After Baton Rouge Union of Police leaders launched a billboard campaign last year criticizing the police chief and his administration, the Louisiana NAACP is responding with competing signage overlooking a major local thoroughfare.
While union leaders have expressed several viewpoints with their signs — including advocating for higher wages, bemoaning the high homicide rate and calling for better department leadership — the NAACP has a single demand: cancel the BRPD union contract.
A digital billboard posted Wednesday morning alongside Interstate 10 near College Drive invites people to visit a new website: www.endthecontract.com.
"Fix police union leadership," the sign says. "The time is now."
BRPD reorganization, pay increase reignite battles between police chief and union leaders
NAACP leaders argue the union contract serves to validate an institution that has pledged unwavering support to officers accused of serious misconduct. The group emphasized being generally supportive of labor unions, but against what they consider poor leadership at the BRPD union.
"Union leadership has consistently defended the wrongdoing of bad officers," said Eugene Collins with the Baton Rouge NAACP. "We believe that canceling the union contract will make officers behave better."
The new billboard comes amid a widening corruption probe focused on the BRPD narcotics division, where two detectives were recently arrested and four supervisors were transferred, effectively cutting the division in half. East Baton Rouge prosecutors have already dropped charges against more than a dozen defendants with ongoing cases that hinge on testimony from the arrested detectives.
Alleged corruption in BRPD narcotics unit includes stolen drugs, illegal searches, planted evidence
Several months ago, the union treasurer — an officer with two decades of experience on the force — resigned from the department after other union members alerted the BRPD administration to a series of racist messages he posted on a local blog. He had been elected treasurer after campaigning on a platform of transparency and accountability, promising to be more open about how union funds are spent.
Meanwhile, BRPD Chief Murphy Paul has picked his own battles with union leaders in recent months, partly in response to the union billboard campaign.
Paul fired the union vice president, Siya Creel, for doing an unapproved interview about the billboards last summer with a former Baton Rouge television reporter. Creel sued the department claiming his free speech rights were violated and pointing out that leaders have previously been allowed free rein to give media interviews discussing union business, including under Paul. He argued his termination was retaliatory.
One of the issues discussed during a lengthy hearing in federal court earlier this month was whether Creel and others designed and coordinated the billboard campaign while on the clock — a fact the NAACP called "an atrocious showing of character."
Creel appealed his termination before the local civil service board. Both cases are ongoing.
In feud between BRPD chief and union leaders, federal judge refuses to undo officer's firing
The union president, Brandon Blust, also was recently issued a disciplinary suspension for untruthfulness, a serious policy violation, after Paul took issue with repeated scheduling conflicts while trying to meet with union leaders about an impending change to the promotion system. Paul said Blust repeatedly pushed back the meeting, then filed a grievance complaining about the prolonged timeline. He also appealed the suspension.
Those are just the latest sources of conflict between the chief and union leaders. The feud intensified after Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, who hired Paul after campaigning on a promise of police reform, described the union as an obstructionist force in her efforts to weed out the bad cops in Baton Rouge.
Union leaders, for their part, have long claimed that Paul will throw his officers under the bus to avoid public criticism. One of their billboards, located a short distance from department headquarters, said as much: "Defend the badge, not the criminal."
BRPD chief says firing of union vice president was not 'motivated by personal vendettas'
Now the NAACP is wading into the fray, offering its own sharp criticism.
"Baton Rouge Police Union leaders claim to back the blue, but the truth is they've left rank and file officers behind, promoted poor policing practices that protected bad cops and broke community trust," the group wrote on its new website. "They've played politics with our safety at every turn. And it's got to stop. Now."
While union leaders have expressed several viewpoints with their signs — including advocating for higher wages, bemoaning the high homicide rate and calling for better department leadership — the NAACP has a single demand: cancel the BRPD union contract.
A digital billboard posted Wednesday morning alongside Interstate 10 near College Drive invites people to visit a new website: www.endthecontract.com.
"Fix police union leadership," the sign says. "The time is now."
BRPD reorganization, pay increase reignite battles between police chief and union leaders
NAACP leaders argue the union contract serves to validate an institution that has pledged unwavering support to officers accused of serious misconduct. The group emphasized being generally supportive of labor unions, but against what they consider poor leadership at the BRPD union.
"Union leadership has consistently defended the wrongdoing of bad officers," said Eugene Collins with the Baton Rouge NAACP. "We believe that canceling the union contract will make officers behave better."
The new billboard comes amid a widening corruption probe focused on the BRPD narcotics division, where two detectives were recently arrested and four supervisors were transferred, effectively cutting the division in half. East Baton Rouge prosecutors have already dropped charges against more than a dozen defendants with ongoing cases that hinge on testimony from the arrested detectives.
Alleged corruption in BRPD narcotics unit includes stolen drugs, illegal searches, planted evidence
Several months ago, the union treasurer — an officer with two decades of experience on the force — resigned from the department after other union members alerted the BRPD administration to a series of racist messages he posted on a local blog. He had been elected treasurer after campaigning on a platform of transparency and accountability, promising to be more open about how union funds are spent.
Meanwhile, BRPD Chief Murphy Paul has picked his own battles with union leaders in recent months, partly in response to the union billboard campaign.
Paul fired the union vice president, Siya Creel, for doing an unapproved interview about the billboards last summer with a former Baton Rouge television reporter. Creel sued the department claiming his free speech rights were violated and pointing out that leaders have previously been allowed free rein to give media interviews discussing union business, including under Paul. He argued his termination was retaliatory.
One of the issues discussed during a lengthy hearing in federal court earlier this month was whether Creel and others designed and coordinated the billboard campaign while on the clock — a fact the NAACP called "an atrocious showing of character."
Creel appealed his termination before the local civil service board. Both cases are ongoing.
In feud between BRPD chief and union leaders, federal judge refuses to undo officer's firing
The union president, Brandon Blust, also was recently issued a disciplinary suspension for untruthfulness, a serious policy violation, after Paul took issue with repeated scheduling conflicts while trying to meet with union leaders about an impending change to the promotion system. Paul said Blust repeatedly pushed back the meeting, then filed a grievance complaining about the prolonged timeline. He also appealed the suspension.
Those are just the latest sources of conflict between the chief and union leaders. The feud intensified after Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, who hired Paul after campaigning on a promise of police reform, described the union as an obstructionist force in her efforts to weed out the bad cops in Baton Rouge.
Union leaders, for their part, have long claimed that Paul will throw his officers under the bus to avoid public criticism. One of their billboards, located a short distance from department headquarters, said as much: "Defend the badge, not the criminal."
BRPD chief says firing of union vice president was not 'motivated by personal vendettas'
Now the NAACP is wading into the fray, offering its own sharp criticism.
"Baton Rouge Police Union leaders claim to back the blue, but the truth is they've left rank and file officers behind, promoted poor policing practices that protected bad cops and broke community trust," the group wrote on its new website. "They've played politics with our safety at every turn. And it's got to stop. Now."
