Someone should probably do something

Seems bad

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a report Thursday evening finding that Louisiana State Police employs practices that violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, specifically the use of excessive force, often unjustifiably using Tasers and escalating minor incidents with people who do not pose a threat.

The Justice Department began its investigation of State Police in 2022 after revelations about the 2019 death of Black motorist Ronald Greene at the hands of Monroe-area troopers who beat and Tased him after a high-speed chase into Union Parish.

“We also found that troopers use excessive force to immediately control encounters, often within the first few moments of encountering a person and without giving the person a warning or an opportunity to comply,” the report said. “Additionally, LSP uses excessive force on people who run from troopers, even when that person is only suspected of a misdemeanor.”

The findings were released two days after federal prosecutors said they would not bring charges in the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene, ending a lengthy probe into the white state troopers who stunned, punched and dragged Greene on a roadside following a high-speed chase outside Monroe, Louisiana.

 Hopefully the DOJ has some plan to rectify these abuses? Right?

The Justice Department also examined whether state police engage in “racially discriminatory policing” but made no findings “at this time” as to whether that contributed to the misconduct.

The report recommends — but does not mandate — a long list of remedial measures, while also crediting the agency with making ”much-needed reforms after video of Mr. Greene’s death became public.”

Oh well. Best of luck, everybody 

Selling the public

Judge Morgan is making noises like she's finally ready to release NOPD from the consent decree. 

The prospect of reduced monitoring, on the way to ending oversight, came into focus this week. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, who has tracked the reforms since their start, heard a positive report on officer bias, then bluntly requested a plan to launch the NOPD into a two-year "sustainment" phase under the 2012 reform pact known as a consent decree.

"We need to begin putting the framework in place," she said Wednesday.

I don't know enough about their "officer bias" metrics to speak with much authority. Having said that, it's clearly all bullshit that can mean whatever they want it to mean whenever they want it to mean that.  Anyway if NOPD says they're doing a better job, there are reasons to remain skeptical.  

For example, we know the consent decree places limits on high speed chases that pose an unreasonable danger to life and property such as this one that killed two teens in 2019. And yet just this week we saw officers racing through Uptown in pursuit of suspects. And in a separate incident only a few days later, an NOPD officer crashed into a utility pole on St. Charles Avenue knocking out power for approximately 1000 residents. In what way is this progress?

We can look also at the several law enforcement agencies currently operating in New Orleans outside of the federal mandates. This week the 5th Circuit is hearing a case about two private patrol officers who held a teenager at gunpoint after he asked them for help looking for his lost dog. And, of course, many concerns remain about the newly installed State Troop NOLA.

U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, who oversees reforms to the New Orleans Police Department under a consent decree, has expressed concern over the new troop’s role in the city and LSP’s transparency about it, though she has no direct say over how troopers operate within city limits.

Landry insisted Tuesday that officials had consulted with the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI regarding its activities and that troopers in New Orleans have acted “in the most professional manner.”

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has been investigating the LSP to assess whether it uses excessive force or engages in racially discriminatory policing in the wake of the 2019 death of Ronald Greene.

All of which leads us to ask: if we have clear examples of police with no oversight behaving badly in New Orleans right now, why would we want to operate NOPD with no restrictions as well? The only answer we can come up with is politics. Morgan is a federal judge and certainly doesn't have to jump whenever the local electeds say jump. But, after a while, even the least credible bullying, like the Governor calling for her impeachment, starts to get the point across. Likely there is additional pressure from all business and political leaders in all corners wanting to get this all wrapped up now that the "Summer of Superbowl" is here.

The way the T-P writes it, you'd think the whole thing is just one big marketing challenge, anyway.

The contrast in tone, tenor and verbiage — optimism in the courtroom among deputy police chiefs, Morgan and the monitors, while community voices drip with skepticism — suggests a challenge in selling the public on the idea that the NOPD is ready to police itself.

"We want Black people to be acknowledged, because it was Black people who were maimed and murdered, who got the consent decree put in place," said Alicia Plummer, vice president of the New Orleans East Business Association.

"Who is speaking for us?...The police and federal monitors, they're in cahoots together."

Is NOPD "ready to police itself?" Not anywhere near as important as, "can we sell the public on the idea?"

What did John Bel know and when did he know it?

We've been waiting a long time to find out. We may have to wait a lot longer.  

Gov. John Bel Edwards has declined to testify Monday before a special legislative committee probing the 2019 death of Ronald Greene at the hands of Louisiana State Police troopers and an alleged coverup.

In a letter Thursday to the committee, Edwards’ executive counsel, Tina Vanichchagorn, cited short notice and scheduling conflicts that include an out-of-town event.

Technically the House now has the power to subpoena the Governor and compel him to testify.  They don't seem eager to break the seal on that, though.

What did John Bel know and when did he know it?

Maybe the feds will find out.  

Top U.S. Justice Department officials from Louisiana and Washington, D.C. are scheduled to appear at an 11 a.m. news conference in Baton Rouge today to announce “the opening of a civil rights investigation.”

A news release did not specify the nature of the investigation, only that it involves Louisiana. Speculation in legal circles surrounded a possible federal pattern-or-practice probe into Louisiana State Police. All three U.S. attorneys from Louisiana are scheduled to appear, along with Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the DOJ's civil rights division.

The Legislative Black Caucus and other critics for months have clamored for a wide-ranging federal probe into constitutional policing at the state’s premier law enforcement agency, after grim details of the fatal May 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene and allegations of a coverup became public last year. 

What did John Bel know and when did he know it?

And now the fun begins.

Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, described a recent Associated Press report which revealed that Gov. John Bel Edwards knew about the violent, fatal arrest of a Black man by Louisiana State Police long before the details of the arrest went public “greatly disturbing.” 

Schexnayder said in a written statement that he had talked to Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, and Attorney General Jeff Landry over the weekend about the report on Edwards, though he didn’t say what the three Republicans might do in response.

Instead, he alluded to a possible legislative investigation or impeachment, saying the Legislature was fully prepared to use its authority to serve as “check and balance to other branches.”

“What happened to Ronald Greene is inexcusable and should never happen to anyone. His family and the citizens of this state deserve to know the truth,” Schexnayder said.

“It’s time to find out who knew what – and when – and hold them accountable,” he said.

Of course, Schexnayder, Cortez and Landry are all pandering hypocrites who have zero interest in preventing police violence or even, I would venture to say, justice for the Greene family.  But the interesting thing about this will be the response from the various Democrats and JBE allies around the state who, in rallying around the Governor, will find themselves on the side of our racist and murderous state police and, by extension, the racist and murderous criminal justice system overall.

Not that most of them will have much of a problem with that.  After all the general consensus among our elite politicos of either party is very much in favor of more unaccountable police violence and a more violent and brutal system of legal punishment overall.  It makes little difference whether that position is arrived at through white supremacy or through an individualist belief that poverty is a personal shame deserving of its consequences, or through fealty to the oligarch class interested in keeping workers disciplined.  It all leads everyone who is anyone in politics and media to just about the same place. 

And so if these Republicans end up going hard after John Bel, the battle lines on either side will be about partisanship rather than anything resembling a moral principle.  Either way, don't expect any of it to alter the regime of state violence most of us are subjected to in Louisiana. 

What did John Bel know and when did he know it?

 It's looking more and more like the Governor deliberately covered up this murder. 

What the governor knew, when he knew it and what he did have become questions in a federal civil rights investigation of the deadly encounter and whether police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers who arrested Greene.

“The question is: When did he find out the truth?” said Sen. Cleo Fields, a Baton Rouge Democrat who is vice-chair of a legislative committee created last year to dig into complaints of excessive force by state police.

The FBI has questioned people in recent months about Edwards’ awareness of various aspects of the case, according to law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe. Investigators have focused in part on an influential lawmaker saying the governor downplayed the need for a legislative inquiry.

The governor’s spokesperson said he is not under investigation and neither is any member of his staff.

Edwards kept quiet about the Greene case through his reelection campaign in 2019 and through a summer of protests in 2020 over racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Even after Greene’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit that brought attention to the case in late 2020, Edwards declined to characterize the actions of the troopers and refused calls to release their body-camera video, citing his concern for not interfering with the federal investigation.

You may have noticed also that the city of New Orleans is the throes of yet another mass panic over crime stoked by the media and by political leaders who are thrilled as ever to ride the wave of pubic hysteria but have nothing but the same old counterproductive responses to offer.  This week at city council we saw politicians demand  more cops, tougher cops, cops who will stop and frisk you if your car looks a little dirty, cops who will put you in jail for marijuana possession.  The same politicians have also called for an end to consent decree and its requirements that police at least appear as though they mean to act in accordance with the constitution.  Or, failing that, they have called for more policing by entities not bound by that restriction. One councilmember even suggested calling in the National Guard.  The State Police are already here a lot of the time, of course.  

All of this can only increase the danger to New Orleanians.  But it's clear from the statements of the local leaders, and the actions of the Govenor, that none of them actually care about any of that.

"If any"

Page Cortez sure sounds fired up about taking steps to deal with our out of control State Police force next spring.  That is, "if any" need to be taken.  They might just wait and see what the Superintendent can find out about that first.

Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, named the committee of four Republicans and three Democrats with a goal of delivering a report by Oct. 31. Foil said he hopes to get a report ready prior to the Legislature returning in March of its regular legislative session.

“The creation of this oversight committee came about at the request of Senate members in order to find out what the agency has learned over the last few years, what they have done to change their policies and what, if any, bills that may need to be filed in the upcoming session in order to improve our agency,” Cortez said.

Davis said he started with a top-to-bottom review conducted internally. He discontinued that review and went to find outside analysts to oversee the report. He hopes to sign the contract early next year and have a definitive report before the end of 2022.

Yeah that report might take a while. I mean.. there's a lot to review. 

An AP review of internal investigative records and newly obtained videos identified at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which Louisiana State Police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.

AP's review — coming amid a widening federal investigation into state police misconduct — found troopers have made a habit of turning off or muting body cameras during pursuits. When footage is recorded, the agency routinely refuses to release it. And a recently retired supervisor who oversaw a particularly violent clique of troopers told internal investigators this year that it was his "common practice" to rubber-stamp officers' use-of-force reports without reviewing body-camera video.

In some cases, troopers omitted uses of force such as blows to the head from official reports, and in others troopers sought to justify their actions by claiming suspects were violent, resisting or escaping, all of which were contradicted by video footage.

"Hyper-aggressiveness is winked upon and nodded and allowed to go on," said Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief and use-of-force expert who reviewed videos obtained by AP. "It's very clear that the agency accepts that type of behavior."

So okay we'll wait until all that gets sorted to see "if any bills need to be filed."   OR Davis also floated this idea instead. 

With 924 troopers on staff, Davis said he needs 200 more to decrease the amount of work individuals have to do. “We are expecting them to do more with less,” he said.

Because sure maybe what we've got right now is a 1000 strong armed death squad acting with what appears to be complete impunity. But, hear me out, what if we had 200 more of them?

What are they there to "assist" with?

The reason the State Police are so valuable (in the mayor's estimation) in policing the French Quarter is they are allowed to get away with more.

But the proceedings opened a window into the disparate rule books governing the State Police and the New Orleans Police Department. The NOPD is subject to a strict federal consent decree that forbids racial profiling and allows officers to make investigatory stops only when they have "reasonable suspicion that a person has been, is, or is about to be engaged in the commission of a crime."

The State Police began patrolling the French Quarter on a regular basis in 2014 following a high-profile shooting on Bourbon Street that killed one woman and wounded nine people. Since then, troopers have assisted the NOPD in seizing weapons and drugs and investigated a host of other crimes at a time when the NOPD has struggled to recruit new officers.

"We were never told not to do our job," Edmonson said in a recent deposition. City officials, he added, "clearly knew what we brought to the table" when they requested assistance patrolling the French Quarter. 

There is an expectation right now that the NOPD consent decree may be coming to an end soon. At which time they can go back to doing their own bullying and harassing of citizens without consequence and the State Police "assistance" is likely to end. 

Hotel Edmonson

Trip Advisor: The amenities are pretty ok. But for such an exclusive establishment,  we expected a bit more. The gym and the pool are pretty nice but lack the "wow" factor of something like,  say, the lazy river over on the LSU campus. On the other hand, we were really impressed with the service.

Among the allegations Edmonson faces is that, unlike previous superintendents, he moved his family into the State Police compound and lived there rent-free for nine years — a benefit that the state apparently did not report to the Internal Revenue Service.

State auditors recently found that the Edmonsons lived off inmate labor, making use of trusties who cooked, cleaned and even walked the family dog at the colonel's residence. The questionable use of state resources included the construction of a shoe closet for Edmonson's wife.

All in all we would probably book again. You can't beat the rates anywhere. Next time we'll look into one of these excursion packages.

Other regular guests included Senior Trooper Thurman D. Miller and Lt. Derrell Williams, both of whom were disciplined this year for taking a circuitous "side trip" to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon as they drove across the country to attend a law enforcement conference in California.

While the base rates are gratis, you might still want to bring a credit card along for incidentals.  We can help you find one with a favorable payment schedule.

Citizens On Patrol

Sure was a wacky Police Academy movie. 

Several dozen civilians would be trained in some police duties, paid and deployed to the French Quarter and adjacent areas under a plan that Mayor Mitch Landrieu made public Thursday.

The patrol cops — who would be unarmed and have no arrest powers — would assume traffic control and other non-emergency duties to free up sworn New Orleans police officers to focus on more serious crimes, according to a summary prepared by the Mayor’s Office.

Landrieu’s office is calling the plan NOLA Patrol.

“We’d like to fast-track this,” Stephen Perry, president and chief executive officer of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, said Thursday when asked about the plan. “The response we’re getting from the tourism industry has been very positive. We want to have a cleaner and safer French Quarter for tourists and residents.”

Wait.  Why is Stephen Perry talking to us about a law enforcement initiative?  Because, The Citizens On Patrol Temp Police will be paid by the hotels.  

The funds for NOLA Patrol would not come from the cash-strapped city budget but from a special levy that New Orleans hotels began assessing on themselves April 1 to market the city, under a 2013 law passed by the Legislature.

The self-assessment adds 1.75 percent to a hotel bill, with the proceeds going to the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

One-seventh of that assessment, or 0.25 percent of the hotel bill, would go to the city for NOLA Patrol. That money — estimated to be about $2.5 million per year — would be used to hire 50 “ground patrol officers” and pay for 12 new vehicles.

While the city would not provide the money for NOLA Patrol, the City Council would decide how to spend it under a cooperative endeavor agreement that Perry expects the visitors bureau to sign in the next week.

It says that the Citizens On Patrol will be unarmed but I think it might be fun to at least let them borrow the snow camouflage.. at least on special occasions.  Maybe during Christmastime they can go around caroling in historical garb.  They are tourism employees after all.  Law enforcement for and by a coalition of private businesses with heavy political influence sounds totally constitutionally legit.  I feel safer already.

It certainly can't get any scarier than the State Police hanging around past Labor Day. 

NEW ORLEANS - This summer Governor Bobby Jindal approved 50 extra Louisiana State Troopers to help patrol the streets of New Orleans through Labor Day weekend.

State and city officials now confirm the additional manpower will be sticking around well past the September 1 deadline.

You've likely observed the extra blue uniforms and hats patrolling the French Quarter, Marigny, Central Business District, and other tourist attractions across the city. The additional manpower was approved by  Jindal at the Landrieu Administration's request.

They don't get to wear snow camo either, I guess.

But they are pretty good at fudging the details when people in their custody are mysteriously shot so it's no surprise they're welcome to stay.  But after a while, we should probably get them trained up on taking room reservations. Just so they know who they're working for.