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A28 u.s. news
Diasabra 22 Mei 2021

Shackled Black man ordered facedown in deadly arrest

(AP) — Beaten and shackled by about Greene’s death, which has long nects his ankle shackles. it?”
Louisiana state troopers, Black been surrounded by allegations of a York then kneels on Greene’s back
motorist Ronald Greene desper- cover-up and is now the subject of a and tells him again, “You better lay on “OK! Oh, Lord Jesus. Oh, Lord!”
ately tried to roll over in what federal civil rights investigation. Lou- your f------ belly like I told you to! Greene screams out. “OK, OK. Lord
may have been a struggle to isiana State Police initially blamed You understand?” Jesus! OK, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
breathe but was ordered to stay his death on a car crash and made no
on his belly, according to body- mention of use of force by officers. “Yes, sir,” Greene replies. It’s not clear from the video what the
camera video newly obtained by officer is describing, but several law
The Associated Press. AP earlier this week published previ- “The trooper’s wrong and what he enforcement officials who reviewed
ously unreleased body-camera foot- did is excessive,” said Charles Key, a the footage indicated this might be
And the long-secret autopsy report, age that showed troopers converg- use-of-force expert and former Bal- the moment when one of them sprays
also newly secured, cited Greene’s ing on Greene’s car outside Monroe, timore police lieutenant. “It’s a mis- Greene with pepper spray. A use-of-
head injuries and the way he was re- Louisiana, after a high-speed chase, take because he can’t breathe. You force document not previously made
strained as factors in his 2019 death. repeatedly jolting the 49-year-old un- see Greene drawing his legs up, and public shows pepper spray was used
It also noted he had high levels of armed man with stun guns, putting that may be because he can’t freaking in the arrest.
cocaine and alcohol in his system as him in a chokehold, punching him breathe.”
well as a broken breastbone and a in the head and dragging him by his “If they pepper-sprayed him at that
torn aorta. ankle shackles. Police are highly discouraged from point, that’s excessive,” Key said.
leaving handcuffed suspects in a “There has to be some threat. He’s
“I beat the ever-living f--- out of him, Use-of-force experts say the most prone position, particularly when handcuffed.”
choked him and everything else try- dangerous and troubling parts of the they aren’t resisting, because it can
ing to get him under control,” Troop- arrest came after the struggle, when greatly hinder their breathing — a Minutes after Greene’s outburst, he
er Chris Hollingsworth can be heard officers left the heavyset Greene face- point made repeatedly at the trial this begins to moan and make gurgling
telling a fellow officer in the newly down on the ground with his hands spring of the former Minneapolis of- noises as two troopers keep holding
obtained batch of video. “All of a sud- and feet restrained for more than ficer convicted of murder in the death him down.
den he just went limp. ... I thought he nine minutes. of George Floyd.
was dead.” The new video, recorded on Lt. John
At one point in a new 30-minute vid- Louisiana State Police said federal Clary’s body camera, remained under
“You all got that on bodycam?” the eo, Greene can be seen struggling to authorities have barred them from wraps for months even within State
other officer asks over the phone, at prop himself up on his side. commenting on the Greene case. Police but was recently turned over
which point Hollingsworth switches The U.S. Justice Department did not to the FBI as part of its investigation,
his camera off. “Don’t you turn over! Lay on your immediately respond to a request for according to three law enforcement
belly! Lay on your belly!” Trooper comment. officials. They were not authorized
The footage and the autopsy report Kory York yells before briefly drag- to discuss the investigation and spoke
add to the growing wealth of details ging Greene by the chain that con- While the autopsy on Greene listed on the condition of anonymity.
his cause of death as “cocaine induced
agitated delirium complicated by mo- At one point, after medical help ar-
tor vehicle collision, physical struggle, rives, a paramedic is heard saying,
inflicted head injury and restraint,” it “He’s not getting enough air” and ap-
did not specify the manner of death pears to put his blood oxygen level at
— a highly unusual move that did not 86, which Key described as critically
make it clear whether Greene’s death low. Yet nobody appears to be giving
could be deemed a homicide, an ac- Greene oxygen.
cident or undetermined.
Louisiana officials had for two years
Arkansas State Crime Lab patholo- rebuffed repeated calls to release
gists Jennifer Forsyth and Frank J. footage and details about what caused
Paretti, who conducted the autopsy Greene’s death after the chase, which
in May 2019 for the Union Parish began over an unspecified traffic vio-
Coroner’s Office, found Greene had lation. Troopers initially told his fam-
a “significant” level of cocaine in his ily he died on impact after crashing
system — 1,700 nanograms per mil- into a tree. State Police later released
liliter — and a blood-alcohol content a brief statement acknowledging only
of 0.106, just above the 0.08 level that that Greene struggled with troopers
amounts to drunken driving in Loui- and died on his way to the hospital.
siana.
That secrecy extended to the autopsy,
They said it “cannot be stated with which pathologists said was hindered
certainty” whether many of Greene’s by the State Police’s failure to provide
injuries — including a fracture of the even the most routine documents
sternum, or breastbone, and a lacera- relating to Greene’s arrest, includ-
tion of his aorta — were attributable ing police reports, collision details or
to the car crash or the struggle with emergency medical records.
troopers.
Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton,
“There were lacerations of the head Florida, police chief who testifies as
inconsistent with motor vehicle colli- an expert use-of-force witness, said
sion injury,” they wrote. “These inju- Greene’s case is an example of how
ries are most consistent with multiple “stonewalling is the Achilles’ heel of
impact sites from a blunt object.” law enforcement.”

In the latest video, Greene, his legs “The only reason I can even conjec-
shackled and his hands cuffed behind ture that this information would not
his back, is prone on the ground, and be provided to the medical examin-
two troopers can be seen hovering er’s office is because they didn’t want
over him before he suddenly cries them to see it,” Scott said. “They in-
out. One of the officers tells him, tentionally thwarted the facts of this
“Yeah, yeah, that s—— hurts, doesn’t case to be truly revealed.”