The federal “motive or practice” investigation released Thursday followed an Associated Press investigation that found Green was among at least a dozen cases in the past decade in which state police or their bosses ignored or withheld evidence of beatings. responsibility and obstructed efforts to eliminate the misconduct. Dozens of current and former soldiers have said the beatings were met with a culture of impunity, nepotism and, in some cases, pure racism. “We find important justification for launching this investigation now … We have received reports of repeated use of excessive force, often against people suspected of minor traffic offenses, who are already handcuffed or unable to resist,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark. who oversees the civil rights department of the Ministry of Justice. “There are reports that the police are targeting black residents in traffic enforcement practices and the use of force.” The federal investigation, the first such crackdown on a government law enforcement agency in more than two decades, comes more than three years after white soldiers were caught on a body video camera hitting, stunning and dragging Green to a rural edge of the road. near Monroe. . Despite lengthy, ongoing federal and state investigations into a death that soldiers initially blamed on a car crash, no one has yet been charged. The AP reports that soldiers have become accustomed to turning off or turning off body cameras during pursuits. When the video is recorded, the agency usually refuses to publish it. And a recently retired supervisor overseeing a particularly violent troop of soldiers told internal investigators last year that it was “common practice” to seal reports of violence by officers without ever looking at the body camera video. In some cases, soldiers avoided the use of force, such as blows to the head from official reports, and in others, soldiers tried to justify their actions by claiming that the suspects were violent, resisting, or escaping, all of which were refuted by video. Clark said the investigation is aimed at promoting reforms that the Department of Justice could seek to enforce through lawsuits to enforce a federal consent order. He added that Gov. John Bell Edwards and Louisiana State Police Chief Lamar Davis have pledged to work together. Black leaders have been urging the Justice Department for months to launch a wider investigation into possible racist remarks by the state’s overwhelmingly white police force, similar to other investigations launched last year in Minneapolis, Louisville and Phoenix. According to his own estimate, 67% of the state police’s use of force in recent years was against blacks, who make up 33% of the state’s population. The action comes as Edwards prepares to testify before a bipartisan committee of state lawmakers investigating Green’s death. The Democratic governor and his lawyers privately watched the video showing Green taking his last breaths during his fatal arrest – footage that reached prosecutors almost two years after Green’s death on May 10, 2019. Federal prosecutors are also investigating whether police obstructed justice to protect soldiers in the Greene case – and whether they tried to hide evidence that soldiers beat other black motorists.
Bleiberg reported from Uvalde, Texas.
