Louisiana Voice

For a show-and-tell presentation, Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis’s Friday afternoon press conference called ostensibly to address problems and to explain reforms to the agency rated a C at best.

For substance. a grade of D- would be more appropriate.

For almost a full hour, Davis mechanically read through policy changes implemented at LSP in the wake of the beating death of Ronald Greene and the non-fatal beating of another Black man in LSP’s north Louisiana black hole, aka Troop F.

Davis then took questions for about half-an-hour from the gathered media but generally danced around all the questions with the basic denials of published reports stemming from the Greene matter and the usual promises of diversity, accountability and transparency.

With recent local TV reports of Lt. John Clary’s perk duty last week as body guard for Louisiana Tech University football coach Skip Holtz during the team’s game at Starkville, Mississippi swirling in my head, I wanted so badly to ask the following question:

With Division I Louisiana college football coaches surrounded by 85 beefy scholarship players, plus any non-scholarship players, why do they need a Louisiana State Trooper tagging along for protection, especially since those TV reports also showing two local Ruston city police officers including in Holtz’s “protection” detail?

Instead, I asked if that Clary body cam video of the Greene beating, which we were told didn’t exist until it was revealed in May of this year that it did, in fact, exist, was the only video available of the incident that led to Greene’s death.

Davis paused for a moment before admitting that it was not the only video.

That was an important admission because LouisianaVoice published a story almost exactly one year ago (Sept. 12, 2020) in which a RETIRED STATE TROOPER told of seeing “part of the video” and “overheard part of the conversation” of LSP personnel as they reviewed the video. “There were several troopers in the room as I walked past. Any time there’s lethal-force death, it’s pushed up the chain of command,” he told LouisianaVoice. “They were talking about something being wrong.”

At the time that story ran – 16 months after Greene’s death – LSP had yet to acknowledge publicly that there was any ongoing investigation and it wasn’t until after we ran that story that any disciplinary action was taken.

So, while all the hoopla has been about the late “discovery” of the Clary video, LSP already had another video of the event at least a year ago but it wasn’t until the Clary video was leaked in May this year that all hell broke loose.

But Davis, true to the so-called Blue Wall of Silence, stood before electronic and print media on Friday and proclaimed that the LSP investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Clary’s denial of the existence of video for two full years.

That prompted one local TV reporter present at the press conference to ask rhetorically after the event, “If it wasn’t Clary’s fault that the video wasn’t produced, whose fault was it?”

To be fair, Davis is in a tough spot. He was not superintendent when Greene and OTHER MINORITIES were beaten senseless by Troop F troopers. Kevin Reeves, formerly of Troop F, was head of State Police at that time.

But in spite of his best intentions, his performance on Friday was less than inspiring as he laid out his plans to improve the public perception of Louisiana State Police, especially in the manner in which minorities are dealt with.

The only thing missing was a Power Point presentation, but he even made a stab at that with a screen showing steps he has made for the department since October 2020:

• Expanded the Use of Force Policy, including a ban on chokeholds, a ban on the use of impact weapons to the head or neck area, and a mandate to carry a “less-lethal option.”
• Implemented a Duty to Intervene Policy and enhanced accountability in the Body Worn Camera Policy.
• Mandated Implicit Bias Training and developing de-scalation training for all personnel.
• Initiated administrative investigations regarding allegations of misconduct to ensure accountability immediately after learning of an incident.
• Increased accountability in Use of Force reporting, and video evidence revies process (and) continuing to prescribe discipline and accountability consistently, fairly and equitably throughout the agency.
• Updated the Pursuit Policy to outline the provision for ramming which is prohibited except where deadly force is authorized to save lives.
• Continued promotion and expansion of the Trooper and Employee Assistance Program to support the mental health of (LSP) personnel and ensure operational readiness in the field.
• Establishing a program designed to standardize the release of critical information as soon as possible (body worn camera and in-car camera footage).

All of which begs the question of why weren’t these reforms implemented years ago?

The controversy with Troop F isn’t new. In 2005, during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it was F-Troopers who dragged New Orleans attorney Ashton O’Dwyer from his home right after the storm even though his residence was untouched by the hurricane and took him to a holding pen where he was shot with bean bags, sprayed with pepper spray and beaten.

The physical abuse left O’Dwyer in such an agitated mental state that it eventually cost him his partnership in a prestigious New Orleans law firm. LSP has never acknowledged its part or accepted any responsibility for ruining the man’s career, his livelihood, and his marriage – his very life.

State Police Investigator Albert Paxton said in his report that Trooper Chris Hollingsworth turned off his body camera before the beating that lead to Greene’s death but when he said Hollingsworth should be charged with obstruction, LSP leadership blocked him from pursuing the charge, again conjuring images of that Blue Wall of Silence.

But now, things are going to be better.

Col. Lamar Davis said so.

(Editor’s note: As this was being editing for posting, a story came through indicating that U.S. Rep. Troy Carter has written a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice in which he is seeking a federal investigation of LSP misconduct. You can read the letter by clicking HERE.)