Louisiana Voice

Well, it took only seven years, a pack of lies, an incredible, incredulous attempt at a clumsy, coverup, fumbled prosecutions of the perpetrators, no telling how much in legal fees, the empaneling of a legislative investigative committee that we said would do nothing (and we were right) for the Louisiana State Police (LSP) and the Louisiana Attorney General’s (AG) office to finally admit legal responsibility in the Ronald Greene matter.

Did I mention coverup? That, of course, is always—ALWAYS—the tactic of choice in official misconduct and it seldom works, and in the end, didn’t in this case.

But covering up its mistakes is what LSP seems to do best, aided and abetted by a reluctant governor’s office, an INEPT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, recalcitrant state troopers and an indifferent legislature—the same indifference, by the way, to the fate of its Black citizens as is presently being shown by the legislature in its redistricting fiasco.

Now we learn that the state has reached an agreement with the Greene family to SETTLE A CIVIL WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT over the beating death—after criminal prosecutions flopped miserably—for $4.85 million.

As bad as the Greene beating and subsequent death was, it was FAR FROM AN ISOLATED INCIDENT involving State Troopers and Black motorists.

For years, former Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Jim Mustian (he’s now with Associated Press) and I dogged LSP for public records of incidents involving misconduct of LSP officers and leaders, from troopers engaging in sex in their patrol cars while on duty to troopers attempting to sneak an underage woman (not his wife) into a Mississippi casino illegally to beatings of Black motorists to taking state vehicles to San Diego with a side trip to Vegas and the Hoover Dam to falsification of records and cheating on time sheets to making illegal contributions to political campaigns.

Through it all, LSP officials were unapologetic and, in many cases, downright arrogant about it all, never once showing any evidence of remorse.

The crowning blow came almost exactly seven years ago, on May 10, 2019, when five state troopers and a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy beat, kicked, choked and tased a handcuffed and unresisting Ronald Greene until the life literally left his body. That was followed by the coverup in which LSP delayed investigating the incident for more than a year, insisting all the while there was no body cam footage of the event. That was a lie.

State police also informed Greene’s mother that he had died as the result of his car striking a tree at the conclusion of a chase that began in Ouachita Parish and ended in adjacent Union Parish. Another lie. The “accident” was when his vehicle simply brushed a tree, causing no extensive damage to his car. Troopers then dragged A STLL VERY MUCH ALIVE and apologetic Greene from his vehicle where they began working him over physically even as he begged for his life.

So much for that lie. Then, miraculously, A BODY CAM VIDEO SURFACED —nearly two years after the incident and denials of the video’s existence. Another lie debunked.

The entire sordid Greene affair, it seems, is a microcosm of how video evidence seems to be nonexistent—UNTIL IT SUDDENLY APPEARS—and how JUSTICE IS ADMINISTERED in Louisiana.

One thing has changed at LSP, however, and it certainly isn’t for the better. When Mustian, Robert Burns and I initially set out on our separate but dogged investigations of LSP, public records were relatively easy to obtain (with the exception of that trooper and the underage girl in the Vicksburg casino; the LSP document was so heavily redacted as to be useless. I had to travel to Jackson for an unredacted copy of the report).

Today, obtaining public records from LSP is worse than the proverbial pulling of teeth. A public records request is met with an automatic reply that an official response could take up to 45 days. Of course, when one is writing on a deadline, a wait of 45 days is tantamount to an outright denial. Then, to add insult to injury, LSP conveniently “forgets” about the request so that the 45 days pass with on response.

Such is the evolution of the spirit of cooperation from the agency charged with protecting Louisiana’s citizens.