Page 28 - bon-dia-aruba-20211028

A28 u.s. news
Diahuebs 28 OctOber 2021

In Louisiana, a father, a son and a culture of police abuse

in the wake of Greene’s man “nightmares for a long
death on a rural roadside near time.”
Monroe on May 10, 2019
-- a fatality troopers initially “They’re not the people you
blamed on a car crash at the think they are,” said John
end of a high-speed chase. Winzer, Greene’s nephew,
who shudders every time he
Fallout brought federal scru- sees a state trooper on the
tiny not just to the troop- highway. “It’s no different
ers but to whether top brass than organized crime. They
obstructed justice to protect hang together. They eat to-
them, according to docu- gether and ride at night to-
ments and people familiar gether. And s--- like this hap-
with the case. Investigators pens.”
have focused on a meet-
ing that the elder Brown at- Even the agency’s superin-
tended in which state police tendent acknowledged that
commanders pressured their the state police have lost the
own detectives to hold off on public’s trust, due in part to
arresting a trooper seen on an “old-fashioned culture” in
body-camera video striking Louisiana’s northern parishes
(AP) — Growing up in nocuous boast: of troopers’ uses of force in Greene in the head and later in which some troopers are
the piney backwoods recent years targeted Black boasting, “I beat the ever-liv- conditioned to punish any-
of northern Louisiana, The Browns’ story is woven people — double the per- ing f--- out of him.” one who runs from them or
where yards were dotted throughout the recent history centage of the state’s Black disrespects the badge.
with crosses and the oc- of the Louisiana State Police population – and in which Greene’s death was among
casional Confederate flag, and represents what dozens troopers kept their badges at least a dozen cases in the “It’s uncomfortable to hear,
Jacob Brown was raised of current and former troop- after sending overtly racist last decade identified by the ‘You guys are bullies.’ It’s
on hunting, fishing and ers have described to The emails with such headings as AP in which state troopers or uncomfortable to hear, ‘We
dreams of becoming a Associated Press as a culture “Proud to be White.” their bosses ignored or con- thought y’all were better
state trooper. of impunity, nepotism and in cealed evidence of beatings, than this,’” Col. Lamar Da-
some cases outright racism. And it’s a culture in which deflected blame and impeded vis, a veteran Black trooper
But within weeks of arriving state police academy instruc- efforts to root out miscon- brought in a year ago as a re-
at the Louisiana State Police It illustrates the dynamics tors faced with a widespread duct. former, told AP in an inter-
training academy in Baton that have made the agency cheating scandal sought to view.
Rouge, instructors pegged the focus of a sprawling fed- dismiss an entire recent class Many of those cases involve
Brown as trouble. One wrote eral investigation that ini- of cadets -- including the the state police’s Monroe- “We’ve got to face this head
that he was an arrogant, tially examined the deadly “legacies” of several high- based Troop F, which has be- on,” he said. “We have to
chronic rule breaker with 2019 arrest of Black motorist ranking police officials -- yet come notorious for its treat- change quite a few things in
“toxic” character traits that Ronald Greene and has since nearly all were allowed to ment of Black motorists and our agency.”
should disqualify him from expanded to include a string graduate to jobs on the force. counted Jacob Brown among
ever joining the state’s elite of other cases -- several in- “There’s a corruption that al- its troopers. In one long-sup- Davis has reorganized his
law enforcement agency. volving Jacob Brown -- in lows the reprobates in state pressed video, he can be seen staff, overhauled use-of-
which troopers are accused police to just sort of do as pummeling a Black motorist force policies and mandated
Fortunately for Brown, the of beatings and cover-ups, they damn well please,” said with a flashlight, in another all troopers attend training
state police was known as a even when they are caught W. Lloyd Grafton, a use-of- he slams a Black motor- on intrinsic bias. But he ac-
place where who you knew on video. force expert who is consult- ist into a police cruiser, and knowledged it may not be
often trumped what you did, ing on the Greene family’s in yet another Brown and enough to stave off grow-
and where most introductory “If you’re a part of the good civil case and served on the other troopers beat a Black ing calls for a U.S. Justice
chats eventually got around ol’ boy system, there’s no Louisiana State Police Com- man and hoist him to his Department “pattern and
to a simple question: Who’s wrong you can do,” said Carl mission. “Nobody holds feet by his dreadlocks. That practice” probe of potential
your daddy? Cavalier, a Black state trooper them accountable.” was followed by troopers ex- racial profiling by a nearly
who was once decorated for changing “lol”-peppered text 1,000-trooper force that’s
Jacob Brown is the son of valor but recently fired in part A potential reckoning in the messages bragging that the more than three-quarters
Bob Brown, then part of for criticizing the agency’s Louisiana State Police came “whoopin” would give the white men.
the state police’s top brass handling of brutality cases.
who would rise to second
in command despite being It’s an us-versus-them cul-
reprimanded years earlier ture, they say, in which many
for calling Black colleagues troopers and higher-ups are
the n-word and hanging a more interested in covering
Confederate flag in his of- for each other than living up
fice. And the son would not to the agency’s image of hon-
only become a “legacy hire” or, duty, courage and “doing
but prove his instructors pro- the right thing.”
phetic by becoming one of
the most violent troopers in It’s a culture in which troop-
the state, reserving most of ers who gather for backyard
his punches, flashlight strikes barbecues and church on
and kicks for the Black driv- Sundays feel so insulated
ers he pulled over along the from scrutiny that they can
soybean and cotton fields banter about their brutality
near where he grew up. on official channels, includ-
ing texting each other photos
When friends and colleagues of a battered and bloodied
would ask Bob Brown how suspect with the quip “he
his first-born was getting shouldn’t have resisted.”
along as a trooper, he’d re-
spond with a seemingly in- It’s a culture in which 67%