AP: Police brass eyed in probe of Black man’s deadly arrest

— Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Louisiana State Police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers seen on long-withheld body camera video punching, dragging and stunning Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal 2019 arrest. I’m scared!” A key point under scrutiny in the federal investigation came just a day after the AP published the video, when the head of the state police, Col. Lamar Davis, and his chief of staff, Lt. Col. Doug Cain, made a hastily arranged attempt to dissuade state prosecutors from charging troopers in the Greene case, according to several people familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it. “There’s a culture and a custom and practice that this type of behavior is condoned or winked at by command staff and has been allowed to perpetuate itself over the course of many years.” Of particular interest to federal investigators is why the state police failed to arrest Chris Hollingsworth, a veteran trooper who can be seen on the video stunning Greene and was later recorded boasting to a colleague that he choked Greene and beat the “ever living f—- out of him.” Seven days after Greene’s death, on May 17, 2019, state police detectives told their superiors that Hollingsworth should be arrested for turning off his dashboard and body cameras before the high-speed pursuit and later when he realized one of the devices was recording him talking about beating Greene, according to notes written by the lead investigator, Det. Last month, Peters announced his departure as head of the Monroe-based Troop F — which has become notorious for its harsh treatment of Black suspects — with an email saying, “Shamefully, we have now seen there are those within our own ranks tearing this agency apart from the inside.” Peters didn’t mention in his email that he recently received a 32-hour suspension for signing off on a use-of-force report without reviewing the body camera footage of his troopers beating yet another Black motorist, according to state police records.