#TalkRadio – March 26: The Ugliness of Hate Crimes in Policing and Vigilantism

SPEAKERS:

Ryan Thompson, Esq.: 12:00 PM – 12:57 PM ET
Co-Counsel in several lawsuits against the Baton Rouge Police Department

Destiny Jackson: 12:00 PM – 12:57 PM Eastern Time
Transformative Justice Coalition Alumni and Fellow; Former intern for Stacey Abrams’ Campaign; Former Intern for Philadelphia City Council; Former Advocate/Peer Coach for The Advocacy Institute; Student at Spelman College obtaining B.A. Degree; Spelman representative for the HBCU Possibilities Program; Has received the Community Service Award (2019-2021); Student Achievement Award (May 2021); SHEroe Award from the National Crittenton Foundation in Solidarity (May 2019); and, the Youth Legacy Award presented by Comcast (Nov. 2022)

Clarence Adarian Fambro: 12:00 PM – 12:57 PM ET
TJC Fellow; Junior at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, majoring in Business Administration; Founder/CEO of Prestigious Automotive Detailing, Prestigious Auto Brokerage & Consultancy, and The Prestigious Group Scholarship Foundation.

Mawuli Mel Davis, Esq.: 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM ET
TJC Fellow; Junior at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, majoring in Business Administration; Founder/CEO of Prestigious Automotive Detailing, Prestigious Auto Brokerage & Consultancy, and The Prestigious Group Scholarship Foundation.

INTRODUCTION:

The Igniting Change Radio Show on Tuesday, March 26th, 2024, from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Eastern Time, entitled, “The Ugliness of Hate Crimes in Policing and Vigilantism”, will be live with Radio Show Co-Hosts and Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC) Co-Leaders Attorneys Barbara Arnwine, Esq. and Daryl Jones, Esq. and will feature special guests Attorney Ryan Thompson, Destiny Jackson; Clarence Adarian Fambro; and, Mawuli Mel Davis, Esq to discuss the March 27th TJC and Allies’ Prayer Vigil and Rally for the Arbery Family; Mississippi Police Department Indictments; and, “Brave Cave” developments. The epidemic of hate crimes in the United States continues to grow. Most hate crimes still are hate crimes against African Americans. 

Barbara and Daryl invite the Igniting Change audience to join them on Wednesday, March 27th in Atlanta, Georgia for the Transformative Justice Coalition and Allies’ Prayer Vigil and Rally for the Arbery Family that is occurring prior to oral arguments before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals by the murderers of Ahmuad Arbery seeking to overturn their convictions of hate crimes. For background on the Amuad Arbery case, see: https://campaignlp.constantcontact.com/em/1122865384673/0b809be1-402f-4f6a-9efa-70907c014cd7 

• On Thursday, March 21st, 2024, six former Mississippi law enforcement officers were sentenced for torturing and abusing two Black men in Rankin County, Mississippi. According to the Department of Justice  press release, “Senior District Judge Tom Lee sentenced the defendants to terms in prison ranging from 10 to 40 years.
• Christian Dedmon, 29, former Narcotics Investigator of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO), was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
• Brett McAlpin, 53, former RCSO Chief Investigator, was sentenced to 27.25 years in prison.
• Hunter Elward, 31, former RCSO Deputy, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• Jeffrey Middleton, 46, former RCSO Lieutenant, was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison.
• Daniel Opdyke, 28, former RCSO Deputy, was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison.
• Joshua Hartfield, 32, former Narcotics Investigator for the Richland Police Department, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“The depravity of the crimes committed by these defendants cannot be overstated, and they will now spend between 10 and 40 years in prison for their heinous attack on citizens they had sworn to protect,’ said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. ‘These defendants kicked in the door of a home where two Black men were residing, handcuffed and arrested them without probable cause, called them racial slurs, and punched, kicked, tased, and assaulted them. After one of the defendants fired his gun in the mouth of one of the victims, breaking his jaw, the defendants gathered outside to come up with a cover story as the victim lay bleeding on the floor. Officers who violate constitutional rights will be held accountable by the Justice Department for their crimes that harm individual victims and betray the trust of entire communities. I am grateful to the Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, the FBI Jackson Field Office, and our state partners for their outstanding work bringing these defendants to justice.

• ‘It is hard to imagine a more atrocious set of civil rights violations than those carried out by the defendants in this case,’ said FBI Director Christopher Wray. ‘But it is also hard to imagine more important work than investigating those crimes and seeking justice for the victims. As the result of the bureau’s color-of-law investigation, which we worked in collaboration with our federal and state partners, all six pleaded guilty last August and will serve lengthy sentences for their crimes.’
• “‘By holding these officers accountable, we are sending a clear message that law enforcement abuse of Black people, or any American, will not be tolerated in our country,’ said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. ‘These six white law enforcement officers sought to dehumanize two innocent Black men through cruel, violent, and lawless abuse. The defendants didn’t count on the victims’ courage to come forward and tell the truth or the justice system to hold them accountable. The court imposed severe sentences reflecting the defendants’ savagery, including the longest federal sentence in recent years for a civil rights police misconduct case. Justice demands accountability, especially when the defendants’ actions not only scarred the victims physically and emotionally, but also harmed the entire community, stripping away their sense of security, corroding trust and respect for the police.’” Read more here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/six-former-mississippi-law-enforcement-officers-sentenced-torturing-and-abusing-two-black 
• On March 22nd, 2024, the Thompson Justice Institute released a press release that states, in part: “Over the last several months, following the discovery of the [Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD)] black site now known as the ‘BRAVE Cave’ a disturbing number of citizens have come forward to share horror stories about the atrocities committed against them by officers in BRPD’s now disbanded ‘Street Crimes Unit’. On February 27, 2024, a Federal Judge granted a Motion— filed by counsel for several of BRPD’s victims—to conduct an onsite visit of the infamous BRAVE Cave. On March 22, 2024, that onsite inspection [occurred], beginning at 10AM. Following that inspection at 12:30PM, on March 22, 2024, counsel for several BRAVE Cave victims [held] a press conference to discuss the status of these cases.”

BACKGROUND ON THE BRAVE CAVE

• Here is some background for those who haven’t heard of the disturbing story of extrajudicial punishment by police of the Baton Rouge Police Department who tortured, tased, strip searched, and sexually abused arrestees. Read the Source and more in the September 28th CNN article “3 Baton Rouge police officers are on leave as investigations continue into ‘Brave Cave’ alleged police torture warehouse” written by Kevin Conlon.
• “Three Baton Rouge Police Department officers have been placed on administrative leave as investigations continue into an alleged police ‘torture warehouse’ in Louisiana dubbed the Brave Cave. Among the three now on leave is Deputy Chief Troy Lawrence, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul announced Wednesday. The deputy chief is a high-ranking member of the department whose son, former officer Troy Lawrence Jr., was named in a federal lawsuit alleging brutal and sexually humiliating interrogation tactics at the off-site warehouse. The son, Lawrence Jr., who has since resigned from the police force, was arrested and charged last week in a separate battery incident, according to authorities.
• “‘We will hold ourselves accountable,’ Paul said at Wednesday’s regularly scheduled city council meeting. ‘The investigative efforts will yield accountability that will meet community expectations.’
• “CNN has reached out to Deputy Chief Lawrence’s attorney for comment.
• “Multiple investigations are underway into the police department’s practices and the now-shuttered warehouse facility, including by the FBI and Baton Rouge Police, according to Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome. ‘I know we are all committed to accountability, justice and reform,’ Broome said.
• “The police department is also facing lawsuits over the conduct of officers at the warehouse, which officers allegedly referred to as the ‘brave cave,’ according to complaints made this year.
• “The complaints allege detainees taken to the facility were beaten or subjected to strip searches. The warehouse, officially known as the Narcotics Processing Facility, ‘has been permanently closed and the Street Crimes Unit Officers have been disbanded and reassigned,’ according to a previous police department statement.
• “The [lawsuit filed in September] alleges a Baton Rouge grandmother, Ternell Brown, was stopped by officers while she was in the car with her husband in June. Brown was carrying two different types of prescription pills in the same container, ‘which she lawfully possessed,’ it reads. The grandmother ‘was taken to BRPD’s black site, where she was forced to show officers that she was not hiding contraband in her vagina or rectum. After more than two hours, they let her go without charge,’ the complaint states.
• “Another lawsuit, filed [in August], alleges Baton Rouge resident Jeremy Lee, 21, was taken to the warehouse on January 9 and beaten as the officers periodically turned their body cameras on and off. Before being taken to the warehouse, Lee had been detained at a home ‘without reasonable suspicion or probable cause,’ said the complaint. He was forced down in the middle of the street, his pants were pulled down so they could search him – in public – and officers grabbed his genitals. When he asked, the officers refused to tell him why he was being arrested, according to the complaint.
• “Jessica F. Hawkins, an attorney representing both plaintiffs, has said that she is ‘receiving calls daily from Baton Rouge residents who were taken to this black site and illegally strip searched.’
• ‘These instances of abuse need to be properly investigated and addressed and whoever carried out these atrocities needs to be held accountable,’ Hawkins said in a news release.”
• On the evening of November 13th, Attorneys Jessica F. Hawkins and Ryan Thompson filed suit in the Middle District of Louisiana against the Baton Rouge Police Department, Chief of Police Murphy Paiul, Officer Tafari Beard, Officer Steven Nevels, two John Doe officers, the City of Baton Rouge, and the Parish of East Baton Rouge for fourth amendment violations and other claims related to the now infamous BRAVE Cave.
• See the press release here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15s_L6wM7u7MmIOSFq–eDEOuf6-b08EX/view?usp=sharing 
• See the copy of the Complaint here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18QcaqEaPqmMQwV58pdHYh2gjS0aUTByU/view?usp=sharing 
• The I-TEAM at CBS’ WAFB 9News in Louisiana published an article on November 14th covering this new lawsuit: 
• “The Baton Rouge Police Department is facing yet another federal lawsuit tied to the infamous Brave Cave, a now closed warehouse that had been used by the now disbanded Street Crimes Unit for off-the-books questioning and alleged abuse for years. In the lawsuit, a man named Jason Jackson was allegedly taken there back on May 10, 2023 following a traffic stop near Memorial Stadium…
• “‘The officer who made contact with him initially said that he was making some questionable movements inside the vehicle. What that means, we don’t know and at that point he was taken out of the vehicle, shackled at the hands and feet and place in the vehicle,’ said Thompson. ‘According to him there was a search of his vehicle that was done by those officers but there was no real reason other than looking suspicious that he was stopped.’
• “Despite officers finding nothing inside the car, the attorney alleges Jackson was taken to the secretive warehouse anyway where he was allegedly handcuffed to a bar, forced to strip naked and he claims at least one of the four officers there grabbed his genitals while carrying out an illegal body cavity search.
• “At one point during the search, the lawsuit states officers told him they had a K9 inside the facility and that they would let the dog ‘tear him up’ if he tried to run. According to his attorney, the search was so humiliating that while the man was bent over he started to cry. Hours later, Thompson tells the WAFB I-TEAM the cavity search turned up nothing and that’s when officers apologized before letting Jackson go without a ticket.
• “This lawsuit adds to the more than a dozen complaints that have been filed with BRPD over the Brave Cave since the WAFB I-TEAM first exposed the secretive facility back in August. It also comes after four officers have already been arrested for their alleged roles in a reported beating and cover-up and as the FBI continues its probe into alleged abuses of power by officers within the agency.”
• Attorneys Hawkins and Thompson, who represent the Plaintiff in this new lawsuit, stated in their press that: “Research has revealed a 2014 federal lawsuit that ended in 2016 when a local jury found that former BRPD officer Jason Acree had conducted a strip search which violated the Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights. That jury also found that the moving force behind the unconstitutional strip search by Acree was a custom or policy of the City of Baton Rouge/BRPD, of which the City of Baton Rouge knew or should have known and was deliberately indifferent to.

  “Two months after this jury award, BRPD revised its Strip Search Policy. However, those amendments only served to codify the Department’s already long-standing custom of unconstitutional strip searches and shows an outright refusal to make meaningful change within the Department.

  “These new details appear in a federal lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana on Monday, November 14, 2023. The plaintiff, a Baton Rouge man, was stopped for a routine traffic matter when BRPD officers shackled his hands and ankles, took him to the BRAVE Cave, and threatened with a canine before officers conducted illegal Strip and Body Cavity searches upon him. Plaintiff was then transported back to his vehicle and not issued a single summons or citation.

  “Ryan K. Thompson, Counsel for Plaintiff: ‘You don’t have to go to Afghanistan or Guantanamo to find black sites where people are tortured. We have one right here in Baton Rouge, run by the Baton Rouge Police Department. Each day we learn more and more about this facility, and each day it gets worse. There is no greater purveyor of sexual violence in Baton Rouge than BRPD.’ “

QUESTIONS:

• [Barbara may have on the Arbery Family as they invite people to join them on Wednesday, March 27th in Atlanta, Georgia at the Transformative Justice Coalition and Allies’ Prayer Vigil and Rally for the Arbery Family, occurring prior to oral arguments before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals by the murderers of Ahmuad Arbery seeking to overturn their convictions of hate crimes.]
• Welcome back to the show Attorney Thompson. The nation has been fixated on this trial of the 6 Mississippi Police officers for torturing 2 African American men. When did you hear about the Mississippi case and what did it make you think about in regards to the “Brave Cave” in Baton Rouge? To be honest, when I first heard the details of this case in Mississippi, I thought it was your case because of the similarities.
• Attorney Davis, what was your initial reaction when you heard about the Mississippi sentencing for these hate crimes?
• Attorneys Thompson and Davis, this Wednesday, the convicted murderers of Ahmaud Arbery will be appealing their hate crimes convictions. Even though these were actions of people who weren’t current police officers, they initially asserted that they were trying to execute a “citizen’s arrest” and invoked their relationships with law enforcement in an attempt to shield themselves from liability. What does it say that in our nation there exists a presumption that the use of police power can be used to conceal outright racist bigotry and torture?
• [for everyone] The similarities between the Brave Cave and Mississippi situations mirror that of Homan Square in Chicago; the “jump-out boys” in Baltimore and Atlanta; the Scorpion Unit that murdered Tyre Nichols; and, other instances. These are not isolated instances. How do you think these actions and practices are being perpetuated throughout law enforcement?
• One reason why the Mississippi torture cases have received so much attention is because of the severity of some of the sentences., As in the original jury convection of the McMichaels, the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, do these punishments mean the legal systems and citizens are realizing that these hate crimes are an anathema to our best American ideals?
• Mawuli, why do you want to make sure that people show up on Wednesday to the Ahmaud Arbery murderers’ hearing, and TJC’s Prayer Vigil and Rally protest of these murderers appealing their hate crimes’ convictions?
• Mawuli, thank you for all of your hard work. How do our listeners get in contact with you?
• Attorney Thompson, can you tell people what happened Friday when you were able to inspect the warehouse where the Brave Cave operated? How did that inspection go?
• Adarian and Destiny, when you hear this report from the Brave Cave and Mississippi, how does this affect your view of our nation?
• Destiny, you want to bring your whole class to the “100% Justice For Ahmaud
• Prayer Vigil and Rally”. Why do you want to bring your whole class?
• Everyone, how does all of this relate to voting?
• Attorney Thompson, how can people support the fight for justice for the citizens of Baton Rouge  viscous and illegal practices by the Baton Rouge Police Department through the Brave Cage?
• Adarian and Destiny, on Wednesday, what will be your words to the country on Wednesday?
• What are your final thoughts to our listeners?
• Thank you for all of your hard work. How do our listeners get in contact with you?