Three years ago, Adrian Perkins was riding high after defeating the incumbent to become mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana. He announced his candidacy while still a student at Harvard Law School when he was in his early 30s. The city’s Black majority was upbeat, but it appears that the former West Point graduate lacks both courage and conviction when it comes to police abuse. Compare and contrast his reaction to the police killing of an unarmed Black man with that of Minneapolis’ White mayor.
Following the assassination of George Floyd, Mayor Jacob Frey called for charges to be filed against the cops involved, who were then discharged. Frey introduced a number of new police procedures and backed the city’s $27 million civil settlement with George Floyd’s family.
Around the same time, a video showing Shreveport cops slapping and tasing Tommie McGlothen Jr. surfaced. The mentally ill, unarmed man died a few hours later. McGlothen’s death was not made public, and the SPD took nearly two months to provide the district attorney’s office with an allegedly incomplete file.
Mayor Perkins has spoken almost little regarding McGlothen’s death. Despite District Attorney James Stewart’s efforts to get a rare grand jury indictment against the officers involved, they are still on the Shreveport police department. The mayor has not joined other local officials in calling for increased police monitoring, and he continues to defend his police chief, whom he promoted despite the police union’s concerns and against the suggestion of the police chief selection committee. He’s mostly ignored the McGlothen family’s complaint and demand for a $25 million payment.
Black people have to wonder what good does it do to elect Black politicians if they are going to abandon the Black community when it is most vulnerable.
