Secession crisis

If the St. George separatists get their way this fall, things are going to get very bad for Baton Rouge very quickly.

A new study claims the city-parish stands to lose approximately $48.3 million annually should the proposed city of St. George successfully incorporate in southeast East Baton Rouge Parish.

The study, prepared by Richard CPAs at the request of the city-parish's Finance Department, also claims every city-parish department and agency would need to cut its budget by a minimum of 18 percent across the board should the incorporation occur.

Currently only residents within the limits of the proposed St. George will be allowed to vote on the separation question. There's a bill in the legislature right now that would expand the vote to the parish as a whole giving a voice to the people who would be hurt the most by it.  It's scheduled for a committee hearing tomorrow. 

Breakaway Republicans

The St. George petition has apparently succeeded.

Now we get to hear Bodi White and Woody Jenkins tell us how extremely not racist any of this is.  Looking forward to that.

ITEP Pep rally

They took it out of the headline but originally the Advocate described this as a "pep rally." I thought that was pretty apt.

In the halls of the legislature and on the steps of City Hall, in advertisements, social media and meetings with the press, Baton Rouge leaders are still at work trying to manage the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program, or ITEP,  after local giant ExxonMobil failed to secure a pair of tax breaks.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome called scores of people in the business community on Monday to City Hall, where she and her guests praised the corporation’s commitments to local investment, philanthropy and job training.

None uttered the phrase “industrial tax exemption” until prompted by reporters, but the timing was clear: Less than a week before, faith-based nonprofit Together Baton Rouge gathered at the opposite side of the building to celebrate the parish school board’s rejection of two ITEP proposals that prompted ExxonMobil to pull similar requests before they made it to the Metro Council.

Did Baton Rouge voters know they were electing Broome mayor of the Exxon pep squad?  Did they know how fragile their feelings were before we decided that maybe we ought to consider their tax exemptions a little bit before just approving every request by rote? Did they know how eager Broome would be to make sure their feelings were not hurt? 

When she ran for office in 2016, the mayor campaigned on setting limits for ITEP but backed off shortly upon taking office. She did not take any hard stances Monday on ExxonMobil’s applications but spoke approvingly of the Metro Council's ITEP guidelines, which will determine when an exemption is warranted.

Ah yeah, gotta have those guidelines.  Anything to take the actual hard work of being politically responsive to constituents such as the poor and working class people who have to pay the taxes Exxon doesn't.  Better to just let BRAC set the rules and put everything on auto-pilot.

It’s a sentiment BRAC also emphasized in an open letter to the community, published in a full-page ad in The Advocate’s Sunday edition. The local ITEP guidelines might not be perfect, but the Chamber likes them well enough. The problem will be making sure the rules are strictly and uniformly enforced, not given to interpretation or political sway. The School Board rejected one ExxonMobil ITEP application even though it met all their requirements, Knapp charged, a charge that TBR contests.

Probably won't have to worry about any of this for much longer, anyway. Not if these legislators have anything to say about it. 

Two Republican state lawmakers plan to file legislation that would return sole authority of the Industrial Tax Exemption Program back to the state, essentially restoring the process in place before Gov. John Bel Edwards’ 2016 executive order gave local governments a say in granting the property tax exemptions. 

Sen. Mack “Bodi” White, R-Central, and Rep. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, will co-file the bill in the upcoming legislative session, which begins April 8. They say it will restore a “consistent process” for manufacturers applying for the lucrative property tax breaks. 

A "consistent process" is one where the oligarchs decide how much public money to hand over to the other oligarchs without any meddlesome input from the public whose money it is in the first place.  Not very fair. But it's consistent.

Show em what they've won

So who among us could have predicted that the year long Amazon HQ2 grift would have a happy ending?  It sort of does, anyway.  I mean, from the looks of things, Amazon, the global behemoth built on horrific labor exploitation and led by the world's richest man, is still going to get its multi-billion dollar gift from the public coffers of three states.  The happy news, though, is that a growing portion of what we might call the media and political mainstream is beginning to recognize that this is a bad thing.

Was this national auction nothing more than a scripted drama to raise the value of the inevitable winning bid? And did the retailer miss an opportunity to revitalize a midwestern city by choosing to enrich the already-rich East Coast?

All good questions. But here’s the big one: Why the hell are U.S. cities spending tens of billions of dollars to steal jobs from one another in the first place?

Every year, American cities and states spend up to $90 billion in tax breaks and cash grants to urge companies to move among states. That’s more than the federal government spends on housing, education, or infrastructure. And since cities and states can’t print money or run steep deficits, these deals take scarce resources from everything local governments would otherwise pay for, such as schools, roads, police, and prisons.

In New York, where the Governor offered to change his name to "Amazon Cuomo" in what we hope was a joke, the criticism has extended now into the state house and even the US House of Representatives. Those voices remain significantly marginalized, of course. But it's a positive step.  We're still making the super-rich super-richer at the great expense of everybody else. But it's now somewhat accecptable to be critical of that.

Even in Louisiana, you start to see the tide begin to turn a little bit.  It's not happening fast enough, obviously.  Here, for example, is the Governor still happy to hand out public money and favors to hotel developers. Legislators are proud of their restrained compromise decision to only give away $180 million a year to movie productions. All of New Orleans continues unquestioningly to celebrate the Amazon-style package it bestowed on DXC last year in order to help subsidize that company's international cost-cutting and downsizing strategy. And, of course, Louisiana entered its own gift package into the Amazon sweepstakes worth an estimated $6.5 billion.

But even here there are signs of a developing pushback.  For exaple, last year J.P. Morrell, who unfortunately continues to support a lot of these tax incentive deals, at least began to subject them to greater scrutiny.   Also last December, the Advocate ran a major in-depth report by Rebekah Allen on the Industrial Tax Exemption which has been one of Louisina's most costly giveaways and particularly damaging to local municipalities and school districts.  The Governor has granted local taxing authorities more discretion to approve or deny ITEP requests as of late. Some of them have even begun to exercise this discretion. Most notably, the Orleans Parish School Board recently denied such a request from Bollinger.  Baton Rouge teachers actually voted to walk out on Halloween in order to protest an ITEP break  for Exxon.  That issue is currently on hold.

So the good news is there's progress.  We're still losing but people are finding their voices have more reach than they once did.  Speaking of which, here is a video.

Actually, transit should probably be transit, primarily

I'm as excited as the next guy for New Orleans-to-Baton Rouge passenger rail and all.  But I'm not exactly holding my breath for this.

Planners in charge of the long-discussed Baton Rouge-New Orleans passenger rail service will unveil conceptual designs for the two rail stations in the Capital City Tuesday evening at a public meeting designed to gain input and provide and update on the project.

The East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority and HNTB, the consulting firm hired to explore the rail service project, will host the meeting at 6 p.m. in the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church at 185 Eddie Robinson Sr. Drive. The organizations in recent months have conducted technical analysis, met with political and community leaders in the proposed areas and designed the preliminary concepts for two “state-of-the-art, multi-modal” rail stations.

"Conceptual," is the operative term in that first paragraph.  Rest assured we're not anywhere close to getting anything built yet. Not with this state fiscal climate or the current federal political nightmare serving as context.  You aren't going to get any infrastructure built without first raising a ton of money from people who can't afford to pay and second handing that money over to one or several corrupt "private partners."

So it's probably a good thing that this thing isn't especially close to being a shovel-ready project at the moment. Otherwise we wouldn't be designing transit for people so much as building some developer's "economic development engine."

Jones said the rail stations could also include retail, residential or office developments, as well as sponsorships, to make them into economic development engines.

"The most successful projects of this type around the country are not transit centers in and of themselves but are part of a more attractive development that includes a lot of commercial and pedestrian activity," Jones said.

Lost causers

The St. George separatist movement is back.

Supporters who want to create a city of St. George in East Baton Rouge Parish announced Friday that they're launching a renewed petition drive.

In a video posted to the group's Facebook page, the group says it's ready to "reignite their efforts to make East Baton Rouge Parish a better place to live and raise a family for everyone."

Mayor President Sharon Weston Broome has opposed the movement, which seeks not only to create a new city in the unincorporated southern portion of the parish but also to create a new school district independent of the parish school system. A 21-month petition drive fell just short of getting on the ballot in 2015.

Broome has had kind of a rocky first year in office. The St. Georgers might be trying to capitalize on that a bit.  It won't work (probably.) But they're nothing if not persistent.  

Well done

Clearly the best way to inform the families and principals involved in these sensitive matters is to let them read about it through leaks to the press.

The Justice Department has decided not to bring charges against the officers involved in the death of Alton Sterling, whose videotaped shooting by police in Baton Rouge last summer prompted unrest across the city, and is planning to reveal in the next 24 hours that it has closed the probe, according to four people familiar with the matter.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Sterling family had yet to be informed by the Justice Department of the decision, and it is unclear how and when the department will announce its findings.

“We have not heard nor received an update and are unaware of any charges that may or may not be filed,“ said Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the Sterling family’s attorneys. “We have not received word, nor has the family been given any notice of upcoming updates regarding this case.”

Non-levitating train to Disneyworld

It's almost a decade now since Bobby Jindal's fantasy nightmare about levitating trains to Disneyland killed our chance at a high speed rail project in Louisiana. At that time, the newly inaugurated President Obama had raised HOPEs that a forthcoming federal stimulus bill would fund our decades long dream of commuter rail between New Orleans and Baton Rouge as part of a longer line connecting us with Houston.   But Jindal helped introduce America to the style of paranoid obstructionism that would go on to help Republicans block a substantial portion of Obama's agenda throughout his two terms. It's been fun.

Anyway, it looks like we might be finally getting that rail service after all. It won't levitate or anything, but the plan is for these trains to actually go to Disneyworld.

Monday, the Southern Rail Commission distributed $2.5 million in federal funds to design, build and improve train stations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. A quarter-million went to Baton Rouge to develop plans for a train station at the old Entergy campus near the corner of Government and 14th streets.

The goal is to revive the passenger route between Orlando and New Orleans, which already has lines that run to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. There would be a separate spur for riders to commute between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

As always with this, it's not a good idea to hold one's breath. But if you are the optimistic type you might expect to see the BR-NO line up and running around 2020 or so. 

How do you embolden secessionists?

You beat them in an election, of course. That's just politics 101.

Just days after her weekend runoff win over Bodi White, who had been a key player in the failed breakaway St. George movement before backing away from it during the campaign, proponents of carving out a new city were back on the case. Newspaper editor and veteran politician Woody Jenkins, one of the movement's chief proponents, went so far as to say he's 99 percent sure of success next time.

Pretty ok weekend

We had the fancy people seats in Tiger Stadium.



LSU-Ole Miss on Saturday night with a slight but not uncomfortable chill in a quintessential Louisiana cultural experience. There are probably dozens of  Thrillist clickbaity articles that say this already.  Anyway it's a good time. Especially win the Tigers win. Especially when they win on the strength of a record-setting performance from one of their all time greats.


If you're gonna go, it's important to be aware of a few things, though.  First, there are no alcohol sales in Tiger Stadium.  This seems kind of prudish at first, although it's probably a good thing at least as far as one's wallet is concerned. It's far cheaper to start drinking early on and use the time in the stadium to sober up. Not everyone does it this way.  Try to give the amateurs as wide a berth as possible.

Also, if you're driving to and from Baton Rouge, be prepared to wait in traffic.  We parked over in one of the "levee lots" over by River Road about a ten minute walk further back from where this picture was taken.



After the game, all of those cars have to funnel out onto a single file line going away from the river. We got in the car around 12:30 and didn't make it out back to Nicholson Drive until almost 2:00 am. And that was before the hour and a half drive back down I-10 to New Orleans.

So I guess what we're saying here is, if you're going to Tiger Stadium, be sure and bring plenty beer for the pregaming activity, and plenty of something well caffeinated for the ride home.  Whatever you do, avoid taking an Uber because, well..

Oh and be aware that when there's an election coming you'll want to steer clear of the politicians and.. well... worse than politicians who tend to creep about the stadium during this time.

Well, he is the mayor

Everyone is all over Kip Holden's case lately.  I don't think it's warranted in this case.

Then there was East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden, who introduced the first real note of public discord into the mix.

Holden wasn't happy that East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux sought to impose a curfew after reports of looting started cropping up — or, apparently, that Gautreaux asked the governor to issue an executive order when Holden declined to impose one.

Ok, so?  Kip is the mayor. He isn't required to impose a curfew if he doesn't think it's the right thing to do.  Curfews may have fallen into the default package of emergency response tools recent years but this doesn't make them defensible. A curfew is a constitutionally questionable and ham handed way of dealing with free people. Kip is perfectly within his right to question this course of action.  In fact it's worth considering that, as the people's representative, he's obligated to do so. 

But, oh noes, says Grace. He's introducing "discord." So what?  Disagreement exists. Kip has a valid concern. He is completely correct to give his legitimate concern a voice. It is disturbing enough that political and law enforcement authorities continually seek to squash dissent at crucial moments like this.  That we have a press who enable this tendency is obscene.  

So Holden called the city's media outlets and airing his grievances. He said the restrictions could impose a hardship on businesses and their employees, but also told WAFB that he had "no issue whatsoever" with the curfew itself, "just the way all of this has been handled." He added that he didn't "want to get into a back and forth about the sheriff and myself," which kind of makes you wonder what he wanted the audience to take away from the interview in the first place.

You've also got to wonder about the wisdom of second-guessing law enforcement leaders — or seeming to, anyway — who are pursuing what seem like perfectly in-the-box policies at times like this. That goes double for law enforcement in the East Baton Rouge Parish, where many deputies who've been out rescuing people, and who were already coping with a summer of stress, have seen their own homes flooded.

That bolded line. Seriously, what the hell? Always second-guess "law enforcement leaders." To do otherwise is dereliction. That we fail to question is exactly how an automatic curfew becomes an "in-the-box policy" in the first place. 

Because we said so

You get the impression, BRPD might not be entirely on the up and up with all this stuff?

Police reports for three young men arrested in connection to a "credible threat" against officers publicized Tuesday show no mention of the comment one made to police about their intention to harm officers and show none of the defendants were booked on counts relating to making intimidating statements.

Also, we're still waiting for eyewitnesses or video evidence of concrete being thrown at police on Sunday. There were a lot of people with cameras out there. You'd think somebody would have caught that. Unless.... naw, couldn't be.... 

Blocking the roadway

Where the roadways weren't actually blocked and the people arrested for blocking them weren't actually in the road.

I was charged with simple obstruction of a roadway. Which is what I think the majority of protesters got, and they got set the same bail as me, $250, for being in the road. Now, as my video I’m posting online clearly shows, I was never in the road.

It's a very serious crime, though, this un-permitted jaywalking thing. 

Gonna keep unlearning the lesson

Ferguson was what? Two years ago now?  In addition to just the plain ugliness of racist police violence, the two "lessons" we were supposed to have learned from the matter were these.

First, government services in cities and towns across the country are so reliant on municipal violations fees that they create perverse incentives for law enforcement to systematically shake people down. So far our learning this "lesson" has produces one hilarious John Oliver bit and zero actual progress.

Secondly, we were supposed to have learned that a militarized police force has no place in a functioning democracy.  How'd we do on that account?

Displays of military-style equipment like armored cars, assault-style weapons, gas masks, riot shields, and ear-splitting sirens called LRADs — all of which have been deployed in the past few days during protests about Sterling’s killing in Baton Rouge — are some of the very practices the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services criticized in its definitive report analyzing what went wrong in Ferguson.

“You would think Baton Rouge would watch Ferguson and learn a lesson. Apparently they didn’t,” said Peter B. Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University who’s studied police militarization for the past 25 years. A former probation officer, Kraska has worked with over 70 police departments on training and reforms.

So we're pretty slow to learn. Maybe in the coming years, you know with fresh leadership after the presidential election, we'll move away from this kind of  thinking that.... oh wait. 

Calls for unity

When you hear them call for "unity," mostly what they mean is they want everyone to go home and eat their feelings.  Pat sort of gets it right here but not exactly.

That is the choice we are faced with after the last week. How do we step back from the ledge? There is a positive choice that has a foundation in truth and justice and listening to one another. We can say we’ve seen enough precious life spilled into the street that it is worth stepping out of our comfort zones to try and hear what we aren’t hearing. We can take each other’s fears and heartbreak as seriously as our own. We can work with one another in good faith to fix what is broken. This choice leads to a place where community wounds and hearts can begin the long and difficult process of healing.

Because the other choice is to demonize those we disagree with, perpetuate a climate of fear and distrust, dismiss the experience of others as if they do not matter, and double down on the toxic idea that violence is the most effective way to solve problems. This is the choice of a false “unity” that bullies use in bad faith to try and silence anyone pointing out uncomfortable truths. This choice puts everyone back in their respective corners, and inevitably takes us right back here to this awful place we find ourselves living or watching with our hearts breaking. This choice leads to more heartbreaking, unbearable loss that will only be bumped off the front pages by the next list of heartbreaking, unbearable loss. This second choice puts everyone on different teams and looks at lists of the dead and wounded and arrested as if they were a scorecard.

He's spot on about the political calls for unity being 100 percent counterproductive bullshit. But it doesn't follow that its opposite has anything to do with both sides "listening to one another" in order to "begin the long and difficult process of healing."  Nothing is better just because we prayed publicly and had a "conversation" about the hurting. In fact, that sounds like more of the same. 

We don't need to listen and heal. We need to fix the dang problem. The problem is there is an oppressive, racist police state armed to the teeth inflicting violence on the citizenry. Full stop. That atrocity doesn't demand unity, it demands justice. 

The reason people talk about "healing" or "unity" is because they want to seem like they're offering responsible leadership but don't actually want anything to change. Take, for example, Governor Edwards here.  

Edwards said he has been criticized for saying the video of Sterling's shooting, which has generated mass protests in Louisiana's capital city, was "disturbing" and from others "because I didn't call for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the officers involved in the shooting."

It's an illustration, Edwards said, of a powder keg mentality and reluctance of people on either side to allow conversation .

"When I called the video disturbing, some folks thought it was a condemnation of the officers," he said. "From the other side when I didn't call for the immediate arrest of the officers it was taken by some as not striking the right balance.

"But I don't think anyone who saw the video could say it wasn't disturbing, and I don't believe the officers should be condemned without a thorough investigation.

That's quite a riddle, isn't it? It's "disturbing" but let's not be hasty. Let's not prosecute the murderers.  Let's not act.  Let's just emote. That should be enough, right? As long as we maneuver ourselves such that "both sides" are unhappy with our  incoherent and ultimately useless position we get to go home and claim the moral high ground. Good for us. Too bad for the next victim, though.

Recusals

Baton Rouge District Attorney recuses himself from prosecuting the Baton Rouge police who murdered Alton Sterling.

Moore said the only factor for the him in reaching this decision involves his relationship to the parents of officer Blane Salamoni. His parents are both experienced law enforcement professionals who have achieved senior leadership positions within the Baton Rouge Police Department, Moore said.

Salamoni's mother was the violent crime and crime scene commander during most of the District Attorney's term of office and interacted personally and professionally with the District Attorney in establishing the parish-wide violent crime unit in 2010, according to a report Moore released following Monday's news conference.

Earlier the officers' body cams recused themselves as well when they conveniently "came loose" during the incident.  Luckily, there were other cameras on the scene that night.  Unluckily, they have been.. well.. let's call it involuntarily recused.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — The owner of the convenience store where Alton Sterling was killed last week by cops alleges in a lawsuit that police stole surveillance video from his shop, confiscated his cell phone, and locked him inside a car for the next four hours.

Abdullah Muhlafi, proprietor of the Triple S Mart, saw police confront and kill Sterling who was selling CDs with his permission in the front parking lot last Tuesday night. Muhlafi recorded part of the incident in footage he gave The Daily Beast last week that shows Sterling did not have a weapon in his hand when Officer Howie Lake shouted “gun!” and Officer Blane Salamoni fired six shots into his chest.

Muhlafi claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in Baton Rouge district court that after Salamoni killed Sterling, he immediately ordered two responding officers to confiscate the “entire store security system” and detain him.

So that's fun.

Meanwhile, John Bel Edwards has praised the conduct of the police at nearly every opportunity. After they harassed and arrested over 100 protesters on Saturday night, he thanked them for their "moderate response."  After police in riot gear had brutally advanced on and dispersed a peaceful crowd near downtown Baton Rouge on Sunday, one would expect the governor to maybe take a more critical stance. One would be disappointed, though.

Governor John Bel Edwards is commending law enforcement’s response to growing discontent

— 89.9 WWNO (@WWNO) July 11, 2016

Maybe the governor needs to be recused too. 

"Out-of-town people"

Police rushed inside a woman's home and pulled out protesters who were inside to arrest them #AltonSterling

— Rebekah Allen (@rebekahallen) July 11, 2016

One wonders if the police ever actually bore themselves with the "outside agitators" narrative. 

Baton Rouge police confiscated eight firearms at an Alton Sterling protest outside police headquarters Saturday, the agency said.

Police confiscated three rifles, three shotguns and two pistols Saturday, BRPD said in a news release Sunday afternoon.

A Baton Rouge police officer had several teeth knocked out “as a projectile was thrown from the protest,” BRPD said.

More than 100 people were arrested in connection with the protest. No arrests were made at another protest from City Hall to the State Capitol Saturday, BRPD said.

"It appears the protest at Baton Rouge Police Headquarters have become more violent as out of town protesters are arriving," BRPD said in the release.

Everything used to be so pleasant in Baton Rouge. At least if your day to day routine keeps you mostly clear of the racist, violent police, that is. 

Many law enforcement officials came to Louisiana immediately after Hurricane Katrina to provide reinforcements, and one state trooper from Michigan said Baton Rouge police attempted to thank him for his help by letting him "beat down" a prisoner.  A trooper from New Mexico wrote a letter to the Baton Rouge police expressing the concerns of seven New Mexico troopers and five Michigan troopers that Baton Rouge police  were engaging in racially motivated enforcement, that they were physically abusing prisoners and the public and that they were stopping, questioning and searching people without any legal justification.

In case you weren't paying attention, I'll repeat it:  The people accusing Baton Rouge police of brutality and racism were other law enforcement officials.  And, yet, the general response from Baton Rouge was that those outside officers didn't know what they were talking about. An attorney for the Baton Rouge police union said all the stops the outside troopers criticized were legal.  Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden, a black man, said that he had heard of looting in New Orleans and was determined not to have any such thing in Baton Rouge.

Kip Holden, as noted earlier, has been conspicuously absent from public view throughout the protests. If you happen to find him, be sure and take a picture. He is the by far the most elusive Pokemon in Baton Rouge right now.

The Governor is around, of course. Not that that does much good. The scion of a rural Louisiana law enforcement dynasty, fresh off having signed the bizarre "Blue Lives Matter" bill this spring, was there today to back up police in their bullshit pretext for arresting over a hundred people Saturday night.

Edwards said that while people from outside Louisiana that are coming for protests are "welcome here," he said that "they're not going to be allowed... nor will our own citizens, be allowed to incite hate and violence and engage in unlawful activities.

"We don't operate like that in Louisiana," Edwards said. "I'm certainly proud of the people from this community and the vast majority of them have rejected the folks trying to incite them."

The governor was also stern in his warnings to protesters. He said that "If orders are made not to obstruct a roadway and you step out into the road, that is cause for arrest. Period."

Let's agree to disagree for the moment that merely standing on a road is "cause for arrest" and observe, instead, that this standard is in fact quite moveable. Witnesses and video feeds from Saturday night reported several arrests, including Deray's, where standing in the street didn't seem to be the determining factor.

Blurry video of the moments before McKesson was taken into custody provided to The Washington Post captures his verbal exchange with the officers.

"The police continue to just provoke people," McKesson said after an officer yells to a group of people that if they step on the roadway they will be arrested.

Then an officer says the man in the "loud shoes" has been "flagged": "You in them loud shoes, if I see you in the road, if I get close to you, you're going to jail," an officer can be heard saying on the video.

In response, Packnett says, "We're on the shoulder. There is no sidewalk, sir."

McKesson is known for wearing a pair of red Nike sneakers and a blue vest to all protests he attends.

The group was walking away from a protest and rally that had been dispersed, traveling alongside road traffic on a street that they said does not have a sidewalk.

Activists continued to talk as they walked up the side of the street. Moments later, an officer's voice is heard.

"City police, you're under arrest."

"What?!" McKesson exclaims. "I'm under arrest y'all."Then an officer says the man in the "loud shoes" has been "flagged": "You in them loud shoes, if I see you in the road, if I get close to you, you're going to jail," an officer can be heard saying on the video.

In response, Packnett says, "We're on the shoulder. There is no sidewalk, sir."

McKesson is known for wearing a pair of red Nike sneakers and a blue vest to all protests he attends.

The group was walking away from a protest and rally that had been dispersed, traveling alongside road traffic on a street that they said does not have a sidewalk.

Activists continued to talk as they walked up the side of the street. Moments later, an officer's voice is heard.

"City police, you're under arrest." "What?!" McKesson exclaims. "I'm under arrest y'all."

Then the video and audio feed cuts out.

On Sunday afternoon, matters became even more confused as protesters were ordered off of the "sidewalk" (or shoulder.. there are so few actual sidewalks in Baton Rouge, after all) or, in some cases, pulled out into the street and arrested there.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Hundreds of people peacefully protesting on private property Sunday evening were thrown into the street by police, and then several were then arrested for being on the street.

Approximately 500 people had gathered at France and East in downtown Baton Rouge after first coming together at a nearby Methodist church to protest the police killing of Alton Sterling. Meeting the protesters were about 100 officers in riot gear. A homeowner gave the protesters safe refuge on her front lawn so they would not be arrested for being in the street.

“No justice, no peace!” they yelled.

After 90 minutes of peaceful assembly, police charged the crowd for no clear reason. Protesters scattered, many running down a side street. Those protesters were then arrested for obstruction of a highway.

Of course none of this would be happening if it weren't for all those darn "outside agitators" standing around out there... in the street or otherwise. Someone should tell them, though, what happens if they try to sell each other CDs. 

Nobody likes Kip

That is, at least, according to Kip.

To Holden it appears that many people are jockeying to assert themselves as the leader of the crowds who are demonstrating on Sterling’s behalf, and perhaps the people demonstrating in Baton Rouge should rally behind one voice, but Holden does not believe he is the person for the job. He said he doesn’t believe the demonstrators like him or will follow him.

It isn't mentioned in this article but Holden is running a quixotic campaign for Cedric Richmond's Congressional seat this year. Richmond has been much more vocal on the Sterling shooting than Holden who may trying to position himself as more "moderate" if that's really the word for craven refusal to immediately and unequivocally condemn police violence these days.

Leadership

I missed the press conference. Did anyone there ask the governor about this?

The shooting comes just over a month after Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a “Blue Lives Matter” bill into law, which legally protects police officers under hate-crime law—the first legislation of its kind in the country.

I've read  a bunch of tweets and comments praising John Bel's "leadership" or whatever for having issued the standard remain calm pablum. 

"I'm asking for leaders in the faith-based community, elected officials and other community leaders ... to ensure we all remain calm and peaceful as the details continue to unfold," Edwards said. "That may be tough for some, but it's essential that we do that."

But just a month ago he signed a hateful law that validates the police in their assumption they can act violently with impunity. For some reason no one is questioning his "leadership" there.

Putting cameras everywhere still not helping

Sometimes they slip.  Sometimes the ones that don't slip are seized.

Police interviewed a few witnesses who were at the store, he said. Muflahi said he was interviewed by police for most of the night, returning to his store around 8 a.m.

Both officers at the store were wearing body cameras and cars had dash cameras, McKneely said. Muflahi said police also took surveillance footage from his store and seized his entire video system.

McKneely said both body cameras came loose and dangled from the officers’ uniforms during the incident.

Other times the important people show up the next day and tell you aren't qualified to understand what the video actually shows. And then everyone believes them and goes home. And nothing changes.