BATON ROUGE, La. — The U.S. Department of Justice’s top civil rights prosecutor and Louisiana’s three U.S. Attorneys are holding a news conference in Baton Rouge to announce the “opening of a civil rights investigation” according to a news release from the DOJ.
It did not say what the feds will be investigating.
The department has previously acknowledged that it has open and ongoing criminal investigations into incidents involving the Louisiana State Police that resulted in death or bodily injury to arrestees.
The LSP’s own tally shows that in recent years 67% of its uses of force were against Black people. That figure has fueled mounting calls from civil rights groups and Black leaders for the U.S. Justice Department to go beyond individual prosecutions and launch a "pattern and practice" probe into potential racial profiling by the agency.
Col. Lamar Davis, the head of the state police, said that he would welcome such a probe if the department deems it necessary but that he wants the opportunity to correct the department's issues and is already working to do so.
Former state trooper Jacob Brown has been charged with a civil rights violation for allegedly beating a black motorist 18 times with a flashlight near Monroe. The 2019 beating following a traffic stop left Aaron Larry Bowman with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head.
It was the first criminal case to emerge from federal investigations into troopers' beatings of at least three Black men.
Federal investigators have also been looking into the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene. Body-camera video captured white troopers stunning, beating and dragging of Greene. He was arrested by the state police following a two-parish, high-speed chase in which his death was first blamed on the crash before the violent videos of the incident became public.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Gathe Jr. for the Middle District of Louisiana, U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown for the Western District of Louisiana and U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans for the Eastern District of Louisiana are expected to speak at an 11 a.m. news conference in Baton Rouge.
Stay tuned to WWL-TV and wwltv.com for the latest on this developing story.
