Louisiana Voice

While Attorney General Jeff Landry has been gearing up to oppose Gov. John Bel Edwards in the 2019 elections, there is another potential candidate who is making noise like a potential candidate and if he does run, it can only spell bad news for Landry.

You may remember his name.

Piyush, aka Bobby Jindal.

Before you laugh at the prospect of one with an approval rating hovering around 30 percent when he left office just over a year ago, remember that he is delusional even to the point of believing he was first, a viable candidate for President and later as Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education.

With Timmy Teepell whispering in his ear (for the big bucks he gets at Jindal’s alter-ego), it’s plausible that he actually believes he can waltz back into the governor’s mansion. And I, for one, am not about to discount his chances after my prediction the day Trump announced for president that he would “crash and burn in six weeks.”

For openers, it’s important to note that Jindal never disbanded his AMERICA NEXT 501(c)(4) conservative think tank formed in 2013 to boost his comical attempt to wrest the Republican presidential nomination from a host of presidential wannabes.

Though he has made no formal—or informal, for that matter—announcement that he has his eye on “the only job he ever wanted,” he is making what some observers might see as an attempt to put himself in Trump’s good graces.

Using America Next as his forum, Jindal on Friday launched an attack on critics of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education. And he got Politico’s help in spreading the word.

Jindal wrote the piece as if (a) he can ride the coattails of Trump (who may not even know who he is) in 2019 or as though (b) anyone cares. This is, after all, the same Jindal who never rose above 1 percent in Iowa, where his presidential campaign started—and died an anonymous death. He is the would-be Boy Blunder to Donald Trump’s Batty Man.

Jindal has never passed up an opportunity for shameless self-promotion, even when ostensibly supporting someone else. And, of course, he didn’t let us down this time when he wrote, “America Next is overseen by former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has also advocated for education reform. Before DeVos was picked for the post, Jindal had been mentioned as a possible contender.”

It’s highly likely that the only one to mention him as a “possible contender” was Jindal himself. It’s reminiscent of a man with whom I once worked who was constantly applying for jobs for which he held no qualifications. Invariably, he would announce to us at break that he was a lock for the job because “They accepted my application.”

Jindal somehow managed to get Politico, an Internet political news service, to post a story about a pro-DeVos ad campaign being launched by America Next.

In its story, Politico quoted America Next: “With education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos facing a rocky path to confirmation, a conservative group is launching a pair of scorched-earth TV ads defending her – and accusing her Democratic opponents of being ‘full of rage and hate.’”

Politico further quotes from America Next: “Why is the radical left so full of rage and hate? They still can’t accept that Trump won and they lost,” it says. “Now extreme liberals like Elizabeth Warren are trying to stop Betsy DeVos from becoming secretary of education.

“Why? DeVos angers the extreme left because she exposes their hypocrisy. DeVos wants low-income kids to have the same choices that liberal elitists have for their families. DeVos wants equal opportunity for all kids. That makes angry liberals even angrier.”

A second commercial accuses “Washington liberals” of opposing “giving low-income families the same education choices as everyone,” Politico wrote.

The group is spending more than $500,000 to air the commercials, which will begin running Friday morning on multiple networks nationwide.

The ads were created by Curt Anderson, a veteran strategist who has worked for Jindal and a number of prominent Republican politicians.

“Betsy has been very polite and deferential to these Democrat senators,” Jindal wrote in an email. “But we don’t have to.”

Tough talk from a guy who left office with such a dismal approval rating. But hey, he’s a tough guy. After all, eschewing rubber boots, he chose to wear his Hopalong Cassidy cowboy boots at the opening of the Foster Farms chicken processing plant in Farmerville while he was governor.

Oh, and at the end of the piece, there was the obligatory “Click Here to Donate” button. Preachers and politicians just can’t seem to get a message across without asking for money.

Joking aside, Jindal has the kind of ego that keeps him in a constant state of denial about his lack of achievements and low approval ratings—and the youth and kind of misplaced self-worth that would drive him to try to match Edwin Edwards at the state’s only four-time governor.

Now if he can just get Trump’s endorsement…

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“Hebert respectfully asks the court to stay the proceedings until the statute of limitations has run on any criminal charges that could be brought in connection with these matters.”

—Renee Culotta, attorney for former ATC Director Troy Hebert, in her Memorandum of Support of her Motion for Protective Order in the civil matter of former ATC agent Brett Tingle’s wrongful termination lawsuit against Hebert.

“Should he (Hebert) provide answers to these questions, he could face indictment and criminal prosecution.”

—Culotta, in that same memorandum.

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There was a program on ABC-TV last week that recognized the achievements of Black Americans. For the most part, it was a tribute to musicians like James Brown, Michael Jackson, et al.

President and First Lady Obama were in attendance at the event at the Lincoln Center in Washington and the show was quite entertaining, especially the part of the show featuring Brown.

But then actor Tom Hanks came onstage and recounted how, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, thousands of Black men, like their white counterparts, enlisted in the armed forces to help defend their homeland. For the most part, Hanks correctly pointed out, the Blacks were relegated to the role of cooks, truck drivers “and even grave diggers.”

But then, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against Blacks in the military and later, a group of Blacks were assigned to a special flight school for Black aviators at Tuskeegee Institute in Tuskeegee, Alabama. Thus was born the Red Tail Squadron which distinguished itself as bomber escorts. Incredible as it sounds, the Red Tails, so-named for the distinguishing red circles painted on the rudders of their P-51 Mustangs, had only seven bombers shot down of the 179 bombing escort missions flown, a number well below average.

Then Hanks, almost overcome, announced that the seven surviving members were in attendance and the crowd, as one, rose to its feet in one of the more memorable displays of raw emotion as the seven, one in a wheelchair and another on a walker, were brought onstage. http://atlantablackstar.com/2017/01/13/tuskegee-airmen-tribute-takingthestage-everyone-tears/ to America the Beautiful performed by a military choir as applause thundered and tears flowed freely.

Appropriately, Obama snapped off a salute to the airman and Retired Gen. Colin Powell strode onstage to personally salute them as a group and to embrace each one individually.

Sadly, in November, between the time of the show’s taping in September and its airing last week, the oldest of the seven, Willie Rogers, 101, died.

The point of this is a story that was related to me in West Monroe last night after I recounted the Lincoln Center tribute.

My cousin was active in the promotion of the former Selman Field Historical Association in Monroe and she told me about a World War II Selman Field navigator who managed to get his bomber pilot lost on his very first flight after training.

Literally thrown into combat immediately after flight school, he told of how he simply froze up and soon realized he had no idea of his coordinates as the pilot, frantically requested information from the navigator as they flew over North Africa. Finally, unable to rely on his navigator, the pilot put out an SOS.

There was immediate radio response and the pilot was directed to look for certain landmarks so that his location could be pinpointed. The strategy worked and the plane was eventually guided to a safe landing.

The plane was immediately surrounded by ambulance personnel and airmen who greeted the bomber crew with questions like “what battle were you in,” “how many wounded,” and other relevant question as they passed out ice cold beer to the bomber’s crew, ice being a rare delicacy in North Africa during the war.

Adding to the embarrassed navigator’s humiliation over getting his pilot lost, was the sudden realization that they were looking into the anxious faces of members of the legendary Tuskeegee Red Tails.

One of the bomber crew members replied, “Oh no, no casualties. We were just lost.”

“Give us back our beer,” came the disgusted response. As they did so, the Red Tails laughingly said they were joking and everyone managed a good chuckle at the situation that, with timely help from the Red Tails, turned out well for the rookie navigator and his fellow crewmen.

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The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department has delivered a stunning blow to the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Ville Platte Police Department in a scathing REPORT that may leave the door open to a flood of lawsuits against and criminal prosecution of the two departments for civil rights infringements through unconstitutional incarceration, intimidation and extortion.

The report’s findings also cast a cloud of legal doubt that could potentially taint an undetermined number of past criminal convictions that resulted from such practices.

In a blockbuster report dated Dec. 19, says in something of an understatement that a “thorough investigation” the Justice Department has concluded “that there is reasonable cause to believe that both the Ville Platte, Louisiana Police Department (VPPD) and the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office (EPSO) have engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct” that dates back “as far as anyone (at either department) can remember.”

The 17-page report went on to say, “Both VPPD and EPSO have arrested and held people in jail—without obtaining a warrant and without probable cause to believe that the detained individuals had committed a crime—in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.  We have additional concerns that these unconstitutional holds have led to coerced confessions and improper criminal convictions. These findings reflect the results of an investigation into both agencies, which have engaged in nearly identical practices within overlapping jurisdictional boundaries.”

The arrests, called “investigative holds,” were used routinely by both VPPD and EPSO as a part of their criminal investigations during which threats of continued wrongful incarceration were employed to induce arrestees to provide information. Authorities also threatened their family members and potential witnesses, the report said.

“The arrests include individuals suspected (without sufficient evidence) of committing crimes, as well as their family members and potential witnesses,” it said.

Other violations cited by the report included claims that individuals improperly arrested were:

• Strip-searched;
• Placed in holding cells without beds, toilets, or showers;
• Denied communication with family members and loved ones;
• Commonly detained for 72 hours or more without being provided an opportunity to contest their arrest and detention;
• Held and questioned until they either provide information or the law enforcement agency determines that they do not have information related to a crime.

The report further said there were “concerns that some people may have confessed to crimes or provided information sought by EPSO and VPPD detectives, apparently to end this secret and indefinite confinement.

It said that the practice is “routine at EPSO and VPPD” and that both agencies acknowledged that they used holds to investigate criminal activity for as long as anyone at the agency can remember. The number of holds used in recent years is “staggering.”

“Between 2012 and 2014, for example,” it said, “EPSO initiated over 200 arrests where the only documented reason for arrest was an investigative hold.  In that same period, VPPD used the practice more than 700 times.  The number of holds by EPSO and VPPD is likely even higher; both agencies use such rudimentary arrest documentation systems that the total number of arrests for investigative hold purposes is likely underreported.”

Following the onset of its investigation in April 2015, “leadership of VPPD, EPSO and the City of Ville Platte admitted that the holds are unconstitutional” and have taken steps to begin eliminating their use, the report says, adding that still more work “remains to be done.” The agencies’ policies, procedures, training, and data collection and accountability systems “must ensure that investigative holds are eliminated permanently,” it said, adding that local officials “must work to repair community trust, because many people may still be justifiably reluctant to provide information to law enforcement for fear that doing so could subject them to an unconstitutional detention.”

The report is the culmination of an investigation in which a cross-section of community residents, some of whom were subjected to the investigative holds.

“To gain additional information, we spoke with former FBI investigators and officials at the Louisiana State Office of the Inspector General who have interacted with Ville Platte and Evangeline Parish residents during their own investigations,” the report said. “Finally, we reviewed thousands of pages of documents, including City Jail booking logs, Parish Jail booking cards, and other records; probable cause affidavits; policy and procedure manuals; and more. This review highlighted that both EPSO and VPPD lack a consistent and detailed process for recording and tracking information about arrests, detentions, and interrogations.”

The Justice Department concluded that it found “reasonable cause to believe that both EPSO and VPPD engage in a pattern or practice of violating the Fourth Amendment by arresting and detaining individuals without probable cause.  Moreover, we have serious concerns that these agencies use holds to obtain coerced statements that taint the criminal convictions of the unlawfully detained individuals.

“This pattern or practice is widespread and longstanding throughout both agencies. Between January 2012 and December 2014, EPSO—an agency with four detectives that polices a jurisdiction populated by only 33,000 residents—listed “investigative hold” as the sole basis for over 200 arrests. During the same time period, VPPD arrested individuals on investigative holds more than 700 times while policing a jurisdiction of only 7,300 residents (10 percent of the city’s entire population). At least 30 of VPPD’s investigative hold arrests were of juveniles. The investigative hold practice violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, including arrests.  The United States is authorized to address a pattern or practice of Fourth Amendment violations under 42 U.S.C. § 14141, which grants the Department of Justice authority to bring suit for equitable and declaratory relief when a “governmental authority . . . engage[s] in a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers . . . that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”  42 U.S.C. § 14141. A pattern or practice exists where violations are repeated rather than isolated.”

Detectives from both agencies violated individuals’ Fourth Amendment when, “lacking probable cause, they instructed officers to ‘pick up’ an individual and ‘bring him in’ for questioning rather than making an ‘arrest,’” the report’s narrative said. “Indeed, there can be little doubt that the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause requirement applies where suspects are involuntarily taken to the police station. This practice subjects individuals to arrest and detention without cause and erodes the community trust that is critical to effective law enforcement in Evangeline Parish and Ville Platte.”

The investigative holds are made “without a warrant, without any showing that the testimony is essential and that obtaining it via subpoena is impracticable, and without any attempt to obtain prior judicial approval,” the report says.

“EPSO and VPPD officers have used unlawful investigative holds as a regular part of criminal investigations for more than two decades. Most holds operate as follows:

• When a detective at either agency wants to question someone in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation, the detective instructs a patrol officer to find that individual in the community and bring him or her in for questioning.
• The patrol officer commands the individual to ride in a patrol vehicle to either the City or Parish jail, where pursuant to the jail’s standard procedures, jail personnel strip-search the individual and place him or her in a holding cell (sometimes referred to as “the bullpen” at the Parish Jail) until a detective is available to conduct questioning.
• At the City Jail, there are two holding cells; both are equipped with a hard metal bench, and nothing else. Neither holding cell at the City Jail has a mattress, running water, shower, or toilet in the cell.
• The Parish Jail is similar; the “bullpen” is equipped with only a long metal bench, and the walls are made of metal grating. EPSO detectives and deputies refer to the process of detaining a person in the “bullpen” for questioning as “putting them on ice.”
• Investigative holds initiated by VPPD often last for 72 hours—and sometimes significantly longer—forcing detainees to spend multiple nights sleeping on a concrete floor or metal bench. Indeed, VPPD’s booking logs indicate that, from 2012-2014, several dozen investigative holds extended for at least a full week. During this time, VPPD exerts control over the detainees’ liberty: The detained person is not permitted to make phone calls to let family or employers know where they are, and have access to bathrooms and showers only when taken into the jail’s general population area.
• Similarly, EPSO’s investigative holds often last for three full days. During that time, detainees are forced to sleep on the Parish Jail’s concrete floor. One EPSO deputy reported that he saw someone held without a warrant or a probable cause determination for more than six days.
• As with VPPD, EPSO also controls the detainee’s liberty. EPSO does not permit detainees who are “on hold” to make phone calls to let family or employers know their whereabouts. Indeed, we were told that certain detectives have threatened EPSO jail officers (referred to as “jailers” in the Parish Jail) with retaliation if the officers allowed detainees to make phone calls. One EPSO jail officer described an incident in which an EPSO detective reprimanded him after the jail officer provided toothpaste and other personal supplies to a person locked in the holding cell.

These investigative holds are not even ostensibly supported by probable cause. Both EPSO and VPPD detectives acknowledged that they use investigative holds where they lack sufficient evidence to make an arrest, but instead have a “hunch” or “feeling” that a person may be involved in criminal activity. One VPPD officer noted that they use investigative holds specifically where the officer needs more time to develop evidence to support a lawful arrest.  Similarly, an EPSO detective described using investigative holds when he had “a pretty good feeling” or a “gut instinct” that a certain individual was connected to a crime.

The report indicated that officers at both agencies admitted that they use the time that a person is “on hold” to develop their case, either by gathering evidence or by convincing the detainee to confess. One EPSO detective told investigators that he experimented with investigative holds by testing whether a crime wave subsides while a particular person is in jail. He explained that if the crimes continue during the hold, the presumably innocent person is released but if the crimes cease during the detention, the detective investigates the person further.

VPPD officers explained that holds assist their investigations by inducing people to talk to investigators and by allowing detectives to gather evidence while the individual they suspect is in custody and cannot communicate with people on the outside. Moreover, both agencies confirmed that they used holds to detain individuals whom they did not suspect of involvement in criminal activity, but who instead had the misfortune of being related to suspects, may have witnessed crimes, or otherwise might have knowledge of criminal activity.

In an ominous warning on the perils of investigative holds, the report said, “The willingness of officers in both agencies to arrest and detain individuals who are merely possible witnesses in criminal investigations means that literally anyone in Evangeline Parish or Ville Platte could be arrested and placed ‘on hold’ at any time.”

That, folks, would be the very definition of a true police state.

One might legitimately ask: Where were the local district attorneys and judges while this practice was being carried out over at least two decades?

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