New video shows Louisiana state troopers stunned, beat and choked Greene, a Black man, after a car chase and crash in 2019.
Louisiana State Police troopers involved in the violent arrest of a Black motorist who died in police custody in 2019 should be fired and arrested, leaders of the National Urban League and other civil rights groups said Thursday.
Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans, discussed the arrest and death of Ronald Greene at a morning news conference with other state and local civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP.
“Mr Greene was killed by these state troopers,” Morial said after reviewing an Associated Press video report that included an interview with an expert on police use of force. “After seeing that video, no reasonable person could come to any other conclusion other than a crime has been committed by Louisiana state troopers.”
Civil rights lawyer Ron Haley added, “Make no mistake: Ron Greene was murdered at the hands of Louisiana State Police.”
Tomorrow I’m joining Ronald Greene’s family & attorneys along with other national voices to demand that the ALL the cops involved in this Black mans death are arrested, fired, charged in his death.
Meet us at the state capital at 3p! This was murder, they beat a man to death. pic.twitter.com/xdDutZrS0J
— Gary Chambers (@GaryChambersJr) May 27, 2021
Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, appeared at the news conference with family lawyer Lee Merritt, who said they had met with a state legislator as well as previously appealed to the governor’s office and district attorney to ask a judge to issue an arrest warrant for the troopers. Merritt said they were told to trust the process and await the results of a federal investigation.
“No one has delivered any specific action,” Merritt said. “We believe in equal protection under the law. And we know if a white citizen, a fellow police officer, the governor’s child, had met the same end that Ronald Greene met, there would be action by now.”
Hardin thanked Morial and others attending the news conference.
“We need help,” she said. “We need someone’s attention to help, to move these mountains.”
Video obtained by the AP and later released by state police shows troopers stunning, beating and choking Greene, 49, following an automobile chase and crash in northeast Louisiana in May 2019.
Bodycam footage released on May 22, 2021 show troopers repeatedly jolting the 49-year-old unarmed man with stun devices, putting him in a chokehold, punching him in the head and dragging him by his ankle shackles [File: Louisiana state police via YouTube/Handout via Reuters]
Greene’s family was initially told that he died in the car crash. State police later issued a brief statement acknowledging there was a struggle with officers and that Greene died on the way to hospital. Since then, Greene’s death has come under investigation by state and federal authorities. It also is the subject of a lawsuit.
The video shows troopers converging on Greene’s car outside Monroe, Louisiana, after a high-speed chase that followed an unspecified traffic violation. Troopers can be seen repeatedly jolting the 49-year-old unarmed man with stun devices, putting him in a chokehold, punching him in the head and dragging him by his ankle shackles.
He also was placed face down on the ground for more than nine minutes while restrained – a tactic use-of-force experts criticised as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing.
An autopsy cited the restraint and an “inflicted head injury” as factors in Greene’s death, along with cocaine-induced delirium and other injuries that might have been the result of the car crash.
The ACLU of Louisiana said the afternoon rally will include representatives of the NAACP of Louisiana and Greene’s family. After remarks on the Capitol steps, the group plans a march to the governor’s mansion.
