Speaking up

Bryant Riggs is sick and tired of hearing residents claiming that they don’t come forward about unethical policing due to the fear of retaliation.
The former law enforcement official and current Ville Platte City Councilman was one of several civic leaders that took part in Thursday night’s Town Hall Meeting for Justice held at the Ville Platte Civic Center.
Riggs, who delivered one of the more impassioned addresses of the evening, challenged residents to not use the excuse of being scared when it comes to informing the police department, the mayor and city council of unfair and illegal treatment by law enforcement.
“I am tired of hearing that people are scared,” Riggs said. “Martin Luther King Jr. is turning over in his grave right now. That man took a bullet for civil rights. His wife knew every day that she would be raising their kids without her husband. He knew he was going to die but he died for all of us black and white, and you telling me people out there are scared?”
Riggs further challenged the group of roughly 30 residents that showed up for the meeting.
“Some of the stories I heard tonight I have never heard before,” said Riggs, who shared his own story of unethical policing. “Honestly, never heard some of these before. I mean the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay don’t get treated like that. So here’s how I look at it. I trust y’all as voters. If you think we aren’t doing our job then vote us out. It is simple as that. If you think we are doing our job then vote us in but you have to inform us.
“I get more information on Facebook but not one of them comes to our City Council meetings.”
There was plenty more of that type of impassioned discussion on display at the meeting, which was spearheaded by local civil rights leader Arthur Sampson as a way for residents and a panel of community leaders to come together following the release of the Department of Justice’s report on the illegal hold procedures that were previously performed by the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Ville Platte Police Department.
“It is time for our community to heal from this,” Sampson said. “If these types of incidents are still happening then we want them to stop. Yes, we want to respect the law enforcement but we want the law enforcement to also respect us. We want to respect the court system but we want the court system to respect us too. We are citizens.”
The panel consisted of Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine, Ville Platte City Councilmen Mike Perron, Donald Sam and Bryant Riggs, Ville Platte Chief of Police Neal Lartigue, local defense attorney Alex “Sonny” Chapman, Don Bostik from the F.B.I., Lafayette-based attorney and pastor John Milton and President of the Lafaytte Chapter of the NAACP Marja Broussard.
In addition, representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Louisiana State Inspector General’s Office were in attendance, as was Ville Platte attorney Jacob Fusilier and Ville Platte Fire Chief Chris Harrison.
A representative from the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Evangeline Parish District Attorney’s Office did not attend the meeting.
For nearly two hours, residents grabbed the microphone and told their own personal stories about alleged police corruption.
Rufus Searile brought up the quality of the officers that VPPD has employed over the years, citing two former officers in particular including former VPPD detectives Nathaniel Savoy and Chateuse James.
Savoy is currently serving 18 months in person for falsifying a police report to cover up his own involvement of a robbery at Doug Ashy Lumber, while James was found guilty of malfeasance in office while working in Mamou but got pardoned and then was hired for VPPD and worked there for nearly a decade.
“We are hiring police officers that have been convicted of felonies,” Searile said. “Some were convicted of malfeasance in office and even though they were given first offender pardons, they were still able to get badges.”
“Police officers wearing badges getting paid by the city through the tax money of the tax payers, while using their authority to commit crimes,” Searile said. “You are planting evidence, taking away evidence, charging these individuals with no knowledge of these crimes.”
Searile then turned his ire to Chapman.
“Whenever these people get arrested by the police department do you actually go in and look at the whole file,” Searile asked while looking at Chapman. “Do you look at the time that they are arrested? What was done to them? Did they go in front of the judge? What type of work are you doing?
“I’m not trying to bash them but I am saying that these are rights that are being violated and that’s not being addressed.”
Chapman later defended himself by stating, “We are handling 600 felony cases. We don’t have an investigator and haven’t had one for seven years. We don’t have money for investigators. The district attorney has a full-time investigator and they have the City of Ville Platte and Pine Prairie and Mamou police departments and the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office. They have those investigators.”
Sampson also brought Latosha Pleasant up to the front of the room to speak. Pleasant read from a prepared letter and claimed that she was improperly stripped searched by the VPPD on January 26, 2017.
“I did ask for a female officer and as I stood there in panties and bra Officer Malcolm McKinney asked me to remove them,” Pleasant said.
After more residents told their own personal stories, the panel had its chance to address the crowd.
Vidrine took the microphone first and echoed a sentiment she expressed at last month’s Ville Platte City Council meeting.
“It rocked my soul and hurt me to my heart,” Vidrine said of the DOJ report. “It is our mission that everybody in Ville Platte should be treated with respect and dignity. It doesn’t matter to me if you have been arrested before you should be treated with respect and dignity.”
Vidrine further went on to inform the crowd that she has requested oversight from the Department of Justice (both visible and invisible) and to also have members of the VPPD receive professional training.
“We have heard that we have been trained this way or that way but some things are just common sense,” Vidrine said. “We want to make sure that you are protected, we want to make sure that our officers are protected. Because believe me we have some good officers and people that want to do the right thing. It won’t only be a time for healing but it will also be a time for correction.”
Vidrine also informed those in attendance that the city has ordered brand new body cameras at $1,200 per camera (which will be taken out of the general fund and not the police budget), as well as a server that will automatically download the footage that cannot be erased.
Vidrine also said she is working on helping those residents who could not afford to have proper representation.
“What I have heard a lot in the audience is that many people can’t afford a lawyer,” Vidrine said. “I am here to tell you that in the next few months I am going to get Legal Aid to have an office right here in Ville Platte to help the low income people that can’t afford to get an attorney. We will give an office space for free.”
Lartigue spoke to the crowd and said that he has an open-door policy as the leader of the city’s police force and said that significant change has already taken afoot and that the department will continue to improve in its method of serving and protecting the community.
“This issue was brought to my attention and corrective action was taken immediately,” Lartigue said. “It remains in place and will remain in place. They (DOJ) will be working on a more in-depth policy for the police department. With that being put in place it is going to protect the people -- the future citizens and chiefs of police and mayors of Ville Platte, where this won’t be able to twist and turn and go back to the way it once was after we are all gone. It’s for the future ones as well as for us.”
Riggs meanwhile also took a moment to remind the residents that they have the ability to make change in the community, but only they have that right to exercise that particular power.
“Vote me in or vote me out,” Riggs said. “If I stand up here and say all whites are racist I am wrong. If I say every black is a criminal I am wrong. Do not paint every politician with the same brush okay? Some of us do care.”
Riggs further added, “The people who enforce the policy and the procedures are the ones who know what is going on,” Riggs said. “The next time you push that button in the voting booth then you think about that. Who you putting as the judge? Who you putting as the city attorney? Who you putting as the district attorney? They are the ones who are hitting the gavel and they are the ones that are recommending the time we spend in jail.”