ACLU of La. calls for an investigation of JPSO
4th October 2021 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
On the heels of an in-depth investigation and damning report by several news agencies, the ACLU of Louisiana has called for a federal investigation into allegations of extreme abuse and unnecessary use of force against Black suspects by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
On Sept. 24, non-profit, investigative-journalism organization ProPublica, through its Local Reporting Network and in conjunction with WRKF and WWNO, released a stinging article detailing the apparent racial bias within the JPSO and the overly aggressive nature of the sheriff’s department’s officers.
The report found that over the last eight years, 70 percent of the citizens who were shot at were Black, even though the overall population in the parish is only 27 percent Black. In addition, the investigation found that 12 of the 16 people who died after being shot at or detained by JPSO officers were Black men.
On Sept. 27, the ACLU of Louisiana then called on the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana to investigate and evaluate the data presented in the news organizations’ report. In addition to the request made to federal prosecutors regarding the news reports, the ACLU asked that the U.S. Attorney’s Office also examine the ACLU’s research as part of what social justice and police reform advocates hope will be a large, thorough study of the JPSO’s apparent racial bias and unnecessary force.
In Jefferson Parish, the ACLU says, a Black resident is 11 times more likely to be killed by police than a white resident, and since 2015, in 12 cases of males who have died during an arrest or pursuit involving JPSO deputies, all were Black or Latino, and three were minors.
Because of such stark numbers found by the ACLU, Nora Ahmed, legal director for the ACLU of Louisiana, said the results of the journalistic investigation weren’t surprising to her organization.
“This is exactly in line with our own findings,” Ahmed said. “We also came to these very same conclusions.”
She added that the ACLU’s call for federal authorities to intervene and investigate the circumstances in Jefferson Parish is backed by the unsettling statistics found in the various studies.
“We’re not making this request of the U.S. Attorney’s Office lightly,” Ahmed said.
For more than a year, the ACLU of Louisiana has sought out victims of police violence as part of a project called Justice Lab: Putting Racist Policing on Trial, which seeks to bring account ability, transparency and justice in policing across the state.
One of the ACLU’s most recent lawsuits, Decquir v. Bentel et al, represents the thrust of the LaACLU’s Justice Lab effort and offers an example of the type of alleged misconduct by JPSO officers.
The suit – which was filed Aug. 31 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Louisiana on behalf of plaintiff Xavimen Decquir – charges that several JPSO officers brutalized Decquir, a person of color who lives in Metairie and who has mental illnesses, while Decquir was handcuffed and laying on the floor of the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center.
According to the lawsuit, Decquir had been detained by deputies following an incident in his apartment during which a mental-health crisis by Decquir led his mother to call law enforcement for the protection of everyone involved at the scene in the apartment.
The lawsuit states that Decquir’s mother was given assurance that her son would be taken for psychiatric care, but deputies instead brought Xavimen to the JPCC and locked in a cell, where officers allegedly refused Decquir his legally mandated phone call, never told him upon what charges he was there, and told him to “shut up” when Decquir – was was still in health crisis and confused as to what happening – repeatedly asked for an explanation of his status.
The lawsuit charges that deputies removed Decquir and three officers – Jonathan Bentel, Robert Johnson and Hiep Nguyen, all of whom are listed as defendants in the lawsuit – brutally beat Decquir while other deputies watched and allowed the attack to continue.
The officers allegedly slammed the plaintiff’s lawsuit against a concrete wall multiple times, threw him to the floor and kicked and punched him savagely. The flurry of blows included at least two kicks to the face with steel-toed boots.
The lawsuit asserts that Decquir did not fight back in an away during the beating, which resulted in fractures of facial bones, a dislocated shoulder, bruised ribs and a concussion. The filing said Decquir required eight staples to close the wound to his head, and he continues to suffer from chronic headaches, loose teeth, blurred vision, memory loss and sharp pains in his spine. The suit added that the brutalization has compounded and worsened Decquir’s mental health issues, including self-mutilation, reclusiveness, deepening depression and suicidal ideation.
The lawsuit also names Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto, who, the suit said, bears responsibility for fostering an atmosphere that routinely allows such brutal misconduct on behalf of his deputies.
Another key part of the lawsuit details the JPSO’s long record of such incidents of alleged excessive force, especially and pointedly toward people of color. The suit cites the overt racism, callousness and disregard of the public by former Sheriff Harry Lee, the controversial, openly bigoted law-enforcement official who reigned over Jefferson Parish from 1980 until his death in 2007.
The legal action says that this tradition of injustice and racial prejudice was continued by Lee’s successor, Newell Normand, and further employed by Lopinto.
“Mr. Decquir is one of numerous individuals to endure racially motivated violence at the hands of JPSO, an organization with a disturbing anti-Black history,” the lawsuit charges. “Much of this violence can be attributed to the failed leadership of the current JPSO Sheriff, Defendant Lopinto.
“It is evident that, unless and until Defendants are held accountable for their racially motivated violence, they will continue to violate the rights of Black and Brown people.”
Ahmed said Lopinto is continuing the trend of racially motivated brutality in the JPSO from his two predecessors.
“He definitely looks up to them and places both Normand and Lee as role models,” she said.
The Xavimen lawsuit is part of the effort and encapsulates the troubling trends of brutality against people of color within the JPSO and law-enforcement agencies across the state, say ACLU representatives, who noted that through the Justice Lab the LaACLU has filed seven lawsuits against various police agencies in Jefferson Parish.
The ProPublica report and the ACLU’s litigation together, clearly reveal long-standing racist policies, practices, and customs that have etched deep wounds in communities of color, and which must be immediately addressed,” ACLU of Louisiana executive director Alanah Odoms said in a prepared statement. “United States Attorneys have a constitutional and ethical responsibility to investigate police misconduct and disclose that evidence to the public. Our community members deserve a full investigation, complete transparency, and justice for the lives lost and harms perpetrated by the JPSO.”
Ahmed echoed Odoms’ words, telling The Louisiana Weekly that through it all, the JPSO has stubbornly refused to exhibit any sense of public transparency and accountability for its racist past and present, and that such a situation mirrors much of the rest of America.
“We look at all this data against the backdrop of racist policing in this country,” she said.
Spokespeople for the JPSO did not respond to multiple requests for comment by The Louisiana Weekly.
The racial motivations of allegedly overaggressive misconduct and behavior against people of color by law enforcement officers in Jefferson Parish has been followed closely by U.S. Rep Troy Carter of Louisiana, who told The Louisiana Weekly last week that the new reports by the ACLU and the news agencies are “quite disturbing.”
“Injustice anywhere cannot be tolerated,” Carter said. “I do not, and our society should not, condone any violence, misconduct or excessive use of force by those sworn to protect and serve. Our country must protect the civil rights of all its citizens.”
Carter added that he hopes the JPSO will finally come to terms with and publicly acknowledge its history of officer improprieties and undue aggression against people of color. He said he hopes that the JPSO “will use all resources available to thoroughly and transparently seek out the truth, wherever it may lead.”
He said legislation is needed to guarantee that type of transparency on the part of law enforcement, including requiring all policing agencies institute comprehensive community-relations training, body cameras, and recording and documentation of all incidents that may occur between police and citizens. He said such recordings “can help all parties involved get to the bottom of what really occurred and incentivize police practice reforms.”
He pointed to the federal George Floyd Justice in Policing Act as an example of legislation that takes significant steps toward standardizing policies, collecting data, and increasing accountability.
However, Carter lamented, even such legislation reining in police violence and abuse against minorities will only address one level of a bigger picture of racism that has built up over decades and longer.
“While I believe that these measures will help decrease violence, disparities in policing against people of color are representative of a deeper, more systematic issue that will take structural and internal transformation to overcome,” he said. “These issues are not unique to Jefferson Parish, and the continued disparities in policing throughout the country demonstrate how It will take a collective effort to create meaningful change on a national scale.”
Carter said a level of mistrust between the Black community and law-enforcement officials, both locally and nationally, continues to fester. Against the backdrop of nationwide movements for racial justice and police reform over the last several years, the alleged misdeeds of JPSO officers only exacerbate the situation, something Carter himself often feels.
“It is a real issue across the United States that people of color, especially Black people, too often feel anxious when interacting with police,” he said. “Sadly, I’ve felt this way myself.
“We have a long way to go in building back trust, and rightfully so. While the majority of good officers outweigh the bad, the long and important journey toward a Louisiana where everyone feels safe in their communities must continue.”
This article originally published in the October 4, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
