AP: Louisiana police unit probed over Black driver arrests
This article is provided courtesy of the Associated Press.
Screenshot from bodycam footage from Lousiana State Trooper Lt. John Clary, who reportedly said such footage didn’t exist. (Screenshot from Louisiana State Police, Youtube)
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The same Louisiana State Police unit whose troopers stunned, punched and dragged Ronald Greene on video during a deadly 2019 arrest is now under internal investigation by a secret panel over whether its officers are systematically targeting Black motorists for abuse.
The panel, whose existence was confirmed to The Associated Press by four people familiar with it, was set up in response to Greene’s death as well as three other violent stops of Black men: one who was punched, stunned and hoisted to his feet by his hair braids in a body-camera video obtained by the AP, another who was beaten after he was handcuffed, and yet another who was slammed 18 times with a flashl
You d be naïve to think it s limited to two or three instances. That s why you re seeing this audit, which is a substantial undertaking by any agency, said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans-based watchdog group. They ve got to identify these people and remove them from the organization.
Other than the federal civil rights investigation into Greene s death, the state police panel is the only known inquiry into possible systemic abuse and racism by its troopers.
Its seven members, drawn from officials from across the State Police, are not only scouring the videos for signs of excessive force, the people told the AP, but also examining whether troopers showed racist tendencies in their traffic stops and pursuits, and whether they mislabeled body-camera videos, turned off their cameras or used other means to hide evidence from internal investigators.
The panel, whose existence was confirmed to The AP by four people familiar with it, was set up in response to Ronald Greene’s death as well as three other violent stops of Black men.
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