Article archive / August 1, 2016
Originally published: . Volume 7, No. 8. Source pages: 3, 4, 5, 1, 6.
Louisiana Struggles to Deal with Tragedies
Police officers from across the nation, in formal attire, packed the 1,500 capacity sanctuary at Istrouma Baptist Church on Saturday July 23, and overflowed into a second building where the services were streamed. After eulogies concluded and ceremonial guns were fired, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola’s casket, draped in the flag, was placed into a horse- drawn carriage.
The tall, jet-black horses walked slowly down a flag-studded lane out to Airline Highway, where crowds lined the boulevard and overpasses in sweltering summer heat to honor Deputy Garafola, one of three officers killed in the deadly July 17 ambush.
The people waved their American flags at the almost endless stream of police cars and motorcycles, and chanted, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
A Stunned Community
As a stunned community grieved, and the Governor asked for unity and calm in a community dealing with multiple, complex issues. These are now seen to include: race relations, policing, mental health, veterans, acts of political extremism, coping with trauma and loss.
Governor John Bel Edwards said in a column in the Advocate, “We are all in this together, regardless of race, religion or socio-economic background. As Louisianans and Americans, all of us must work to bridge the divide that is causing violence and hatred to tear communities apart.”
With officers killed in Dallas and Baton Rouge, a report released last week by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund noted that officer deaths have increased 78 percent, despite a downward trend since the 1970s.
“This is perhaps the most difficult and dangerous time in American policing history,” said Terry Cunningham, President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, soon after the Baton Rouge ambush. “It’s been a heartbreaking week for law enforcement, and we have to call for an end of this violence against police,” he said, as reported in the Washington Post.
Mixed Views and Emotions
The anti-police brutality movement, with civil rights leaders pointing to the series of police-involved deaths of black men, and racial bias, has gained national prominence.
Others say that there has been a “militarization” of police. In a 2014 report by the ACLU, authors outlined how the “war on drugs” and “war on terror” is moving the police culture more toward battlefield tactics, and a greater impact on minorities. The ACLU report found that the people impacted were 39 percent black, 20 percent white, and 11 percent Latino.
Still others point to law enforcement as the dumping ground for all of society’s problems. “We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,” said Dallas Police Chief David Brown at a press conference after five officers were killed. “We are. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it. … Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem. Let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”
But whether police are racially biased remains a subject of continuing debate by researchers. In one study published in Injury Prevention, researchers found that police were not more likely to injure black and Hispanic people when stopped, but were more likely to stop them.
A report in the New York Times cited the finding that police officers have the same unconscious biases toward minorities that the general population does, and cited a study by Center for Policing Equity that found that police were 3.6 times as likely to use force with blacks.
Harvard economist Roland Fryer, who has published extensively on racial issues, and who is black, also found that while black and Hispanic civilians were significantly more likely to be handled in a rough manner, even when obedient toward the officers. But, Fryer did not find racial bias in the use of lethal force. His work is causing controversy.
What is clear is that encounters with the police can be dangerous. Injuries inflicted by police accounted for 3.3 percent of all injuries resulting from an attack by another person, and the deaths by police accounted for about 6.5 percent of all homicides, according to one of the authors in Injury Prevention and reported in the Washington Post.
The Shooting of Mr. Sterling
The tinderbox of issues erupted in Baton Rouge when two white officers responded to a call about an armed man, early on July 5. Mr. Alton Sterling was shot to death during the arrest and after someone shouted, “He’s got a gun.” Bystanders recorded portions of the encounter where Mr. Sterling was shot while being restrained face up on the ground.
The recordings were widely viewed and sparked protests and an outcry from around the country, adding to a string of recorded police shootings since Ferguson, Missouri.
Unconfirmed threats toward Baton Rouge police were circulated on the web, and protests in the city became intense.
Governor Edwards, said he had “serious concerns” about what he saw on the video and asked the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI to lead the investigation into Sterling’s death.
With tensions high Gov. Edwards asked “… leaders in the faith-based community as well as our local and state elected officials to work together to continue to call for peace and calm across our community as details continue to unfold.”
“I know protests are going on, and I am urging everyone to remain peaceful. One thing is for sure – another violent act or another family torn apart is not the answer,” Edwards said.
Gavin Long Comes to Baton Rouge
But on July 17, Gavin Long, a black man from Kansas City, came to Baton Rouge and ambushed police, killing officers Brad Garafola, Matthew Gerald, and Montrell Jackson, and wounding three others, one critically. It was Long’s 29th birthday.
He had served in the military for five years as a data network specialist, spending eight months in Iraq. According to the Kansas City Star, Long’s mother said her son was diagnosed with PTSD, and said that the VA determined that his PTSD was not related to his military service.
A report from CNN notes that Long had filled a prescription for Ativan, and had prescriptions for Valium and Lunesta.
Long’s mother has said she urged him to seek treatment at the VA but she reported that he declined because, “… they do not care about anything except the one percent,” and he felt that the VA would not help him. Long’s mother produced a letter from the VA saying that Long’s medical conditions, including PTSD, was not related to his military service, according to the Star.
Long had changed his name to Cosmo Ausar Setepenra, according to the CNN, and he posted on uTube with messages about “bloodshed.” In one he said, “If y’all want to keep protesting do that, but the serious ones, the real ones, the alpha ones, we know what it’s gonna take. It’s only fighting back or money, that’s all they care about. Revenue and blood. Revenue and blood.”
Long identified himself as part of the Washitaw Nation, a black nationalist movement that was once targeted by the FBI, and characterized by federal courts as fictional, reported the Washington Post.
According to the report, Long followed several conspiracy groups devoted to government surveillance and monitoring. One email, said the report, linked him to an organization that helps those being abused by “… remote brain experimentation, …” The FBI is said to be investigating the claim that Long made that he was a member of the Nation of Islam.
Civil rights leaders denounced the act. Rev. Jesse Jackson said that for decades black activists have called for justice but have never advocated attacks on police officers. “Shooting police is not a civil rights tactic,” said Jackson, in a Washington Post report.
Postings on Facebook by Fatally Shot Officer
Officer Montrell Jackson, a black Baton Rouge Police officer who also died in the July 17 attack, had just days before posted on Facebook to express his thoughts after the Dallas ambush and the Baton Rouge protests.
“In uniform I get nasty hateful looks and out of uniform some consider me a threat,” he wrote. “I’m tired physically and emotionally.”
He expressed his love for Baton Rouge and wrote that he wondered if the city loved him back after Sterling’s death, the Times-Picayune reported. “Please don’t let hate infect your heart,” Jackson wrote.
After Officer Jackson was killed, his sister was quoted by the Washington Post to say, “It’ coming to the point where no lives matter.”
If you or someone you know feels overwhelmed by events and needs help, call the crisis line at 225-924-3900. Or call the national suicide prevention line at 1-800-273-TALK.
The flag-draped casket of East Baton Rouge Parish Sherriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, killed in the July 17 ambush, is conveyed by a horse-drawn carriage from the grounds of Istrouma Baptist Church. American flags placed along the lane are reflected in the carriage windows.
Photos above are of services, open to the public, for Baton Rouge Sherriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, held at Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.
Officers from the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, outside the church at Deputy Garafola’s services.
Officers from the New Orleans Sherriff’s Department, leaving the services for Deputy Garafola. Officers from all across the country attended, some reported from all fifty states.
Officers in formal dress from all over nation and Canada attended the services for Deputy Garafola. The 1,500-person sanctuary overflowed to a second large building.
Members of the Gonzales Boat Club set up tents in the sweltering heat and handed out ice water at the services in Baton Rouge.
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