*A Black Louisiana State Trooper has received a notice of termination after speaking publicly about police brutality.
Carl Cavalier, 33, is being canned for discussing the case of Ronald Greene, a Black man who died in State Police custody in 2019. Cavalier has also shared with the media his own treatment within the force. Now he’s being fired, with State Police Superintendent Lamar Davis claiming Cavalier violated department policy for speaking out about Greene’s death.
Here’s more from The Washington Post:
Some graphic details from the 2019 incident had rippled through the department. “It’s worse than George Floyd,” Cavalier recalled one investigator on the case saying. Cavalier spent months quietly trying to figure out what happened and why the department had not disclosed more. When video later emerged in May showing troopers beating the motorist, Ronald Greene, Cavalier gave his series of blistering news interviews accusing those involved of murder and alleging a “coverup” by police, a claim that the department officials have frequently sidestepped in public comments about the matter.
“There are killers,” Cavalier told one local news outlet, “and there are people who are okay with the killers being on the job.”
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In an Oct. 11 letter Cavalier shared with The Washington Post, officials “accused him of conduct unbecoming of an officer,” per the report.
“Trooper Cavalier received the decision of the appointing authority to move forward with termination based on an administrative investigation which revealed he violated several departmental policies,” Louisiana State Police spokeswoman Melissa Matey said in an emailed statement to The Post. “It should be noted that our disciplinary administrative process is not finalized and Cavalier remains an employee at this time.”
As reported by Complex, Cavalier wrote a book under a pseudonym about the hostile treatment he endured with the department. The seven-year LSP vet also “filed a lawsuit on Sept. 30 against the Louisiana State Police, alleging that he was treated unfairly starting in 2018 over issuing a traffic ticket to a Houma police officer,” the outlet writes.
“After issuing a ticket to a narcotics officer with the Houma Police Department, Petitioner’s supervisors began subjecting all tickets and reports to additional scrutiny,” Cavalier wrote in his petition. “Including, but not limited to, watching body-worn camera video not related to use of force, requesting that incident reports be edited and/or rewritten, receiving harsh criticism over minor issues where other LSP commissioned officers were not reprimanded.”
Cavalier said after he filed an internal grievance regarding his alleged discrimination, he was transferred and demoted, according to NOLA.com.
He is seeking unspecified damages in his lawsuit and job reinstatement.
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