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DOJ Accuses Louisiana State Police Of Using Excessive Force

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The Louisiana State Police (LSP) for years has used excessive force during arrests and vehicle pursuits, a statewide pattern of misconduct that places the public at “serious risk of harm,” said a scathing report released Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department, the Associated Press reports. A broad civil rights inquiry, announced in 2022 following an Associated Press investigation, found troopers’ use of stun guns “particularly concerning,” and that troopers have used force on people who “do not pose a threat or a flight risk,” often because they are restrained. It cited “systemic failures in supervision” and “chronic underreporting of force.” “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 file 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, La.


Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, blasted the report as an attempt “to diminish the service and exceptionality of LSP.” “We will not let that happen,” he said. “The reputation of our men and women in blue is one of respect, admiration and appreciation, and we will always have their back.” Col. Robert Hodges, the state police superintendent, told troopers in an internal email that the “isolated incidents” highlighted in the report “are not a fair assessment of today’s Louisiana State Police or our agency’s incredibly proud history and culture.” The “pattern-or-practice” inquiry followed AP reporting that found Greene’s arrest was among at least a dozen cases in which state troopers and their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct in the agency. In one case, a white trooper pummeled a Black man 18 times with a flashlight after a traffic stop, leaving him with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head. The state police withheld body-camera footage of Greene’s death for two years, but the AP published it in 2021. The video showed troopers swarming Greene even as he appeared to raise his hands, plead for mercy and wail, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!” Troopers repeatedly jolted Greene with stun guns before he could even get out of the car, with one of them wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face.

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