On May 27, Mayor Cantrell announced “Operation Golden Eagle,” a plan to deploy Louisiana State Police in New Orleans neighborhoods alongside NOPD. On the same day, the family of Ronald Greene and hundreds of others were marching on the Governor’s Mansion to protest his murder by state cops.
In May 2019, LA state troopers murdered beloved community member Ronald Greene, a Black man from Monroe. Video footage leaked in May 2021 shows three cops beating him to death and then bragging about it. A lawsuit against state cops Jacob Brown, Dakota DeMoss, and George Harper, all of whom are white, revealed text messages between them bragging about another brutal assault—that of Antonio Harris—during a traffic stop.
Racist Police Terror Serves the Rich
These acts of armed racist terror go on every day. They are not the exception but are the rule. Most go unknown to the public due to police threats of retaliation. Only the atrocities that are videotaped get attention.
Cops are violent, racist thugs. Because they protect the rich, they are encouraged to be a brutal force. The more hardship grows in the working class of all nationalities, the more the rich need their police to protect their obscene wealth. Despite the world witnessing police crimes and despite damages sometimes paid, they continue to not only get away with this but are praised and rewarded with increased funding. This has not changed since the murder of George Floyd.
State Police Kill Prison Reform Bill
In June, the Louisiana State Police and Louisiana Supreme Court successfully lobbied to kill a bill that would have automatically expunged eligible offenses from peoples’ records. Through the efforts of Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), several prison reforms did pass this year. But the fact that the Louisiana Legislature dropped House Bill 604, which would have automatically wiped criminal records after parole, is a blow to thousands of people. This measure would have enabled people to get jobs, vote, and have social benefits. Prison follows you even when you get out, and that is what the rich want: to terrorize the poor for the rest of their lives, forcing them into low-wage jobs, or perhaps, back to prison to be further exploited.
Incarceration Means Big Money for LA Lawmakers, Wardens, Prison Corporations
Louisiana legislators rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars from sheriffs and police officers. That’s why they and other elected officials aim to keep Louisiana as the most incarcerated place in the world. While police and prison departments get massive funding, wardens personally profit. Capitalists in charge of Louisiana’s prison system get rich from the operation of private prisons, exploitation of enslaved prisoners, and from food and phone contracts. The entire system is rotten, but don’t call it corrupt: it does exactly what it is designed to do for the benefit of a few white Louisiana capitalists.
Get Louisiana State Troopers off our streets now!
Millions of people rose up last summer to demand an end to police terror, calling for cities to defund the police and abolish ICE. Instead of funding cops, cities need to fund good jobs, good education, housing, and healthcare. We say free the non-violent incarcerated in state prisons and jails, free the migrants, and free the children! Get Louisiana State troopers off our streets! Jail the cops who murdered Ronald Greene!
