Gov. John Bel Edwards on Friday said he agreed with New Orleans police using tear gas against protesters Wednesday night on the Crescent City Connection bridge.
“I believe that it was (reasonable) in light of all of the circumstances there,” Edwards said at a press conference, “and it was done ultimately for the safety and protection for the people who needed to clear that area.”
“It certainly wasn’t done in a way to try to escalate the situation,” he added.
Up to a moment, it seemed there might be a repeat of Tuesday night's peaceful protest.
New Orleans police launched tear gas to disperse a crowd on the bridge Wednesday night, a decision that drew condemnation from activists who turned out to demonstrate again Thursday. Police leaders defended the idea as necessary to avoid a dangerous confrontation.
Video recorded on the Crescent City Connection bridge on Wednesday night shows projectiles fired from New Orleans police lines whizzing past r…
The protests in New Orleans have drawn thousands, part of a nationwide movement against police brutality that has dominated the national conversation over the past week and led to violent confrontations with police in some cities. Until Wednesday, when police launched the tear gas – and apparently fired rubber bullets, according to video and protesters’ accounts – the demonstrations in New Orleans were peaceful.
Edwards, a Democrat from Amite, has deep family roots in law enforcement. His brother, Daniel Edwards, is sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish.
Edwards on Friday again declined to offer his opinion on President Donald Trump’s response to the protests across the country. The Democratic governor, who won reelection last year despite Trump campaigning against him, has largely played up a good working relationship with Trump. After the president slammed governors for what he saw as a weak response to protests earlier this week, and urged them to crack down with force, Edwards declined to address the remarks, instead pointing to peaceful demonstrations in Louisiana.
The ACLU of Louisiana on Thursday condemned the actions of the New Orleans Police Department after officers Wednesday night shot tear gas into…
The governor has also said he doesn’t foresee deploying the National Guard to demonstrations here.
A group of protesters in Baton Rouge on Friday marched from downtown to the State Capitol, where they gathered on the Capitol steps and kneeled silently for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time prosecutors say a policeman held his knee on the neck of George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
