Louisiana Voice

Today’s lesson, class, is on double standards.

Oh, but where to begin?

For openers, let’s go back to February 2018 when Fox News host and resident bigot (I’m sorry, Fox News has so many bigots that again, it’s a question of where to begin) LAURA INGRAHAM said of NBA star LeBron James, now with the Los Angeles Lakers but then with the Cleveland Cavaliers, should “shut up and dribble.”

For some unknown reason, National Public Radio referred to Ingraham as a “journalist.” Right, and I’m Walter Alston, based on my 10 years coaching a sandlot baseball team that won exactly one championship – while I was on my honeymoon – or better yet, Robin Williams, based on my 15 years as (emcee) emcee of a local comedy club with exactly one actual tour under my belt.

I’m not sure where Laura Ingraham gets off saying James was unqualified to speak out on political and social issues and to add insult to injury by saying he was “barely intelligible” and “ungrammatical.” This from a “journalist” who supports a president who routine butchers the English language with words like “bigly” and “Yo -somite” and who has difficulty speaking in complete sentences.

Perhaps Ingraham should just shut up because I certainly question her qualifications to speak on issues of national importance.

But at the end of the day (as Bobby Jindal was fond of saying), that is her right and I support that right. I do not support her right to tell others to shut up just because they happen to be athletes.

That’s why I support the right of sheriffs to support whichever candidate for president he or she chooses – but I do question the reasoning behind the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association’s ENDORSEMENT of Donald Trump.

Setting aside the fact that it was the first presidential endorsement in the association’s history, the assertion of Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard that “President Trump has repeatedly sided with law and order” is somewhat dubious at best. In reality (and that word is fitting for this president), Trump is anything but a “law and order” president. He has flaunted just about norm of law and order on the books, from obstruction of justice through his lap dog attorney general William Barr to open violations of the emoluments clause to cheating workers and students at his “university” to defaulting on multi-million-dollar bank loans.

Why the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association would want to align itself with such an obvious law-breaker, one who openly insults the leaders of Canada, England and Germany while snuggling up to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and one who defiantly pardons convicted criminals and former office holders who violate their oaths of office is simply beyond my comprehension.

This is a man who, instead of trying to calm the waters of unrest in our cities, only fans the flames of discontent, division and destruction. That’s not “law and order” in anyone’s book.

Ard went to say, “The men and women who choose to serve and protect across our great country know we have a proven leader in Donald J. Trump.”

Really? And just how has he “proven” his leadership? Certainly not in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. has now lost more lives to COVID-19 than any other country on the planet. Certainly not in building that damned wall. Despite his claims that 300 miles of wall have been constructed, not one foot of wall has actually been constructed. About 30 miles have been repaired, but that’s not constructed. And what happened to that promise that Mexico would pay for it?

For that matter, what happened to promises to bring manufacturing jobs back to America, that the country’s infrastructure would be upgraded? No “leadership” as far as I can see. He even lied about signing a veterans’ bill that was actually signed in 2014 by Barack Obama. He lied about economic recover when in fact, he inherited a strong economy from Obama and simply rode the momentum from the previous administration until the coronavirus turned everything on its head.

Thank God the sheriffs of this state have not followed the example of Trump by conducting law enforcement via twitter.

It seems somewhat hypocritical for the sheriffs’ association to falling back on the argument of “law and order” in supporting Trump when the association has done a pretty pitiful job of keeping its own house in order.

• Where was the sheriffs’ association during the reign of terror perpetrated by former Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal? No one heard a peep out of the association while African American prisoners were dying in Ackal’s custody, one of whom somehow managed to shoot himself in the chest while his hands were cuffed behind him.
• Where was the sheriffs’ association when former Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter was raiding the home of a local blogger because he didn’t like what the blogger said about him?
• Where was the sheriffs’ association when Sheriff D.J. “Cat” Doucet was running whorehouses in St. Landry Parish?
• Where was the sheriffs’ association while three consecutive sheriffs in St. Helena Parish were being carted off to prison?
• Where was the sheriffs’ association while Sheriff Bodie Little was helping his girlfriend run drugs up in Winn Parish?
• Where was the sheriffs’ association when Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee was cavorting with Carlos Marcello down at Grand Isle?
• Where was the sheriffs’ Association while innocent motorists driving through Louisiana on I-10 were pulled over by the Jefferson Davis Sheriff’s Department and their cars and cash subjected to asset forfeiture?
• Where was the sheriffs’ association when the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office was pulling people in off the street and holding them illegally without benefit of a phone call or consultation with an attorney – and without a warrant – in a campaign of intimidation in attempts to gain information from people who were not suspects in any crime?
• Where was the sheriffs’ association when St. Barnard Parish Sheriff was running his con? Sheriff Jack Stephens was a co-owner of Amigo Enterprises which was leasing a marina from the Arlene & Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation for $1,700 per month. After its disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf, BP needed the marina as a staging point for recovery operations, so Stephens sub-leased the marina to BP for (brace yourself) $1.1 million per month.
• Where was the sheriffs’ association when St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain was running his private prison scam involving a deputy? Or when he was subsequently arrested for rape and incest?

And while I’m aware that the sheriffs’ association doesn’t police its members, it can – and should – advise them and issue strong position statements when members go astray. All the foregoing examples of ethical, moral and legal lapses on the part of Louisiana sheriffs – and more – can be found in my book Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption. (You can order a signed copy of the book for $30 by clicking on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post).

Yet, the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association has seen fit to endorse Donald Trump as the “law and order” candidate.

Not included in my book is the case of DENNIS PERKINS, who headed up the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Department SWAT team because the story of Perkins and his schoolteacher wife, Cynthia Perkins didn’t break until after publication of the book.

Perkins and his wife were arrested and booked on multiple counts of child pornography, rape, sexual relations with a dog, and various other charges.

The one who vouched for and recommended that Perkins be hired by the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Department?

That would be then-deputy Jason Ard, now sheriff and president of the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association.