A House committee approves a proposal to create a Police Training, Screening, and De-escalation Task Force. The panel will study police department policies and make recommendations on how they can be improved. Law enforcement supports the resolution and Baton Rouge Representative Denise Marcelle took note of that.
“I think that speaks volumes to the people in Louisiana that we are ready to come together and to address these issues that we are facing throughout the nation,” said Marcelle.
Baton Rouge Senator Cleo Fields is the author of the resolution and he says recent research shows black men are three times more likely than white men to be killed by police intervention. Prairieville Representative Tony Bacala is a retired deputy and made a statement that caused a brief uproar.
“Police officers died at a higher rate than anybody this country as far as….” said Bacala.
Bacala was not able to finish his statement as members of the public watching the meeting in the committee started making enough noise that committee chairman Ted James had to call for order.
Bacala finished his comments by saying he supports the resolution and believes the state needs to put a stop to police brutality.
“We need to have a way get rid of all of the bad apples, ” said Bacala. “Make sure bad cops don’t stay on the force and make sure somebody else doesn’t hire em once someone gets rid of em for excess force.”
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