No Justice, No Peace
A few words about Ronald Greene, May 10, 2019
Ronald Greene was a 49-year-old barber fleeing a traffic stop in Monroe, Louisiana in 2019. He hit a small tree and wrecked his car. Officers tasered him seven times, pulled him from the car, brutally beat, choked, cuffed, shackled and pepper sprayed him then placed him face down on the roadside, dragging him by his ankle shackles and ignoring him until he died. Then they told his family he had died in the crash even though body cam video existed of him walking, talking, apologizing and begging for mercy after the crash. When physicians examining Greene at the hospital noted that his injuries did not match the State Police report, troopers changed their story to one of violent resistance, another lie. The video was concealed for two years, and it took four years for 5 officers to be indicted and their trials to begin. Ultimately a full coroner’s report identified that the beating left Greene with a fractured breastbone, ruptured aorta and lacerated liver. The first three and a half years of this saga are well documented on the Wikipedia page dedicated to Ronald Greene. But to learn about the abysmal failure of justice in this case I had to wait until this fall, 2024.
Of the six troopers present or participating in Greene’s murder:
The highest ranking, Lt. John Cleary, who lied and concealed videotape, received no discipline at all and all charges against him were dismissed.
Peters and DeMoss had charges of obstruction of justice dropped.
Hollingsworth, who repeatedly beat Greene’s head with a flashlight, learned he was about to be fired two years after the homicide. That same day in an apparent suicide he hit a guard rail on a very familiar stretch of road at about 100 miles per hour.
York, originally charged with negligent homicide and 10 counts of malfeasance in office, saw those charges diluted and whittled away by the corrupt politics of Louisiana until he received a fine, some community service, probation and was allowed to retire with a $7,000/month pension
Harpin has had his trial postponed multiple times and won’t be back in court until sometime in 2025.
Three federal investigations of this case grind on but may never conclude as Trump appointees will likely take over and bury them. State of Louisiana inquiries, including one into Governor John Bel Edwards’s complicity in the cover ups, have lapsed. Mr. Greene’s mother has filed a wrongful death suit that is being put off until all criminal trials are completed.
There has been no justice for Ronald Greene.
John Oliver, on his sometime comedic, sometimes serious, always well-researched show, Last Week Tonight, did a very insightful piece on police use of traffic stops on October 7, 2024. Among the facts shared was that between January 1, 2017 and September 20, 2024, police killed 813 people during traffic stops and 29% of them were Black. If you use search terms traffic stops and John Oliver you can watch that piece on many sites.