A white police officer in Louisiana was shown on video choking an unarmed Black man during an incident that attorneys say not only violates state law but also places a spotlight on the worsening issue of police brutality in the state.
The unfortunate encounter happened last weekend in the city of Scott, a suburb of Lafayette that was hosting the annual Scott Boudin Festival.
It was outside of that festival that Lt. Brun Lavergne of the Scott Police Department on Saturday night employed a carotid chokehold on Anthony Wayne Babino Jr., 20. Lawyers representing Babino claim their client was close to passing out because of the “reckless brutality” on Brun’s part.
NewsOne has obtained and reviewed the footage that was filmed by a bystander and plainly shows the officer grabbing and holding Babino’s neck with both hands. During the brief clip, Babino is not shown posing any threat to the officer.
Babino’s attorneys — civil rights attorneys Harry M. Daniels and Harry L. Daniels III — said it’s evidence that Brun violated Louisiana state law.
“This type of unwarranted and illegal behavior has no place in the city of Scott or anywhere,” the attorneys said in a statement sent to NewsOne. “But it’s even worse when you consider that Lt. Lavergne isn’t some green recruit who got in over his head. He’s a senior supervisor, a division head and a training officer.”
Louisiana law explains that the use of “Neck restraint prohibition” is conditional: “The use of choke holds and carotid holds are prohibited, except when the officer reasonably believes he or another person is at risk of great bodily harm or when deadly force is authorized.”
The law was updated in 2022 to reflect the above stipulation.
Babino’s lawyers pointed out that not only has Brun worked in law enforcement for at least 12 years but he’s also a certified field training officer, homicide investigator and narcotics investigator who currently works in the capacity of an administrative supervisor.
The implication is that Brun, as a veteran cop and supervisor, certainly should have known that employing such a chokehold is illegal, particularly after the police murder of George Floyd drew national attention to the controversial police restraint technique.
Babino’s attorneys speculated that Brun was setting the wrong example of impressionable officers who he is charged with training.
“If this is the kind of reckless brutality he’s teaching to the younger officers, then this problem goes a lot deeper,” they added.
Video of Babino’s encounter with Brun can be viewed by clicking here.
Police brutality in Louisiana
The allegations facing Brun come a few years after Lousiana State Police troopers brutalized motorist Ronald Greene to death in a massive coverup — including suppressing damning bodycam video recently leaked to the media.
One of the troopers involved with Greene’s death was also part of a group text with Louisiana State Troopers joking about using excessive force against a different Black suspect.
In an example of the kind of discipline officers in Louisiana face — or don’t face — for brutality, one State Trooper who was fired in 2019 for a DWI arrest that included fist-fighting fellow troopers who needed to use a Taser to restrain him was ultimately given his job back.
Beyond brutality, the State Trooper Of The Year in 2018 was arrested and charged for production and distribution of child pornography.
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The post ‘Reckless Brutality’: Video Shows White Cop Choking Unarmed Black Man In Louisiana, Lawyers Say appeared first on NewsOne.
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