From last summer’s set of police-involved shootings in Baton Rouge to State Police Commissioner Calvin Braxton’s recent resignation over allegations he fixed tickets and threatened a trooper, Louisiana has been “parked at the intersection of hard-nosed politics and law enforcement controversy” for an entire year, says Jeremy Alford.
“Is anyone else noticing a pattern?” Alford asks in his latest column. “There’s a shared narrative building for what could become one of the most significant public policy and political trends in Louisiana. It’s a trend that’s building because these storylines are about to add new chapters.” More than a year after the police-involved shootings in Baton Rouge, Alford notes protestors can still be found. A second investigation into the police shooting of Alton Sterling is also being conducted by State Police and the Attorney General’s Office, which will “yield findings that will again be put under a media microscope.”
“Given the high-profile nature of the shootings, and the surprising resignations internally, it’s safe to say that State Police officials are working extra hard to ensure the Capital City investigation will be free of hiccups,” Alford writes.
Meanwhile, in New Orleans, Alford notes the field of candidates running for mayor and campaigning heavily on crime prevention and enforcement.
“Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell may have won The Soundbite Contest when releasing her platform: ‘Nothing stops a bullet like a job,’” he writes. “Leveraging tough-on-crime stances for gain is nothing new. Maybe that’s why U.S. Sen. John Kennedy and Attorney General Jeff Landry have been taking aim at New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.”
If we don’t see some smart crime policies emerge from the New Orleans mayoral election, says Alford, there’s still hope for the 2018 regular session.
“Some lawmakers are considering a few followup bills to this year’s successful criminal justice reform package,” he writes.
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
