Louisiana Voice

Do you like conspiracy theories?

Who was really responsible for the JFK assassination? Theories abound: the Mafia, Castro, the CIA, LBJ. I have no idea, though I do harbor my own doubts that Oswald acted alone.

Was the World Trade Center an inside job to justify the Mideast war? I weigh in with a resounding No on that one but I do still have questions about the true motives behind the decision to invade Iraq.

Did Elvis fake his death? Is he still alive? Come on. Really? Why would he do that? And the king would be 88 this month. I’m certain he has left the building.

Was the 2020 election stolen from Trump? How did Biden get so many votes? There were a ton of Americans fed up with his antics as president then and with his constant whining since November 2020. Yeah, there’s a valid explanation for all those Biden votes.

But here’s a conspiracy theory passed on to me by a friend. I was going to give him credit until he told me he stole the idea from someone else so, I’ll just forward it to you unattributed, but nevertheless it’s probably a solid possibility worthy of further pondering. Here goes:

The very public (C-Span cameras rolled and panned the entire time, which is unique in itself) haggling, finger-pointing and accusations in a stuttering, stumbling effort to elect a Speaker of the House was an orchestrated effort by Repugnantcans to divert attention away from the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.

Before you guffaw and chortle and snort at the very suggestion, let’s consider a few odd coincidences (I’m sure you’ve read at one time of another about all the weird events surrounding the JFK assassination):

It would take only a handful of Trump lackeys to get together to stage a “second insurrection” to disrupt media coverage of the Jan. 6 anniversary. My friend called it “three-dimensional chess, which Democrats are incapable of.” I love that quote, though I don’t know if it is original with my friend or if he lifted that from someone else as well. Regardless, it’s a great observation.

I believe the following quote is original with my friend because he sent it to me after he fessed up to borrowing the theory of deflection and obfuscation:

“So the most Trumpism members are defying Trump’s choice? And it (the attempts to elect a speaker) goes to midnight on the 6^th, including the crazy red cards to stop the adjournment. And the whole time (Kevin) McCarthy (who finally got the needed votes shortly after midnight [on the 7^th] is saying ‘COME TO PAPA!’ Not one fist-fight on the floor. It was rigged.

“It was a fait accompli.”

So, there you go. The man who has been screaming “rigged election” for more than two years has now pulled off a “rigged election” of his own.

And no one saw it coming. Well, almost no one.

There you go. Something to mull over while watching a cheesy Netflix movie.

Republicans eat their own.

–Former Lt. Gov. candidate Caroline Fayard, March 2011 (Unable to use quote marks because the actual quote was, Republicans “eat their young,” but by revising it ever so slightly, it takes on more relevance today than ever)

By the time you read this, Kevin McCarthy may have pulled off some back room deals to swing enough votes to become the next Speaker of the House.

But on Tuesday, despite Louisiana’s five Repugnantcan congressmen voting for him, he failed in THREE SEPARATE VOTES to pull it off with 19 Repugs voting for other candidates the first two ballots and 20 the third time. Most of the opposing votes went to New York’s Hakeem Jeffries.

The deadlock could leave the door open for dark horse candidate Steve Scalise of Louisiana’s First Congressional District. Given the opportunity, Scalise would switch his vote in a nanosecond.

Folks in Rapides Parish might be unfamiliar with Jefferson Parish’s FODD (that’s Friend of David Duke) but it’s for certain that Scalise knows who Alexandria native Lamar White is.

You see, I could write all day about Scalise and his alliance with the white supremacy power structure in the Repugnantcan Party but why would I do that when Lamar White’s BLOCKBUSTER COVERAGE of KKKScalise created a national political firestorm and was of such superlative nature as to render anything else sadly redundant.

The thing that made his story even more unlikely was that at the time White was a third-year law student at SMU in Dallas, of all places.

That’s quite a distance from Metairie, but White dug out the story of how Scalise had once associated with Duke, a former KKK Grand Wizard, Nazi Party leader, and a Louisiana state representative from (hold on, don’t get ahead of me)…Metairie.

Scalise also found that Scalise was the guest speaker at a meeting of Duke’s outfit, the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO), a decidedly white supremist group.

Outed by a law student in Texas, Scalise had little option but to ‘fess up and in doing so, told POLITICO that he “regretted” the speech. That, of course, was nothing but damage control (and don’t they all “regret” their actions once they are caught?).

Of course, like any good politician, he initially CLAIMED IGNORANCE about the identity of the group he was speaking to. But how in the world do you speak to an organization without knowing their identity. And naturally, as so often happens, that story didn’t hold water, as revealed by yet ANOTHER of White’s groundbreaking stories, and he had to come clean and apologize in the end. To paraphrase comic Ron White, don’t that beat freaking all! (yeah, I cleaned that up.)

But White wasn’t finished. In February 2016, he published a THIRD STORY detailing the chronology of his unearthing Scalise’s affiliation with Duke and EURO.

Even the ultra-conservative Breitbart Internet publication jumped into the fray, quoting New Orleans political reporter Stephanie Grace of what Breitbart said was the “liberal” New Orleans Advocate (The Advocate, both the Baton Rouge and New Orleans versions, are anything but liberal in their editorial content. In fact, the original Baton Rouge version was a moving force behind the creation of the ultra-conservative business lobby the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, or LABI, as it’s better known).

I digress. BREITBART in December 2014 quoted Grace as saying that Scalise once told her that he was “David Duke without the baggage.”

I (and, I’m pretty sure, Lamar White) beg to differ. Scalise has plenty of baggage.

And, because of Kevin McCarthy’s inability to secure enough votes, Scalise could conceivably become the next Speaker of the House as a compromise candidate.

Do we really need – or want – a David Duke protégée for Speaker-by-Default?

Louisiana State Police (LSP) Internal Affairs (IA) has reprimanded a state trooper for neglecting to activate his body cam during a traffic stop but otherwise cleared him from any wrongdoing despite claims by a Broussard businessman who claims one of his employees was harassed by the trooper for driving on a road past the trooper’s residence.

The IA exoneration, however, does not mean that the matter is closed.

And we know for certain by now that it’s not unprecedented for LSP to gloss over responsibility when it’s convenient from a PR standpoint.

Billy Broussard has filed a lawsuit in 16^th Judicial District Court naming as defendants Trooper Scott Michael Lopez and his son, Benjamin Cole Lopez in connection with several incidents involving alleged harassment of Broussard and his employee, Robert Earl Miller, and for what Broussard says were efforts by Trooper Lopez to unite neighbors against Broussard.

(TO ENLARGE TEXT IN PETITION BELOW, CLICK ON THE PLUS (+) SIGN)

Of course, you’d never know the names of Broussard or Miller inasmuch as the records provided by LSP redacted their names despite the fact that Broussard had filed an official complaint with LSP.

Moreover, a cover letter from LSP noted that pursuant to LSP rules, “investigations that do not result in discipline are not considered ‘public.’”

LSP, in failing for more than two years to mete out punishment to the troopers involved in the May 2019 beating death of Ronald Greene, was able to prevent the release of any investigative records in its attempt to cover up facts surrounding Greene’s death.

Likewise, LSP was less than forthcoming about an incident involving Trooper Thomas Lewis who escorted an underage woman into a Vicksburg casino.

It fell to LouisianaVoice in that case to travel to Jackson, Mississippi, to retrieve records which revealed that Lewis had been fined $600 by the Mississippi Gaming Commission in a night court session. Instead of being punished for his indiscretion, Lewis was promoted to commander of Troop F.

LSP has also refused to cooperate in any manner with former New Orleans attorney Ashton O’Dwyer who was abducted from his St. Charles Street home on the night of Hurricane Katrina and subjected to tasing and being repeatedly peppered with beanbag shots while being held illegally by state police.

In Broussard’s case, Miller was pulled over by Lopez on June 14, 2021, at about 4:30 p.m. while Miller was transporting materials to Broussard’s farm on Duchamp Road in Broussard. Duchamp Road is a public road and runs past Lopez’s home.

Lopez, parked in his own driveway completing paperwork, saw Miller go past and initiated pursuit of the truck, owned by Broussard. After pulling Miller over, Lopez, who Broussard said made no representation that he was acting in his capacity as a state trooper even though he was officially on-duty at the time, told Miller, “You better not go down my road again if you know what’s good for you” and “made it clear” that he did not want the truck “passing in front of my home again.”

A State Police sergeant indicated that the “incident should not have transpired,” according to Broussard’s petition. Broussard claims that he told the sergeant that he was “willing to chalk it up to Trooper Lopez just having a bad day.”

Minutes later, Lopez called Broussard and indicated he did not care what Broussard did on his property but that he just didn’t want Broussard’s truck passing in front of his home and requested that Broussard approach his property from the opposite direction.

When Broussard attempted to obtain an audio copy of his phone call to Troop I, he was told LSP was conveniently unable to provide audio files of phone calls for that specific time frame because the troop was “utilizing a temporary phone service on that date and all recorded phone calls have been lost and we have no ability to recover them.”

Broussard said that Lopez subsequently went “door-to-door actively recruiting residents to join his efforts to seek injunctive relief against [Broussard] to block his ability to haul vegetative materials to his property” and that Lopez was communicating with the parish president in an effort to shut down Broussard’s farming operations. The parish council did, in fact, have a cease-and-desist order served on Broussard on June 21, 2021, which ordered him to cease all activity on his own property, including “any farming, agricultural, dumpsite, and commercial activity.”

Broussard said Lopez, in retaliation for his reporting the June 14 stop to Troop I, stepped up his harassment, including appearing before the parish planning and zoning commission where he leveled several “defamatory” and untrue charges against Broussard.

Then, on April 25 of this year, at about 4:30 p.m., Lopez’s son, Benjamin Cole Lopez, followed Broussard and videotaped him with his cell phone and later attempted to have Broussard arrested for assault by St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Baily Myles Romero, Lopez’s neighbor.

The “assault” ended up as a misdemeanor for blocking the roadway and followed the incident in which Benjamin Lopez videotaped Broussard, who continued to his property and exited his vehicle with his own cell phone and took his own video of the younger Lopez as he drove past his property, turned around, and drove back past.

To give a little background on Trooper Lopez, he was first employed by LSP in September 2008 and resigned on July 9, 2013, to work in the employ of then-Iberia Sheriff Louis Ackal, who was himself a retired state trooper. Ackal, of course, had his own legal problems that included a multitude of lawsuits that resulted in millions of dollars in settlements or judgments.

Lopez worked for Ackal for nearly two years, from September 24, 2015 until his resignation on March 12, 2017. He rejoined LSP the following day.

LSP indicated in the report provided LouisianaVoice that Broussard’s claims of harassment “were not supported by the evidence…nor was there any evidence to support the allegations that you used your position as a Louisiana State Trooper to influence your neighbors…with regard to Mr. Broussard’s farming operations.”

For his failure to activate his body cam, he received a letter of reprimand.

low-hanging fruit

noun

low-hang·​ing fruit ˈlō-ˈhaŋ-iŋ- 

1. the obvious or easy things that can be most readily done or dealt with in achieving success or making progress toward an objective
2. That which is especially easy to obtain or achieve. Often implies something that is perhaps not as satisfying as that which takes more effort or skill to obtain or do.

Okay, that was too easy. But even as international publications like THE GUARDIAN are splashing stories across its pages about the indictments of four state troopers and a deputy sheriff for the death of motorist Ronald Greene 3½ years ago in Union Parish, some of us continue to wonder why the net didn’t snare a few of the Louisiana State Police (LSP) higher-ups.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Greene was beaten and tased to death in May 2019 following a police chase by state troopers in Ouachita and Union Parishes. After he became unresponsive, he was pronounced dead and state police, in what has become a disturbing version of transparency on their part, told the family he had died in a crash.

That was a lie, pure and simple, as body cam footage that remained concealed by LSP for more than two years later, much too long later, revealed. True, Greene was involved in a collision with a tree that terminated the chase, but the damage to his vehicle was minimal and the body cam footage revealed in graphic, tragic detail that Greene was very much alive as he begged for his life while shackled as troopers and a Union Parish deputy sheriff taunted him in between tasings, kicks and punches.

But the indictments by a Union Parish grand jury were limited to the four troopers and the Union Parish deputy. Untouched thus far were members of the State Police command who were clearly complicit in the attempt to keep the incriminating video under wraps. To a lesser degree perhaps, Gov. John Bel Edwards must also share the burden, for contrary to his claims otherwise, it appears that he was made aware of the circumstances of Greene’s death only hours after the fact, yet helped keep the lid on the powder keg by maintaining his silence during what was at the time a tight reelection campaign.

If former LSP hierarchy are to be held to account, that task will fall to East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore.

That’s with emphasis on former hierarchy because one-by-one, they have exited, choosing retirement over accountability. The dominoes began falling when Lt. Col. MIKE NOEL, named by Edwards as his choice to succeed Ronnie Jones as the new chairman of the State Gaming Control Board, suddenly withdrew from consideration and announced his retirement rather than answer questions about Greene’s death that he knew would be forthcoming in a Senate confirmation hearing. Others followed, including then-State Police Commander Col. Kevin Reeves, and his second in command, Doug Cain.

There were other retirements within the higher ranks of State Police and some of those included the incorruptible — like Sgt. ALBERT PAXTON, a detective who chose retirement over submitting to demands from above to back off on his investigation of Greene’s death.

Former prominent New Orleans attorney ASHTON O’DWHER knows a thing or two about cover-ups and slip-shod investigations, having been subjected to unprovoked torture by State Police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina only to see nothing done to the perpetrators. In his understandable anger that continues to fester 17 years later, O’Dwyer insists that LSP remains a “racketeering enterprise.”

And finally, it’s rare that I agree with right-wing columnist and political science associate professor Jeff Sadow, but he made a recent observation that, unfortunately, has a disturbing ring of truth to it.

Sadow said, and I’m paraphrasing here, that the most obvious purpose of the special legislative committee formed to investigate Greene’s death was to advance the political careers of the committee members.

I’m afraid the committee’s less-than-inspiring performance proves Sadow’s assessment to be sadly accurate.