Investigative records and new videos obtained by AP reveal at least a dozen cases in which Louisiana State Police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.
In one video, white troopers can be seen slamming a Black man against a police cruiser after finding marijuana in his car, throwing him to the ground and repeatedly punching him — all while he is handcuffed.
In some cases, troopers omitted uses of force such as blows to the head from official reports, and in others troopers sought to justify their actions by claiming suspects were violent, resisting or escaping, all of which were contradicted by video footage. It’s not clear how the Louisiana State Police rate of force against Black people compares to that of other states because there is no national benchmark and definitions of uses of force differ between jurisdictions. Activists, however, say it points to a clear problem.
Davis said transparency is a priority but “ongoing criminal and civil litigation prevents the immediate release of videos and investigative details in many of these incidents.” “These are tactics they’ve been using forever and we’re tired of it,” said Terrance Key, an Army veteran who grew up with Greene in northern Louisiana. “They’ve been getting away with this s--- for so long.”
Among the cases identified by AP’s review is a March 2019 arrest in northeastern Louisiana’s Ouachita Parish where a trooper was caught on dash-camera video grabbing Black marijuana suspect Deshawn Washington by his hair and slamming the 20-year-old into the hood of a police cruiser, a use of force omitted from the police report.
“The ultimate responsibility is mine,” records show Peters wrote in an internal email about the approvals last year. “I failed.” Two more troopers jumped on Blake, who was still handcuffed, in the roadside grass. “Stop resisting,” one of them yelled. Footage shows Trooper Randall “Colby” Dickerson punching Blake five times and kneeing him in the side. Dickerson, who faces state charges in the case, declined to comment.
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