Sound Off Louisiana

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards who, in an angry tone at a press conference on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, repeatedly chastised Associated Press reports regarding his knowledge and/or activities in the aftermath of Ronald Green’s May 10, 2019 death at the hands of Louisiana State Police, even going so far as to characterized those widely-published reports as “inaccurate.”

On October 27, 2020, WBRZ’s Chris Nakamoto aired this feature in which Nakamoto stated that, “last month,” (which would have been September of 2020, and after Sound Off Louisiana first broke this September 10, 2020 feature on the LSP secrecy surrounding Ronald Greene’s arrest), Gov. Edwards expressed total confidence in then-LSP Col. Kevin Reeves.  Let’s take a look at that 21-second segment of Nakamoto’s feature:

21-second segment from Nakamoto feature wherein Edwards expresses “complete confidence” in then-LSP Col. Kevin Reeves.

Going by his press conference yesterday, Edwards stated that he did not learn that Greene’s death was anything different from what Reeves texted to him on May 10, 2019 until he read a feature (we have to believe our feature linked above) that contained significant details about the civil suit filed in Greene’s death.  While we have several sources who inform us that Edwards is not being candid in making that statement, let’s for argument sake give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s being truthful.

Edwards has now stated on multiple occasions, including at yesterday’s press conference, that the troopers engaged in “criminal acts.” Accordingly, how can he possibly justify his emphatic support of Reeves even after he (Edwards)  learned (by his own admission) that Greene’s death was not remotely as Reeves indicated in that text?  In fact, in sharp contrast to Edwards, Reeves made a very public pronouncement that the troopers’ actions were, “awful but lawful.”  When we last checked, “criminal acts” aren’t consistent with “lawful,” so how in the world does Edwards justify the content of the above 21-second video clip?

We want to stress a few other things about Reeves.  First, we reported on the six (6) approvals required for Reeves’ son to obtain a prized detective position long before should have ordinarily been the case.  We openly questioned if Reeves’ promotions of those troopers (in some cases, multiple promotions for the same troopers even in Reeves’ short tenure) were his way of issuing a big “thank you” for approving of his son obtaining the detective position.

Those promotions were awarded prior to Greene’s death, so nobody can argue that the promotions were the result of active participation in the obvious cover-up entailing Greene’s arrest.  For that reason, we still maintain that the promotions were likely a big “thank you” from Reeves for them signing off on his son obtaining the detective position.

On March 4, 2020, mere days after we were initially informed about Greene’s arrest (but long, long before we went public with it as it’s our policy to extensively vet allegations and seek public records to back up claims against troopers or anyone else), we openly called upon Reeves to “resign in disgrace.” See the very end of the feature just linked.  We cited other matters entailing Reeves for calling upon him to resign, but we refrained from mentioning a word about Greene because it was our intent to vet as diligently as we possibly could the allegations of which we were being made aware.

We will point out, however, that it would seem incredibly ironic if Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns could be “in the know” more than the Governor of the State of Louisiana!  We were informed of the development in late February of 2020 and, again, giving Edwards the benefit of the doubt, he has now stated in a very public forum that he didn’t learn of the nature of that death until reading our blog post on September 10, 2020!

After we did publish the September 10, 2020 feature above entailing all the secrecy around Greene’s arrest, however, and as Reeves’ retirement was announced, we felt compelled to publish this feature entailing pay raises for Reeves’ inner circle, some of whom would have a hard time denying any role in a cover-up at this stage of the game, and, unlike the promotions, those pay raises were granted AFTER Greene’s arrest.  Here are those  pay raises (including for Reeves himself approved by Gov. Edwards) replicated at this time:

This request is to grant a 4% salary adjustment for Deputy Secretary/ Colonel Kevin Reeves, increasing his salary from $177,436 to $184,533 annually.

Please grant a salary adjustment of 3% effective 7/1/20 to LTC Jay Oliphant. Annual salary to be $155,275.00.  Approved by Colonel Kevin Reeves.

Next, we have Lt. Col. Robert Adam White (no photo available):

Please grant a salary adjustment of 3% effective 7/1/20 to LTC Robert “Adam” White.  Annual salary to be $155,275.00.
Approved by Colonel Kevin Reeves.

From the response to our public records request above:

Please grant a salary adjustment of 3% effective 7/1/20 to LTC Jason Starnes.  Annual salary to be $155,275.00.  Approved by Colonel Kevin Reeves.

Again, from the previously-linked response to our public records request:

Please grant a salary adjustment of 3% effective 7/1/20 to LTC Robert Brown. Annual salary to be S166, 144.00.  Approved by Colonel Kevin Reeves.

Next we have Lt. Col. Michael Layne Barnum (no photo available).  Again, from the linked public records request response:

Please grant a salary adjustment of 3% effective 7/1/20 to
LTC Michael Layne Barnum. Annual salary to be $155,275.00.
Approved by Colonel Kevin Reeves.

So, we’re going to let our subscribers and site visitors be the judges of the level of Edwards’ truthfulness at yesterday’s press conference, but what we are going to say is that his entire legacy as Governor of Louisiana will be centered on his management and oversight over Louisiana State Police, and we do not believe Louisiana history textbooks will be kind to him in that regard!

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A flyer touting a fundraising event for State Sen. Katrina Jackson featuring Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.

On April 19, 2021, we were invited to a statewide NAACP Zoom meeting.  Gov. Edwards was the guest speaker.  Louisiana NAACP President Michael McClanahan showered Edwards with the highest praise possible.  Let’s take a look:

After the invocation, Louisiana NAACP President Michael McClanahan gave a very strong and authoritative introduction of Gov. Edwards in which he (Edwards) was showered with praise and adoration.

Judging by this Business Report article, it would appear the bloom has come off the rose, so to speak, regarding Gov. Edwards with the Louisiana NAACP.  From that article:

Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, called on Edwards to resign, saying he chose political expediency over justice in a man’s death.

“He needs to go,” Hardin told AP. “He was able to stand aside as all this unfolded and just remain mute. That’s shameful. … I hate that I’ve been lied to.”

Louisiana NAACP officials issued a statement calling the AP revelations “deeply disturbing.”

“The NAACP finds this severely demonstrates a need for our governor to be fully transparent with our great state. We feel that our governor has seemingly missed the mark so far,” the statement reads. “When did you learn the truth, governor?”

The final paragraph sure does fly in the face of the praise video above, no?  What a difference 287 days can make.

We feel compelled to point out that, as we made clear on our feature linked above, some in attendance at that Zoom meeting were far from happy with Edwards and McClanahan.  Specifically, Ms. Belinda Parker-Brown raised her virtual hand to ask Gov. Edwards a question (which would have entailed the arrest of Ronald Greene), only to be ignored throughout the meeting.  She resorted to sending a group-wide message at the bottom of everyone’s screen:  “I did not realize this was going to be nothing more than a cheerleading meeting for the Governor.”

In our opinion, it has gone beyond recovery at this point.  For the mother of Mr. Greene to make the statement she makes above, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser may as well let the interior decorators know what color drapes he wants in the Mansion’s main living room.

When we reported upon Democratic Senate candidate Luke Mixon’s quest to defeat U. S. Sen. John Kennedy, we told his associates at the meeting that, in our opinion, it was incomprehensible that Mixon could be that out-of-touch regarding Ronald Greene and be that dismissive of the importance of the Greene matter to the African American community in Louisiana.

We also stated to them:  “Take this to the bank.  John Bel Edwards will leave the Governor’s Mansion more unpopular than Bobby Jindal.”  Their response:  “That would seem impossible!”  Our guess is that they find it much less “impossible” now than that short time ago.

Mixon’s timing on saying Edwards is, “the political leader with whom I feel most aligned philosophically,” could not have possibly been timed any worse than it was.  It also didn’t help that, the very next day, Gary Chambers announced his candidacy for Kennedy’s U. S. Senate seat.  Given the massive syphoning that Chambers will have on African American voters away from Mixon (and Chambers won’t hesitate to throw that video of Mixon’s response to our question in Mixon’s face), Mixon is now relegated to little more than a footnote in the race who will do very well to capture 8 percent of the statewide vote.

If we’re right and Edwards’ days in the Mansion are in fact numbered and very low at this point, we guess State Sen. Katrina Jackson still plans to squeeze the last little bit of milk from the “Edwards cow” that she can as evidenced by the lead photo for this feature, which we reproduce at this time:

We’ve already gotten reaction from a number of folk in the African American community in Louisiana about the above fundraiser, and let’s just say it hasn’t been pretty at all.  One African American prominent individual who had not even seen the flyer until we sent it to him mere hours ago stated:  “Do you know just how bad this looks?  She is going to have him come into the very town where they beat that poor black man to death and use him (Gov. Edwards) to raise money.  It was wrong for her to invite him, and it’s wrong for him to go!”

We can only wonder if the Bayou DeSiard Country Club charged a non-refundable deposit.  Even if they did, Sen. Jackson may wish to opt to “cut losses” and cancel the planned fundraiser!  We’ll see if it still transpires.

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Murphy Painter, accompanied by his mother holding his right arm, emerges from Federal Court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana victorious via total acquittal  on all charges on December 20, 2013.

In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns provides a review of former Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission (ATC) Commissioner Murphy Painter as part of an introduction updating everyone on developments with Painter in 19th and 23rd JDC civil trials:

1/30/22:  Burns provides overview of Murphy Painter and a review of his 2013 Federal criminal trial.  CLICK HERE to read the brief recap of the trial and witnesses called referenced by Burns in the above video.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.