Louisiana Voice

• A legislator attempting to influence former Louisiana Education Superintendent John White on behalf of two teachers in his district;
• The head of Louisiana State Police allowing troopers under his command to get away with behavior that would have been automatic grounds for firing anywhere else (and that State Police Superintendent even trying to game the system to qualify himself for around $100,000 in additional – and illegal – retirement benefits;
• Several Louisiana sheriffs running their departments like their very own fiefdoms (and one of those being sentenced to federal prison and another managing to obtain an acquittal after several prisoners had died in his custody);
• The head of a girls’ church-affiliated home in north Louisiana being accused of abuse of teenage girls in his care;
• The rape of a female prisoner in a north Louisiana parish jail – by male inmates of the same jail;
• Power-hungry state regulatory boards (including the Board of Dentistry and the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners) bankrupting dentists and doctors with draconian fines for minor offenses – and in some cases, no real offenses);
• Attempts by Bobby Jindal to strip the Office of Group Benefits of its multi-million-dollar surplus in order to plug the hole in the state budget that he had caused by gross mismanagement;
• Attempts by a state board to sell water rights to private profiteers in Texas;
• Attempts by a State Department of Education official to collaborate with Florida officials, including Gov. Jeb Bush, to corner the market on potable water in that state.

These are just a few of the stories that LouisianaVoice has broken over its 10 years of existence. And we’re constantly working on others, including two that will be found only at this site over the coming weeks.

To continue to break these investigative stories requires investments of time and money. From time to time, I have to take reluctant officials to court in order to obtain public records. Those legal actions are not cheap. And when I do get the records, there’s a cost there, as well.

That’s why I come to you twice a year to ask that you assist in these endeavors. It usually takes about $5,000 every six months to pay for gasoline, records and legal fees.

If you have no suffered financial hardships from the coronavirus shutdown, I humbly ask that you give what you can afford. You can contribute by credit card by clicking on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post. It looks like this: . If this doesn’t work for you, you can give by mailing a check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922,

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so any contribution is completely tax-deductible.

Remember: Anyone giving $100 or more will receive a signed copy of my book Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption. If you already have a copy, just let me know who to sign it to and you can give it as a gift.

As always, my sincere appreciation for your continued support.

Tom Aswell

“They are inventing a scenario in which they can put their gun collections to use by showing up, unbidden, to ‘protect’ businesses that in many cases aren’t theirs and don’t want that service. The online rhetoric among armed militias and other right-wing gun enthusiasts is really at a fever pitch this whole summer. Now, we’re seeing that come to bear in real life.”

—Megan Sqire, a computer science professor at Elon University in North Carolina who tracks online extremism. [But don’t you see, if violence is carried out in the name of Trump, then they’re “patriots,” but if there is isolated violence during protests over the shooting of unarmed men of color, then they’re “thugs” and “looters.”

“Leftists typically don’t like dissent. They are not free-speech advocates and they hate anyone who offers views opposite of the ones to which they are emotionally attached. Leftists don’t rely on logic or reason when forming opinions. They arrive at their conclusions based on what makes them feel good, superior, and virtuous.”

—Arch-conservative columnist Dan Fagan, in his manifesto explaining why he parted ways with The Baton Rouge Advocate/Times Picayune. [Gee, substitute “right-wing Republicans” tor “leftists” and he’d be describing Donald Trump, William Barr, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan. Tom Cotton, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Clay Higgins, Steve “Sleazy” Scalise, et al, to perfection.]

“[Trump and his enablers are] counting on your cynicism … they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter. That’s how a democracy withers, until it’s no democracy at all.”

—Barack Obama, who also said he had hoped Donald Trump would “discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care, but he never did.”

A society, any society, needs a well-trained police force to keep the peace lest anarchy prevail.

Law enforcement is essential to bring rapists, murderers, thieves, con men and even politicians to justice when they commit wrongdoing against law abiding citizens. No one denies that.

But there has to be some balance between police being the protectors rather than the offenders which, unfortunately, is becoming the case more and more often.

Protests have erupted recently over the deaths of GEORGE FLOYD in Minneapolis, DANIEL PRUDE in Rochester, BREONNA TAYLOR in Louisville, Elijah McClain of Aurora, Colorado and now the shootings of JACOB BLAKE of Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot seven times in the back, and a 13-year-old autistic child named LINDEN CAMERON of Salt Lake City, who was handcuffed when shot multiple times by police.

In Louisiana, there’s the unbelievable case of VICTOR WHITE III, managed to fatally shoot himself, while in the custody of Iberia Parish sheriff’s deputies. Unbelievable because according to deputies – upheld by the parish coroner – White allegedly shot himself in the chest while his hands were cuffed – behind his back.

In 2019, Ronald Greene died at the hands of Louisiana State Police and a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy after a chase from Ouachita Parish into Union Parish, details of which are conflicting, depending on whom you talk to – state police or doctors.

And then there’s the brutal beating of KENTDRICK RATIFF by Hammond police back in 2017.

There are three primary culprits that have led to widespread abuses of American citizens by violating their rights under the 4^th and 14^th Amendments. You can refresh yourself on the rights guaranteed by those amendments HERE but basically, the 4^th Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures of their homes, papers and personal effects.

Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment says, in part: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The “no-knock” law, passed in 1970 during Richard Nixon’s term over the determined but in vain opposition of Sen. Sam Ervin (D-N.C.), who spoke against the bill for 4 ½ hours on the floor of the Senate, was the first major erosion of individual rights.

The second was the omnibus crime bill of 1984, passed during the Ronald Reagan administration, that created the ASSET FORFEITURE PROGRAM, aka Policing for Profit, under which if someone in your home or car possesses a small quantity of marijuana unbeknownst to you, you can still lost your home or car. Any cash found in your home or car also is forfeited and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.

If the feds (DEA, ATF, FBI, etc.) are involved, they get a cut of the cash or whatever money the sale of your property brings while the local law enforcement agencies – municipal, parish or state police, get up to 80 percent. You can read about selected cases of this legalized theft HERE.

Finally, the third major contributor to growing incidents of police lawlessness is the rapid growth of a program that allows local police departments to obtain grants to purchase MILITARY HARDWARE from the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security.

Some handy law enforcement aids procured through program for local agencies include tanks, helicopters, 50-caliber machine guns, urban assault vehicles, tanks, airplanes, grenade launchers and even a submarine.

Of the three, the no-knock raid has probably done the most harm. Besides giving armor-suited robo cops an aura of invincibility, one of the biggest drawbacks of the no-knock raids is the incredible numbers of wrong address raids in which the homes of innocent people are often awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of their front doors being smashed in and the profanity-laced shouting of macho-cops shoving bewildered family members, guns held to the heads of children (one child, a 13-year-old, had his head blown off when the officer’s gun accidentally discharged) while dogs – family pets – are routinely shot and killed with no provocation..

Lest you think these are the hysterical rantings of some conspiracy nut, they’re not. You can read the stories for yourself in Radley Balko’s unsettling book RISE of the WARRIOR COP: THE MILITIRIZATION of AMERICA’S POLICE FORCES. This book will alternately jolt you to spasms of rage, depression, helplessness, and alarming concern over just who poses the bigger threat – criminals with no moral compass or cops with no moral compass but who do have a badge and a gun which gives them the misconception of power and control.

What’s even worse, for the most part in cases of wrong address no-knock raids and even accidental shootings of innocent people or deliberate shootings of household pets, the cops are protected from  legal liability by something called QUALIFIED IMMUNITY.

But repeatedly shooting a 13-year-old autistic child who was running from officers has to be beyond the pale.

Wrong address raids, abuses of asset forfeiture, and shooing innocent victims have gone from isolated incidents to a disturbing trend, a trend that must be stopped.

A society needs a well-trained police force that doesn’t take an “us against them” position but rather becomes a part of that society.

LouisianaVoice holds only two fundraisers a year – April and September – and we did not hold the April one this year because of the coronavirus. And while we are still seeing the effects of the virus, I am asking those who can do so, to please help us reach our goal of $5,000.

Everyone who gives $100 or more will receive a signed copy of my latest book, Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption.

LouisianaVoice is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so your gift is completely tax-deductible.

You can give by credit card by clicking on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post. It looks like this: .

Or, if you prefer, you can send a check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

As always, my sincerest appreciation for your continued support of investigative journalism.

Tom Aswell

“You see the boaters out. There are thousands and thousands of boats every weekend, and we appreciate it, but nobody has seen anything like it, ever.”

“Did you know there has NEVER been a Biden boat parade? How sad! There is no enthusiasm for Sleepy Joe.”

“NO BOAT PARADES: ENTHUSIASM FOR JOE BIDEN IS SINKING.” 

—Donald Trump, gloating about boat parades held in his honor across the U.S. [Uh, Donald, too bad you are unable to participate in those parades because you were forced to sell your $29 million yacht, the Trump Princess in 1991 because you were so overloaded with some $900 million in debt, debt you subsequently defaulted on. There must be some karma at play when all those boats keep sinking during those parades in your honor.] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/boats-keep-sinking-and-capsizing-at-the-trump-boat-parades.html

“We are in the midst of the fastest economic recovery in US history.”

—Trump, in a White House Labor Day pep rally disguised as a press conference. [No mention by Trump that nearly half the jobs lost in the pandemic have not returned, of the more than 100,000 small businesses that have closed or of the expired unemployment benefits for millions of American workers.]

“We are an absolute leader, in every way.”

—Trump, in that same “press conference.” [If you count the fact that America has the highest caseload and the highest death toll from the coronavirus, well then, yes.]

“It undermines science…”

—Trump, criticizing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for their skepticism that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by October. [Wow! Trump accusing someone, anyone, of “undermining science. I’m speechless, speechless, I tell you.]

“Rochester N.Y., Brooklyn N.Y., Portland – All had bad nights, all weakly run by Radical Left Democrat Governors and Mayors! Get the picture?” 

—Donald Trump tweet on Monday. [Yo, Donald: maybe those people in dark uniforms spotted on that airplane were the white supremacists headed to Portland. Nothing like stoking the flames to obtain a peaceful solution to the tensions brought about by the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police.]