Louisiana Voice

Law and Order isn’t just the name of a popular, long-running NBC cop show. It is a catchy three-word campaign slogan employed by every candidate for judge, district attorney and higher, all the way to and including president of the United States.

It’s a subject that resonates with voters and politicians who want to get themselves elected had better be quick to jump on board lest they be labeled as weak on crime.

Clay Higgins is certainly no exception as evidence by those cheesey VIDEOS he made while still employed as a low-level public relations director o the St. Landry Sheriff’s Office long before he ever ran for office. Seeing him decked out in his S.W.A.T. digs, you’d be excused for thinking that he was a legitimate tough guy willing and able to take on the world’s crime element single-handedly. The truth is a bit different, according to an article published by MOTHER JONESon Friday that paints a slightly different picture of the CAJUN JOHN WAYNE wannabe. He even took on the NFL over the issue of players kneeling during the National Anthem.

But not everyone who supposedly represents law and order actually lives by that credo:

• In Iowa, a 15-year-old girl accompanied officer Alec Veatch on a ride-along and upon returning to the police station around 2 a.m. Veatch, 24, sexually assaulted her in the station interview room – on camera. His punishment was 14 days in jail.
• Another 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by Joseph Palmer, a police officer in York, Pennsylvania. He was sentenced to probation. At least six other Pennsylvania police officers were similarly given only probation for sexual abuse of minors.
• Closer to home, New Orleans police officer Rodney Vicknair, 53, convinced a 14-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted to go with him to the hospital for a rape kit. Instead, Vicknair himself sexually assaulted her. He would ultimately die in prison and the city of New Orleans would be hit with a million-dollar payout to the victim.
• David Higgins, 44, was a school resource officer in Kansas when he impregnated a 15-year-old sophomore.
• A Washington Post investigation found that no fewer than 1,800 state and local law enforcement officers were charged with child sexual abuse from 2005 through 2022. Almost 40 percent of those actually convicted never served a day in jail.
• Marc Dody was a Troy, Missouri, police officer when he was charged with statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl and was given a six-year sentence. He served only two years before being released. Within three months of his 2020 release, he was charged with sexually abusing another child. He was convicted in 2023, sentenced and released again in May 2024.

Many times, cops guilty of criminal activity AVOID JAIL TIME ALTOGETHER.

Slate was blunter and more to the point, calling sexual abuse of minors by cops THE QUIET EPIDEMIC OF PREDATORS IN UNIFORMS.

Nor is the abuse limited to cops.

• Tim Campbell, a Kentucky judge active in Republican politics, pleaded guilty in 2018 to 21 counts of rape, human trafficking, witness tampering, prostitution, unlawful transaction with a minor and sodomy. He received a 20-year sentence.
• In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, two judges, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were caught up in the “kids for cash” scandal in which they literally sold as many as 2,400 juveniles into a pair of privately-run youth homes in exchange for nearly $3 million in kickbacks. Conahan was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison and Ciavarella received a 28-year sentence.

Accordingly, all those pronouncements of “law and order” by political candidates should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Take Friday’s Mother Jones article about Higgins, for example.

The story noted that Higgins, who may be planning a U.S. Senate run in 2026 against incumbent Bill Cassidy, is a biking buddy of another “law and order” proponent, Leon Boudreaux, himself a former law enforcement officer convicted of a sex crime against a juvenile in New Mexico.

That story was also reported by a Lafayette TELEVISION STAION and the Lafayette DAILY ADVERTISER.

Then there is Jerod Prunty, another former cop buddy of Higgins, who was cited in the Mother Jones article. In 2019, he was arrested along with 19 others suspected of operating a sex-trafficking ring involving Chinese women who were reportedly forced to live in and perform sex acts at local massage parlors.

Still, Higgins puts on a public face of no-nonsense law and order, advocating severe punishment for offenders.

The ultimate irony? Higgins is expected to win reelection easily on November 5, making the constituents of his district (Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District) as the collective butts of a cruel joke.

Clay Higgins, second from right, clasps hands with former constable Leon Boudreaux. (Mother Jones)

Kindred Vets, the biker club founded by Leon Boudreaux (center). Clay Higgins is at front left. (Mother Jones)