Wednesday, September 20, 2006

New Orleans Police Department: Do Not Disturb

Criminals, cops and reporters all work odd hours -- usually. Last week, the chief spokesperson for NOPD admonished a reporter for waking her up "after normal business hours" -- with an email. While reporting on recent violent crimes in Bywater and Faubourg Marigny last Wednesday night, freelance journalist Allen Johnson Jr. received a call about a rumored barroom hold-up in Bywater shortly before 11 p.m. Johnson emailed Gambit Weekly editor Clancy DuBos at home around midnight to report the tip, and DuBos emailed Johnson shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday asking Johnson to confirm the report ASAP. Johnson then emailed Bambi Hall, director of public relations for NOPD, seeking confirmation of the reported hold-up. Hall responded by email at 8:37 a.m. Thursday with the following message: "While I don't mind fielding inquiries during normal business hours, your after-hours emails are quite intrusive while I am sleeping. If you could be mindful of that in the future, it would be greatly appreciated if you sent your requests between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m." DuBos said Gambit Weekly will try to encourage local drug dealers, burglars, thieves, murderers, rapists and armed robbers to confine their activities to "normal business hours" so that Ms. Hall is not disturbed by intrusive emails from reporters trying to do their jobs while she sleeps.

-- Gambit Weekly

So, apparently, Ms. Hall has:

a) delusions of grandeur;

b) a severe deficit of brain cells;

c) a thorough misunderstanding of "pull" information; or

d) a battery of 19th century torture devices attached to her person, all of which fire up when she receives new email.

Now, granted, the story might've been skewed a bit for Gambit readers, since Ms. Hall was criticizing a Gambit writer. But then again, maybe she's just dumb.

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