The Preacher and the Sheriff
February 13, 2017 2:03 PM   Subscribe

Many of the beatings took place in the prison’s chapel — not because the officers had accepted God into their lives but, the indictment claimed, because the chapel was one of the few places in the prison without surveillance cameras.
A story about racism and police brutality in a good-ol-boy Louisiana Parish, a "Houdini suicide" in the back of a squad car, and one father's search for justice.
posted by AceRock (9 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
ugh, what do you even say in response?
posted by radicalawyer at 2:32 PM on February 13, 2017


“He wanted to take the streets back from the [expletive],” said the former narcotics officer Marion Borel. “They were animals,” explained a former deputy, Jason Comeaux, “and they needed to be treated like animals.”

What do you say in response? That this is America.

It happens in big cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore and Los Angeles. It happens in rural towns and bayou backwaters. It happens in affluent suburbs and dying slums, in gated communities and in back alleys. Mostly, it happens when they don't think anyone is watching. But it keeps happening, story after story, year after year.

It's not for nothing that Red America wants power transferred to state and local authorities, that sovereign citizens want the local sheriff to be the highest law enforcement officer allowed, and that some places want filming police to be outlawed and even criminalized. It's not about the law; it's all about control at its most primal levels.
posted by delfin at 3:42 PM on February 13, 2017 [17 favorites]


wow

so many .s

for justice, for the people killed for being black, for the truth, for fucking human decency

understand: this is America to many, many, MANY people.

day in, day out. a cop can rob, beat or kill you with impunity.



ugh. i feel sick when i read shit like this. like nauseous.

i wish you could sear this story on the fucking brains of the racists that defend this system and get angry when you dare suggest that something is wrong.

donate to SPLC and support their good work and defend them in word and in deed

if anyone else has any orgs to support.....it would be good to hear about it.



before this becomes about the current POTUS or administration: this has gone on through republican and democratic federal administrations and presidencies for DECADES.

posted by lalochezia at 3:47 PM on February 13, 2017 [5 favorites]


"Then he returned to the sheriff’s office, where he was given back his gun."

This line is proof that sometimes good things happen to despicable people.
posted by bawanaal at 5:02 PM on February 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Finally this gets some traction. But i wonder if we're just too late for the DOJ to investigate this Sheriff
posted by eustatic at 6:44 PM on February 13, 2017


What delfin said. As I was reading this, I was thinking that if you replaced sugar cane with apple trees and cabbage fields, it could have been the rural Northern community I grew up in. I still get a slimy shiver down my back when I remember our evil good old boy sheriff and judge.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:57 PM on February 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


Scum.

We in AZ finally got rid of the despotic racist, Arpaio, but only after he had been violating civil rights and engaging in corruption for decades. There's no telling how many others like him and Ackal are in this country.
posted by darkstar at 7:18 PM on February 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Still working through the article, but I had to do a me thing and get faces to go with the people. Both Ackle AND his lawyer look like utter bastards. (Image credit Douglas Collier)
posted by Samizdata at 7:54 PM on February 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Jesus.
posted by uberchet at 3:04 PM on February 14, 2017


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