bout a year and a half ago, I got mugged in New Orleans. Don’t worry; this story gets better. I was walking through the French Quarter with two friends when a guy hit me over the head with a pistol and took my purse. Technically, I handed him the purse. But he had made quite an argument for it.

I was the only one able to identify the guy in a lineup. So last April, the DA’s office flew me down to New Orleans to testify in a pretrial hearing. (That was the coolest sentence. Do you mind if I repeat it?) Last April, the DA’s office flew me down to New Orleans to testify in a pretrial hearing. I got to know some of the people working on my case. One, in particular, has become a good friend. When posters for the show K-Ville started appearing all over my city, I wanted to write a piece about what New Orleans cops thought of the show. It was, after all, their lives. But this isn’t as easy as it sounds. While my friend and I can talk about the show all we want--and if my text message inbox is any indication, we do--nothing can be on record. That’s where Lieutenant Wininger comes in.

Lieutenant Wininger is a 30-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department, and he’s the first vice-president of PANO, the cop’s union. The latter means he can speak to the media; the former means he has a lot to say. Today, on The Morning News, you can read my interview with Lieutenant Wininger--whom I call Bryant, by the way, and whom other people call Bo, though I’m still not clear why. It turned out to be a fascinating piece, which has nearly everything to do with the lieutenant, and only a little to do with my ability to type fast for extended periods of time. This is the kind of story I wish I did more often. If I hadn’t gotten to do this story, it would have bothered me. And thanks to a couple great guys in New Orleans, I could.