The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is opening a civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police (LSP) department—the first probe into a statewide law enforcement agency in over two decades, the Associated Press reports.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the Justice Department’s civil rights division, explained to AP that the department found “significant justification” to open the investigation.
“We received information of the repeated use of excessive force, often against people suspected of minor traffic offenses, who are already handcuffed or are not resisting. … There are reports that officers target Black residents in their traffic enforcement practices and in use of force,” Clark said.
The agency’s “pattern-or-practice probe” is exploring evidence pointing to troopers and their bosses ignoring or participating in racist brutality disproportionately directed at Black men.
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The investigation comes three years after the savage and fatal beating of Ronald Greene in 2019 outside of Monroe, Louisiana. Greene’s arrest was captured on body-camera video, but withheld from investigators by the police department. Meanwhile, troopers faulted the injuries on a car crash, AP reporting uncovered.
Greene was stopped by troopers on a rural road and subsequently beaten, dragged, and tased until he eventually collapsed. Greene, a barber, died in police custody. Footage of the stop was not provided to prosecutors until two years after his 2019 death.
As Daily Kos staff writer Lauren Sue reported in March, Trooper Chris Hollingsworth admitted to beating Greene and was fired over the incident. He later died in a single-vehicle crash, AP reported.
Hollingsworth was captured on body camera telling a peer: “I beat the ever-living f--- out of” Greene before “all of a sudden he just went limp.”
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For months, Black leaders have been pushing the DOJ to open a probe into the primarily white Louisiana police department. As AP reports, from the department’s own records, 67% of the state police cases where the use of force was employed, Black people were the victims. Black Louisiana residents only make up 33% of the population.
In a statement to ABC News, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Protecting the civil rights of all Americans and building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve are among the Justice Department’s most important responsibilities.”
AP’s reporting found that troopers have a long history of turning off body cameras, refusing to release footage, and clearing reports without reviewing video footage. In some cases where there were particularly vicious beatings, troopers neglected to add the information to the report or lied about the volatility or disobedience of a suspect to justify beatings.
Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards is scheduled to testify on Greene’s death before a bipartisan panel of Louisiana lawmakers.
"I welcome the U.S Department of Justice’s civil investigation into the patterns and practices of Louisiana State Police. It is deeply troubling that allegations of systemic misconduct exist that would warrant this type of investigation, but it is absolutely critical that all Louisianans, especially African Americans and other people of color, have their faith, confidence, and trust in public safety officers restored," Edwards said.
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