The policing racket

The various law enforcement agencies who do drug interdiction in Louisiana are a government backed crime syndicate.

A former narcotics officer pleaded guilty Thursday to federal drug charges, admitting he stole cash and cocaine while serving on a New Orleans-based U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force.

The officer, Johnny J. Domingue, a former Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office deputy, has emerged as a key witness in a misconduct investigation that has roiled the DEA's New Orleans field division and affected dozens of state and local drug cases.

The U.S. Justice Department has accused several members of the DEA task force of shaking down witnesses, dealing drugs and swiping cash during federal raids. Four former members of the group, which operated largely along the Interstate 12 corridor, face federal charges.

Here is where we refer you again to Ethan Brown's investigation into the exact same pattern in Jeff Davis Parish. Also see the general recurring pattern of abuse in Sheriff's departments all over the state. It's critical that people understand the scope of this. It's not just bad apples here and there. It's systemic and it's getting worse.

In Trump times, the sheriffs are all the more emboldened in using immigration and drug enforcement as a pretext to garner federal support for their various rackets.  They also receive a substantial amount of support from elected  rodeo clowns like John Kennedy.

During a hearing in the Judiciary Committee Thursday, Kennedy not only voted against a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill sponsored by fellow Republican Charles Grassley. He also took the opportunity to make several cynically misleading claims about a similar state effort, which was also bipartisan but was backed by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, whom Kennedy may challenge next year.

Kennedy claimed Edwards pushed the laws without consulting Louisiana's sheriffs and district attorneys, even though there were prolonged negotiations with district attorneys and no governor has been closer to sheriffs than Edwards. For the record, both prosecutors and sheriffs were represented on the Louisiana Justice Reinvestment Task Force, the group that drafted the bills.

Yeah we all know John is probably running for Governor.  So let's not take his comments all that seriously.  Otherwise we'd have to ask if he remembers just how watered down last year's sentencing reforms ended up being in the first place.  There was a whole fight over it in the legislature when certain Republicans threw a fit.

But (State Rep Sherman) Mack said he intends to push for amendments that would remove the retroactivity from the bills, meaning they wouldn't apply to anyone currently in prison. He also said he wants to get rid of the changes that could shorten sentences for first-time inmates convicted of violent offenses.

"The victim was told they would do a certain amount of time," Mack said.

Oh yeah, Sherman Mack. Remember that guy? What's he up to now? Oh hey, here he is. Turns out he is the lawyer who just got that crooked Sheriff's deputy his plea deal.  Neat.

"Johnny wants to move on with his life," defense attorney Sherman Mack said outside of U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon's courtroom. "He is ready to have this behind him." 

Okay, Sherman, but please remember that the victims of the corrupt law enforcement apparatus were expecting the guy might do a certain amount of time.