Roland Greene
This year had its share of big stories in Louisiana with the investigation into the 2019 State Police custody death of Ronald Greene ranked as our top story of 2022. Federal prosecutors refused to pursue charges against the officers involved, but five officers are facing state charges. Greene’s mother Mona Hardin felt some relief.
“Even though I’m glad for the arrests, it’s what you are going to make out of these arrests, there needs to be substantial time for a cop who murders while in uniform, they need to be held accountable,” said Hardin.
A special legislative committee held several hearings looking at how State Police attempted to cover-up the investigation into Greene’s death. There are questions of what Governor John Bel Edwards knew and when did he know about the beating Greene took from officers before he died.
“There are implications that I knew more or that one or more of my staff members tried to cover up what happened, I will say that is simply and categorically false,” said Edwards.
The resignation of Department of Children and Family Services Secretary Marketa Garner Walters was another major story. Two Baton rouge toddlers died in a four-month span from drug overdose deaths. In both cases, DCFS received warnings the children were in danger. Governor Edwards defended Walters’ before he no longer could.
“Obviously there were failures in terms of the implementation of new policies and procedures, those things didn’t happen, we are still working to get to the bottom of em, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it that was an absolute failure” said Edwards.
It was a big year for pro life advocates who saw abortion become illegal in most cases in Louisiana as a result of legislation passed that went into effect after Roe Versus Wade was overturned.
“Louisiana is on record as a respect life state, abortion is effectively ended in the state of Louisiana,” said Gene Mills president of the Louisiana Family Forum.
Kathaleen Pittman was a long-time administrator at a Shreveport abortion clinic that shut down for good in August.
“Right before I was on the phone with a mom sobbing because we can’t see her daughter within the next couple of weeks, so it’s been difficult, it’s been difficult on the patient and on the staff,” said Pittman.
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