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Resource ID: #29048
Subject: State Police Violence
Source: Jim Mustian, Jake Bleiberg
Affiliation: The Associated Press
Date: 2021-12-23

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Description

The Associated Press revealed a pattern of violence against mostly Black motorists that the Louisiana State Police had kept shrouded in secrecy, and exposed the culture of impunity, nepotism and in some cases outright racism that fostered it. AP identified at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct. These reports featured body-camera footage from several violent arrests that authorities had refused to release, including video showing troopers punching, dragging and stunning Ronald Greene before his in- custody death on a rural roadside. The footage contradicted the initial state police claim that Greene died in a car crash following a high-speed chase. Another video showed a trooper striking a Black man 18 times with a flashlight, and yet another showed troopers beating a Black motorist and hoisting him to his feet by his hair braids. The coverage also highlighted overt acts of racism by police, including troopers facing little or no discipline after they were caught forwarding racist emails or using slurs to demean colleagues. It also explained how nepotism and a “good ol’ boy” system infected decision making through the state police – a dynamic highlighted by the agency disregarding blaring warnings against hiring a top commander’s son who went on to be among the agency’s most violent troopers.
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