comment.
At a hastily called news conference Tuesday with Nagin in attendance, Compass announced that he was retiring. When asked by a reporter whether Compass was being forced out, Nagin said no.
But after the announcement, Compass returned to a cruise ship where he and other displaced officers had been living, where they say he told them he had been forced to resign.
"He was going around telling officers, including myself, it wasn't his doing, that he would've never quit," said a high-ranking officer who asked not to be named. "He had tears in his eyes. He didn't want to go."
Another officer said Compass told him, "You work at the pleasure of the mayor. This was not my decision."
Nagin later named Assistant Superintendent Warren Riley as acting superintendent.
Officers said Compass told them that he and Nagin had an angry confrontation Tuesday morning, hours before Compass announced his retirement, which he said would begin after a transition period of up to 45 days.
Compass has come under increasing fire because of the Police Department's response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in which some officers were seen looting a store and 249 officers left their posts.
At the news conference, the two men were amicable, with Nagin calling Compass' retirement, after 26 years on the force, good for his family and bad for the city.
Nagin wished Compass well, calling him a hero and saying that he hoped Compass would at least send him a Christmas card during the holidays.
Compass seemed to fight back tears. Handlers shuffled Nagin off in one direction, Compass in another.
Even before Katrina, both Nagin and Compass had come under pressure, dealing with controversies over alleged underreporting of crime statistics in the 1st District, the enforcement of the residency rule for officers, and Compass' hiring of members of the Nation of Islam to do sensitivity training for the Police Department. The city also had seen a substantial rise in the murder rate in 2005.
Reporters Martha Carr and David Meeks contributed to this report.