Louisiana Voice

Four years after the fact, the Louisiana State Police (LSP) Department has been ordered to surrender a video of LSP Trooper Matthew “No Neck” Clair as he laid one across the face of a handcuffed prisoner at the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center in Marksville.

For four long years, LSP DENIED Baton Rouge TV station WAFB access to the tape of Clair popping the prisoner, who had been booked into jail on a DUI charge. So, the TV station SUED for access to the video.

You’d think LSP would finally learn after losing so many public records requests from members of the media. But noooo, they have to keep going to the well and coming up empty.

Remember how it took three years for video of the Ronald Greene beating at the hands of half-a-dozen state troopers and a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy? Three years of lying about the existence of body cam video that existed all along and now LSP is apparently stupid enough to think it can pull the same coverup again. WAFB’s early requests were met with denials of the existence of video, a denial that sounds eerily familiar to the initial Ronald Greene denials.

This time, though 19^th Judicial District Court Judge William Jorden would have none of it. Today, he ordered LSP to surrender the video depicting what has been alleged as excessive force.

First to break the news of the judge’s order was Robert Burns, owner of the Sound Off Louisiana web blog. He has been following the incident since at least March 1.

Quick to follow with its own story was WAFB, which not only posted the story but also posted the video in question. It’s the third video down in the WAFB story. To watch it and to judge for yourself whether or not excessive force was used, go HERE.

The video was from the Avoyelles Sheriff’s Office because Clair did not have his body cam on (that seems to happen a lot with state police). Clair was initially suspended without pay for 40 hours in 2022 but that discipline was later overturned on appeal when State Police Commander Col. Robert Hodges assumed command. Instead, Clair received only a non-disciplinary letter of counseling—sort of an LSP participation trophy.

State police explained that Clair, who had been a state trooper since 2006, had not received updated training on current techniques prior to the slapping incident—16 years after joining LSP. Well, hell, these things take time.

Burns quoted an unnamed state trooper who called the LSP explanation “B.S.” He told Burns, “They (LSP) train on defensive tactics every year, without fail.”

People these days are gnashing hands and wringing teeth over the threat of AI because we can no longer believe what we see is real.

But wait.

Have you seen the latest TV ad campaign of Sen. Bill Cassidy?

If not, you’re missing out on some low-brow comedy. AI has nothing on him. The ad’s MESSAGE comes down hard on his efforts to work with Donald Trump in passing tax cuts that “put more money in our pocket” by working to “change” the high costs of goods and services.

It’s truly laughable if you like dark humor. Under Trump, prices have gone but one way: up. And Cassidy has been shunned by Trump like he was the Epstein files personified. In fact, he even endorsed one of his opponents in the upcoming GOP primary, Rep. Julia Letlow.

But the funniest part of the ad is at the end when four supposed voters take turns “thanking” Cassidy for his fine work on their behalf.

Except for one important little snag. They’re not actually voters and they’re most probably not even from Louisiana.

Like the so-called clients portrayed in so many of those personal injury attorney ads, they are actors, paid by some ad agency to stand or sit in front of a camera and try to convince your life will be somehow made better by voting for him.

The only thing missing is the candidate, in shirtsleeves, coat slung over his shoulder, as he greets hardworking plant workers emerging from a long day at work.

Just a gentle reminder that what you see ain’t necessarily what you are really seeing.

In my resolve not to appear hypocritical, I will refrain from criticizing Donald Trump’s comments on the death of Robert Mueller III.

That’s because if am still alive and in control of my faculties, I’m pretty sure what my own reaction will be when and if Cankle Ankles should assume room temperature.

First, he announced he would run against Bill Cassidy for Cassidy’s U.S. Senate seat. But then, State Sen. Blake Miguez (R-New Iberia) lowered his sights (a pun in reference to his proficiency as a marksman) and entered the crowded race to succeed 5^th District Rep. Julia Letlow who is running against Cassidy.

That’s his derogatory, as a former mayor of an area city once said to a critic at a city council meeting I was covering, even though he has been accurately described as a “carpetbagger” by an opponent in that House race because he lives far outside the 5^th District.

But his latest TV campaign ad almost made me hurl, toss my cookies, drive the porcelain bus, yawn the technicolor yawn. Puke, in other words.

Let it be made clear that I don’t have a dog in this hunt. He’s running in a Repugnantcan primary and not being Repugnantcan, I cannot vote for any of the candidates anyway. Still, there’s this TV ad…

A solemn Miguez turns to an American flag and recites the Pledge of Allegiance, proclaiming at the end that he is loyal both to the flag and is a patriotic American.

Well, who isn’t? I’m patriotic. His opponents, I’m certain, are patriotic. So what? That alone is no more a qualification to hold office than being an expert shot in a pistol competition.

But here’s the rub. He has the full endorsement of Donald Trump.

Now let’s connect the dots.

Gregory Crittendon Jr. was an officer with the D.C. police department when he arrived at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to help quell a riot, an insurrection, that occurred at the urging of one Donald Trump.

When he got to the Capitol, he was assaulted by rioters, thugs, who were there to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. They battered Crittendon with…the American flag. “I’m a police officer, I support the American flag and yet, there I was getting stuck with it,” he told The Washington Post.

And here’s the biggest insult: A bronze plaque honoring law enforcement officers who defended the seat of American democracy that day, intended to commemorate the service of Crittendon and other police officers who were beaten with flagpoles (like Samuel Mott), drenched in pepper spray (like Jesse Leasure) and beaten, yanked and bruised (like Carlton Wilhoit III), somehow managed to leave their names off. Nor was the name of Jeffrey Smith, who was beaten so badly with his own baton that he took his own life nine days after the riot, to be found on the plaque–which, by the way Repugnantcans fought successfully for years to keep if from being displayed for public viewing. Even now, it’s mounted on a basement wall, where the public is not allowed access. How’s that for honor?

And yet, Blake Miguez has the cajones to stand there all serious and full of good ol’ American pride as he recites the Pledge while accepting the endorsement of the very man who instigated the assault on the American seat of democracy, the man who told the mob to “march down to the Capitol,” the may who had the authority to call off the dogs but refused to do so for 187 minutes, choosing instead to watch the mob chant “Hang Mike Pence,” smear the Capitol walls with excrement and use the American flag as a weapon against peace officers, a man directly responsible for the six deaths that occurred during the riot or in its aftermath.

Sorry, Blake Miguez. You can’t have it both ways. You loyalty is to the flag or to Trump.

Not both.

When I wrote a few years back that Louisiana Tech University had delusions of grandeur and should not attempt to play with the big boys, I apparently was wrong.

It’s not the first time for me to miscalculate how the winds blow but as a Tech alumnus and a native of Ruston, a decidedly small city, it just didn’t seem to be within Tech’s reach to be able to compete with the Alabamas, Auburns or Floridas. Those, after all, are serious programs that pay serious money to big-time coaches to put their teams in positions to win national championships, or at least compete for titles.

Tech simply did not belong in that rarified air. Or so I thought.

But now Tech, much like big brothers Michigan, LSU and Texas A&M, among others, has become embroiled in a sticky mess of a lawsuit, this one involving conference affiliation. As usual, when the lawyers get involved, the lines get a little blurred—which makes Tech no different than any other school.

You see, Tech once was a member of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). Then it joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), then Conference USA (CUSA) but now it wants to get back in the Sunbelt and that’s where it all gets a tad confusing.

Personally, I preferred it when Maxie Lambright’s Bulldogs, led by such players as Fred Dean, Terry Bradshaw, Kenny Lantrip, Denny Duron, Roger Carr and company were kicking butt in the old Southland Conference and competing for small college national titles (the 1984 playoff game with Archie “Gunslinger” Cooley’s Mississippi Valley Delta Devils, led by Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, was a classic).

But back to current events. It seems that both CUSA and the SBC are determined to have Tech as a member school for the 2026 football season. Each conference has released its respective football schedule for the coming year and (surprise!) Tech is included in both schedules.

Cue the state politicians.

This is too important to leave to the school and the two conferences to work out. So, accordingly, the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System has filed a LAWSUIT on behalf of Tech against CUSA. On March 13 (yep, Friday the 13^th), that petition was amended because on Thursday, the 12^th, CUSA, from whom Tech is seeking a divorce, released its fall schedule that included Tech and less than 18 hours later the SBC released its schedule which also includes Tech.

So, on paper, Bulldog fans appear to be in for some bonus football for the upcoming football season, what with Tech competing in two conferences simultaneously.

But in reality, that can’t happen. It’s gonna have to be an either or for Tech—obviously not both.

So, after the two conferences each claimed Tech as a member, an AMENDED PETITION was filed by the Board of Supervisors in 3^rd District Court in Ruston. But CUSA filed its own motion to move the case into federal court. That’s right: CUSA is making a federal case of it all. But the state will likely argue to move it back to state court, all of which drags the whole mess out perpetually and produces lucrative billable hours for the attorneys on both sides.

Talk about big time football…