Louisiana state trooper Carl Cavalier will be fired in the next 45 days for speaking out about an incidence of police brutality on the job. State Police Superintendent Lamar Davis said he violated department policy by accusing his colleagues of killing Ronald Greene, a 49-year-old Black man, during a violent arrest in 2019. Greene was initially reported to have died of his injuries from a car accident following a police chase, according to Newsweek.
“There are killers and there are people who are OK with the killers being on the job. And that’s the people who are a part of the cover-up,” Cavalier told WWL-TV in an interview. “I considered it murder because why else would we hesitate to be transparent about it? Why else would we not do our jobs and hold these guys accountable? Why else? What other reason?”
Disciplinary action was taken against the Louisiana troopers involved in Greene’s death after body camera footage was leaked to the press. Cavalier, who has been a Louisiana state trooper for 7 years, filed a lawsuit against Louisiana State Police on September 30th. He accused the department of discrimination ever since he issued a traffic ticket to a police officer.
“After issuing a ticket to a narcotics officer with the Houma Police Department, Petitioner’s supervisors began subjecting all tickets and reports to additional scrutiny,” Cavalier states in the lawsuit. “Including, but not limited to, watching body-worn camera video not related to use of force, requesting that incident reports be edited and/or rewritten, receiving harsh criticism over minor issues where other LSP commissioned officers were not reprimanded,” he said.
When his suspension was announced, Cavalier was serving a five-week unpaid suspension for publishing a book in which he shared his experience being a Black police officer in a racist work environment. Cavalier has since received support from various organizations, including the NAACP.
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