Louisiana Voice

HOUSE BILL 470 by State Rep. Rodney Lyons (D-Harvey) was withdrawn from the 2021 legislative session before it ever got off the ground but the burning question is why the hell the bill was ever filed in the first place.

The bill would have done everything Repugnantcans would love regarding transparency and accountability.

The best example I can give in backing up that claim is to point to the difference between the administrations of Bobby Jindal and John Bel Edwards. Jindal’s appointees consistently dragged their feet in complying with my records requests – if they complied at all.

Of course, Attorney General Jeff Landry is the exception to the openness of the Edwards administration and his actions are a reflection of one of the provisions of HB470. He filed suit against a reporter for The Baton Rouge Advocate when she submitted a (legal) public records request.

She was seeking background information about a sexual harassment complaint against one of Landry’s top attorneys and Landry responded with what is known as a SLAPP lawsuit. SLAPP is an acronym for Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation and it is becoming a popular tactic by public officials who prefer to resist opening their books. Landry lost that case as he should have.

I’ve had one filed against me (I won and was awarded attorney fees), a TOWN COUNCIL MEMBER in Welsh, a small town in Southwest Louisiana, had a SLAPP suit filed against him by fellow council members, the mayor and police chief (he won and was awarded court costs and attorney fees).

The judges of the 4^th Judicial District (Ouachita and Morehouse parishes) sued the OUACHITA CITIZEN  newspaper in 2016 when the publication requested public records and only weeks later, then-Louisiana Superintendent of Education JOHN WHITE followed suit (no pun intended) when he sued Louisiana citizens Mike Deshotels and Dr. James Finney over public records requests they made.

HB470 would not only encourage SLAP lawsuits which the  LOUISIANA RECORD says would force the requester “to defend themselves in court, which would involve legal fees” and would make it “more difficult for citizens requesting public records to recoup attorney fees if they were sued for making such requests.”

THE PELICAN INSTITUTE said the bill would have encompassed all public records, not just body or dash cams and would make it more difficult for the awarding of attorney’s fees and court costs, currently the only incentive against compliance with records requests, which The Pelican Institute said was “the only enforcement mechanism available to the public” and would constitute a “roadblock to transparency.”

The Pelican Institute and Louisiana Record are far too polite on this issue. Here’s my take:

B.S.

I can’t believe a Democrat, an African American, would ever consider filing such a bill.

(I’m not trying to channel President Joe Biden who once told an African American that if he wasn’t for Biden, he wasn’t black. That was presumptions and an insult to any free-thinking man. I don’t like Trump – that’s no secret – but I know people who are good and decent who support Trump. I don’t understand it, but I have to respect their opinion.)

But with all the body cam footage aired on network and local TV news of white police officers beating, tasing and shooting blacks, it is incomprehensible for any African American Democrat to even suggest a bill making it easier to conceal such video footage from the public.

HB 470 would literally be a license to turn rogue police officers loose on defenseless blacks with impunity.

Certainly, there are good cops and there are dangerous blacks just as there is good and bad in any demographic group. I have a friend who is a former cop who told me that whenever he pulled anyone – anyone – over, it was to give them a warning. “Whether or not they got a ticket solely depended on their attitude,” he told me.

But the killing of Ronald Greene in Union Parish would have gone unpunished were it not for body cam footage. Even then, Louisiana State Police did nothing for 15 months, taking action only footage finally came to light – footage that troopers first denied even existed.

Greene should never have fled police, but that did not warrant what they did to him.

HB470 would have protected those troopers.

I called Rep. Lyons’ office but got no answer.

So, I emailed him to ask why he would play into the hands of Republicans who would deny that the Jan. 6 insurrection ever happened had there not been ample video to prove otherwise. Remember Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia) who said the riot amount to no more than a Capitol tour?

I asked him why he would make it permissible for public officials to sue citizens making a request of public records.

I asked him what the reasoning was behind his bill that would restrict access to public records.

I received no response.

Perhaps I should have asked what he had to hide.

“If you abuse the public trust, we’re going to find you, and we’re going to prosecute you.”

—Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), as Missouri attorney general but who subsequently voted against conviction in Trump’s impeachment trial and who voted to reject Pennsylvania’s electoral votes just hours after giving that fist bump to insurrectionists who swarmed the Capitol.

[Tell your congressman],”’If you don’t start supporting election integrity, I’m coming after you, Madison Cawthorn is coming after you. Everybody’s coming after you.’”

—US Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), addressing a conservative rally in Florida in December 2020.

“I believe that this was agitators strategically placed inside of this group—you can call them antifa, you can call them people paid by the Democratic machine.”

—Madison Cawthorn, on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, but sans any proof of his claim.

“Happy Father’s Day to all, including the Radical Left, RINOs, and other Losers of the world.”

—The former guy, in his Father’s Day message.

“Every major social problem in America can be linked to fatherlessness. Wherever involved fathers are rare, crisis is certain to follow and billions in government spending is no substitute for fatherhood.”

—Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), in his Father’s Day message, apparently oblivious that the Jan. 6 insurrection, white supremacy legislation such as voter suppression laws, crumbling infrastructure, climate change Russian computer hacking and a pandemic that was ignored by the previous guy constitute bona fide “crises” that had nothing to do with “fatherlessness.”

“The vacation house of the Führer. Seeing the Eagles Nest has been on my bucket list for awhile (sic), it did not disappoint.”

—US Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Instagram posting on his visit to Adolf Hitler’s Eagle’s Net compound.

“Come January 20, when I am sworn in as Vice President, you guys had better knock it off. Otherwise, we’ll have to get NBC’s broadcast license revoked.”

—Sarah Palin, during 2008 presidential campaign

“Palin’s nomination was troubling on a deeper level. I noticed from the start that her incoherence didn’t matter to the vast majority of Republicans; in fact, anytime she crumbled under questioning by a journalist, they seemed to view it as proof of a liberal conspiracy.

—Barack Obama, in is book A Promised Land

“Never, in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that at least 30 percent of our population would become absolutely batshit crazy, inventing their own reality.”

—LouisianaVoice reader and occasional contributor Stephen Winham, on his reaction to the unexplainable mentality that produced “leaders” like Sarah Palin and the former guy, to name only a few who now dominate the Repugnantcan Party.

“I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that’s the way it is, period.”

—Pat Robertson

“We had no domestic attacks under Bush – we’ve had one under Obama.”

—Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City on 9/11

“[Singer] Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of forcible rape.”

—Former Republican Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, on the upside of pregnancy after rape

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

—Winston Churchill