By Jeff Thomas
With a barrage of bullets blasted into the sides of a car driven by suspected drug dealers, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Deputies killed two men last week. The men in the car never fired any weapons at the deputies, yet no review if the killing will occur. The notion that charges might be filed against the deputies is laughable, as they followed established protocol and were justified by department standards in these homicides.
The deputies claim the reason they were forced to fire twenty shots into the side of the vehicle is because the car backed up and hit an officer and bumped into one of their cruisers. The officer who was hit by the car did not require any medical attention. And the police car sustained only a minor dent. Yet according to Jefferson Parish policies, the very act of putting the car in reverse while being stopped by unmarked and plainclothes sheriff’s deputies is justification for the killing of two men.
Even though the passenger in the vehicle was unarmed and did nothing to provoke these deputies, the JPSO is also in no way liable for his death. In fact, under JPSO rules and parish law, had the driver lived but the passenger died after being shot by the deputies, the driver would be charged with manslaughter of the passenger. You see, the driver’s decision to put his car in reverse and bump an unmarked police pickup truck is a death sentence in Jefferson Parish. Parish efficiency is noteworthy in these cases, as deputies get to be judge, jury and executioner. Shucks, the JPSO might even try to sue the family and recoup the cost of the autopsy of the two killed men.
Except for the family of the slain men, not much has been mentioned about this latest shooting by JPSO deputies. Over the years, JPSO deputies have killed so many people under this use of force policy, that when two apparently unarmed men are killed after police stand on each side of their vehicle and repeatedly shoot into their car, nobody even stops to question their actions.
Understanding the policy and accepting its merits are two different things. That no legal charges will be filed against the officers who killed these two men is a known fact. But the basis for such a policy should be examined. Protecting the lives of officers is paramount for every department. The brave men and women who patrol our streets are allowed great latitude and discretion when they feel their lives are threatened. And they should be able to fully protect themselves in every instance.
But there is a pattern. JPSO deputies rely heavily on this policy to justify their shootings. That the department seeks to protect deputies from being run over by a moving vehicle is clearly the rationale behind this policy. And in the last four years when JPSO has shot and killed men who were in moving vehicles, they roll out this policy. Contradictorily , NOPD has a policy that explicitly prohibits this same behavior that JPSO uses to justify these killings by their officers.
In New Orleans, officers may shoot into a moving vehicle only if a secondary threat, like the driver or passenger pointing a gun, exists. In New Orleans, where no officer has even fired into a moving vehicle in the last 10 years, neither has any officer been run over and killed by a moving vehicle. In fact, never in the history of the department, much less the last ten years has any NOPD officer been killed by a perpetrator running over him/her with a car or truck. Though the same is true in Jefferson Parish, the fact that deputies shoot wildly into vehicles might be the reason why.
This “policy” seems more like an excuse to shoot than a safety measure to protect deputies, especially when passengers are fair game.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu