A brief history of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry mixing racism with criminal justice

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is really having a rough couple of weeks.

Last week Landry was called out for his loathsome and completely racist criminal justice themed campaign ads last week by civil rights activists and Gambit’s own Clancy DuBos. Days later, Landry, who is sadly the state’s top — and arguably least competent — law enforcement official, got the negative campaign ad treatment himself, this time from fellow Republicans.

Of course, as anyone with even a passing familiarity with Landry knows, this isn’t the first time he’s said or done something openly racist. And this also isn’t the first time his record as attorney general has come under scrutiny. After all, who could forget when Landry was accused of not prosecuting an alleged pedophile because of family connections? Or when he protected a friend — who worked for Landry — accused of sexual harassment and then came after the Times-Picayune for reporting on it?

So in honor of Landry’s very bad couple of weeks, here’s a small sampling of the many times he has shown his racism while attorney general!

That time Jeff Landry came to the defense of a clearly racist bill targeting Black teens

Let’s start with a recent one! Earlier this year, the Louisiana House of Representatives passed a bill that would make public criminal records for juveniles in certain cases — even before they’ve had their day in court. While a bad idea generally since those records would end up haunting kids well into adulthood even if they were innocent, supporters made sure to put an added racist spin on it by limiting it to only East Baton Rouge, Orleans and Caddo parishes, which happen to be home to majority Black populations.

In a May 1 Letter to the Editor published in the Times-Picayune, Landry railed against the media for correctly pointing out the law was, by definition, racist. Hilariously, Landry seemed to confirm the Republican Party is also, by definition, the party of racists, when he noted an opinion piece in the paper “called this legislation ‘racist,’ yet failed to mention it was supported by both Democrats and Republicans.”

The time Jeff Landry referred to Black Lives Matter protesters as “armed thugs”

Back in January 2021, the National Association of Attorneys General sent a letter to the Department of Justice condemning the Jan. 6 insurrection. Almost all of the nation’s state AGs signed it.

But not Landry. Instead, he decided to send his own letter back to NAAG accusing them of “sending a message that some violence is acceptable,” the Louisiana Illuminator reported. He then went on to accuse Black Lives Matter and other peaceful civil rights protesters of being “armed thugs.”

That time Jeff Landry called a civil rights consent decree designed to end NOPD discrimination against Black New Orleanians a “Hug-A-Thug” policy

In 2012, the Department of Justice entered into a civil rights consent decree with the New Orleans Police Department designed to end police brutality, corruption and racial discrimination at NOPD. Despite progress, all three of those problems continue to plague the deeply troubled police department.

Predictably, Landry has never been a fan of the consent decree, and over the years he’s taken several shots at it. In an October 2022 Letter to the Editor in The Times-Picayune, he argued “every aspect of law enforcement has been commandeered by these hug-a-thug policies and practices at the expense of our hard-working taxpayers, and too many lives have been lost due to ineffectual and ridiculous requirements.”

Remember when Jeff Landry called for a return of racist “stop and frisk” profiling by police?

So-called “stop-and-frisk” tactics by police have long been understood to be based in racist attitudes and disproportionally affecting Black Americans. In fact, many police forces specifically forbid its use now. Clearly, that doesn’t sit well with Landry.

He’s made a number of statements praising its use, but his 2017 WDSU interview on the topic stands out. In it, Landry called stop-and-frisk a “vital tool” of law enforcement and even acknowledged that it may violate Black New Orleanians’ civil rights — which he is OK with. “I'm willing, as a law enforcement officer, to understand that there are limitations” to civil rights, he said.

Who can forget the time Jeff Landry was totally fine with the police killing of Alton Sterling?

In 2016, Baton Rouge police shot in the back and killed Alton Sterling, a Black man, while he was on the ground at a convenience store. His death outraged the Black community and civil rights activists. But two years later, Landry announced neither of the two officers involved in the killing would face charges. At the time, he claimed there was insufficient evidence that they’d used inappropriate force and, in fact, defended their actions, calling them “reasonable and justifiable.”

The city and East Baton Rouge Parish eventually paid Sterling’s family $4.5 million to settle a civil rights suit.

And, of course, those times Jeff Landry defended a Jim Crow-era policy designed to make it easier to put Black people in jail

In 1898, a group of white “delegates” met to hold a constitution convention designed to overhaul Louisiana’s legal system. The explicit goal of that effort was to "reestablish the supremacy of the white race." One of the changes they made was the creation of non-unanimous jury decisions.

For more than 100 years, that law would imprison thousands of Black people. After a Pulitzer Prize winning exposé of the law by The Times-Picayune, the legislature passed then Sen. JP Morrell's measure to hold a statewide referendum on the jury system, and voters in 2018 finally ended the racist practice. Landry, naturally, opposed ending the practice. And even after voters spoke on the issue, he’s continued to defend its use as constitutional — even as he has admitted it was written specifically to support white supremacy.