Baton Rouge, Louisiana — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards defiantly denied Tuesday that he delayed or interfered with investigations into the lethal 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene - and for the primary time he characterised as racist the actions of troopers seen on video beautiful, punching and dragging the Black man.
"I am unable to think about if Mr. Greene had been White he would have been handled that manner," an emotional Edwards informed a information convention. "We have now to acknowledge racism once we see it. We have now to name it what it's."
The Democratic governor rejected the concept his response to the Greene case was pushed by a good reelection marketing campaign that depended closely on the Black vote. He mentioned that notion is nonsensical as a result of prosecutors had the Greene case nicely earlier than his election.
"Nothing like that has ever occurred due to me," he mentioned. "That isn't who I'm as an individual."
Edwards' remarks have been the primary since an Related Press report final week that confirmed he had been notified by state police inside hours of Greene's Could 2019 loss of life that troopers engaged in a "violent, prolonged wrestle," but he stored quiet for 2 years as police informed a a lot completely different story to the sufferer's household and in official reviews: that Greene died from a crash following a high-speed chase.
Edwards stayed largely silent on the case till final Could, when the AP obtained and revealed long-withheld physique digicam video displaying what actually occurred on a darkish roadside close to Monroe: white troopers jolting Greene with stun weapons, punching him within the face and dragging him by his ankle shackles as he pleaded for mercy and wailed, "I am your brother! I am scared! I am scared!"
Black lawmakers' tempers flare
The governor's information convention got here simply minutes after a heated, closed-door assembly with the Legislative Black Caucus that at instances erupted with members cursing over his muted response to Greene's lethal arrest.
Some caucus members requested why Edwards didn't converse out or observe up extra forcefully when knowledgeable of the circumstances.
"A person died in custody. You do not ask his title? You do not ask what occurred? You aren't getting any details?" one of many caucus members mentioned, in line with audio of the assembly obtained by the AP.
"This matter won't go away till there's an acknowledgement that there was a cover-up," mentioned one other.
Edwards at one level mentioned, "I'm not going to let you know every part that has occurred with the state police since I have been governor has been excellent."
"They're alleging that I've been personally concerned in this stuff and I've not," Edwards informed the caucus.
In his information convention, the governor additionally denied the state Home speaker's rivalry that he sought to discourage a legislative inquiry into the case final 12 months by blaming Greene's loss of life on a automotive wreck.
Edwards instantly contradicted Rep. Clay Schexnayder's account that Edwards informed him simply that in June and known as his relationship with the highly effective Republican Home speaker "particularly strained."
Schexnayder informed AP outdoors the Home chamber Tuesday that "I stand by my remark." Requested whether or not his relationship with Edwards is "strained" he mentioned, "I haven't got any sick will towards the governor."
Leaders of Louisiana's GOP-led legislature have vowed to take motion towards Edwards over his dealing with of the Greene case. The drama is enjoying out amid a greater than two-year-old federal civil rights investigation into the lethal encounter and whether or not police brass obstructed justice to guard the troopers who arrested Greene.
Edwards expressed non-public frustration with the period of time it has taken federal authorities to file fees in Greene's loss of life.
"Are they ever going to return out and have a cost?" the governor requested throughout his assembly with the lawmakers, including he believed the troopers' remedy of Greene had been felony "from the very first time I noticed" footage of it in October 2020.
Edwards at instances struck a dejected tone in the course of the assembly, telling the lawmakers: "That is the worst. I am unable to think about a worse day in my life than right this moment."
"I apologize with the core of my soul that we have not made the progress over the past 12 months that I hoped to have made and that I believed we have been making with state police," he mentioned. "I'm extra disillusioned in me than most likely you might be."