“Make no mistake: Ron Greene was murdered at the hands of Louisiana State Police,” civil rights attorney Ron Haley said.

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana State Police troopers involved in the violent arrest of a Black motorist who died in police custody in 2019 should be immediately fired and charged with crimes, leaders of the National Urban League and other civil rights groups said Thursday.

Marc Morial, the national president of the Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans, was joined by other state and local civil rights groups in calling for action during an online news conference. Their remarks came just a week after The Associated Press obtained and published body camera video that appears to contradict at least one trooper’s statement that Ronald Greene continued to be a threat even after he was restrained, which justified the troopers’ use of force.

“Mr. Greene was killed by these state troopers,” Morial said after playing an Associated Press video report that included an interview with an expert on police use of force. “After seeing that video, no reasonable person could come to any other conclusion other than a crime has been committed by Louisiana state troopers.”

Civil rights attorney Ron Haley added, “Make no mistake: Ron Greene was murdered at the hands of Louisiana State Police.”

Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, appeared at the news conference with family attorney Lee Merritt, who said they had met with a state legislator as well as previously appealed to the governor’s office and district attorney to ask a judge to issue an arrest warrant for the troopers. Merritt said they were told to trust the process and await the results of a federal investigation.

“No one has delivered any specific action,” Merritt said. “We believe in equal protection under the law. And we know if a white citizen, a fellow police officer, the governor’s child, had met the same end that Ronald Greene met, there would be action by now. ”

Hardin thanked Morial and others attending the news conference.

“We need help,” she said. “We need someone’s attention … to move these mountains.”

Various activists and members of Greene’s family also planned to march at a rally seeking justice at the state Capitol in Baton Rouge on Thursday afternoon. After remarks on the Capitol steps, the group plans to march to the Governor’s Mansion.

The video obtained by the AP and later released by state police shows troopers stunning, beating and choking Greene, 49, following an automobile chase and crash in northeast Louisiana in May 2019.

Greene’s family was initially told that he died in the car crash. State police later issued a brief statement acknowledging there was a struggle with officers and that Greene died on the way to the hospital. Since then, Greene’s death has come under investigation by state and federal authorities. It also is the subject of a lawsuit.

The video shows troopers converging on Greene’s car outside Monroe, Louisiana, after a high-speed chase that followed an unspecified traffic violation. Troopers can be seen repeatedly jolting the 49-year-old unarmed man with stun devices, putting him in a chokehold, punching him in the head and dragging him by his ankle shackles.

He also was placed facedown on the ground for more than nine minutes while restrained — a tactic use-of-force experts criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing.

An autopsy cited the restraint and an “inflicted head injury” as factors in Greene’s death, along with cocaine-induced delirium and other injuries that might have been the result of the car crash.

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Brian Sicknick was one of the on-duty officers badly outnumbered by the mob who stormed the building, smashing windows and breaking through barriers.

WASHINGTON —Brian Sicknick’s family wants to uncover every detail about the Jan. 6 insurrection by pro-Trump rioters, when the Capitol Police officer collapsed and later died. They can’t understand why lawmakers do not.

Sicknick was one of the on-duty officers badly outnumbered by the mob who stormed the building, smashing windows and breaking through barriers. He was sprayed with a chemical, collapsed and later had a stroke and died. Two other officers took their own lives in the days afterward, and dozens more were hurt — including one officer who had a heart attack and others who suffered traumatic brain injuries and permanent disabilities. Some may never return to the job.

“He was just there for our country,” his mother Gladys said. “He just was doing his job and he got caught up. It’s very sad.”

She and his girlfriend Sandra Garza made an extraordinary push Thursday with Republican lawmakers who are likely to vote down the creation of an independent commission to investigate the deadly siege by President Donald Trump’s supporters, meeting with several senators though the effort is likely doomed.

“I’m usually staying in the background,” Gladys Sicknick said. “I couldn’t stay quiet anymore.”

The Capitol Police are caught in the middle of a political firestorm involving the lawmakers they are sworn to protect. Congressional leaders are fighting over security, money, leadership and staffing at the police force following the failure of the Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies to prepare for and hold back the massive mob in the most violent domestic attack on Congress in history.

The House last week narrowly approved $1.9 billion to bolster security at the Capitol, with Democrats pushing past Republican opposition to harden the complex with retractable fencing and a quick-response force. And the House approved the commission to investigate the deadly siege.

But Senate Republicans on Thursday were ready to deploy the filibuster to block the commission, shattering chances for a bipartisan probe of the deadly assault. Most Republicans oppose the bill that would establish a commission to investigate the attack by Trump supporters in a failed attempt to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s election, part of a growing trend in the GOP to diminish the violence and horror of the day.

There have been several oversight hearings, largely focusing on law enforcement failures. The top watchdog for the department testified recently that the police force needed a “cultural change,” pointing to inadequate training and outdated weaponry as among several urgent problems facing the force. A nationwide search is underway for a permanent police chief. The department’s acting chief, Yogananda Pittman, was in charge of intelligence when the riot occurred and has faced a vote of no confidence from her own officers.

For Sicknick’s girlfriend, Garza, it’s been an excruciating time. She and Gladys Sicknick were joined at the Capitol on Thursday by a Capitol police officer and a Metropolitan police officer, both of whom have spoken out publicly about the day, and former Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia.

“It’s very obvious that this was not a peaceful day,” Garza said. “Police officers were being attacked.”

Garza also spoke of how some celebrated the medical examiner’s ruling in her boyfriend’s death that found he suffered a stroke and died from natural causes. Two men have been charged with assaulting Sicknick and another officer, and the U.S. Capitol Police said that the agency accepted the medical examiner’s findings but that the ruling didn’t change the fact that Sicknick had died in the line of duty.

“It was very hard to deal with the ambiguity of not knowing what happened to Brian,” Garza said. “It was also very hard to know that his last moments on earth were dealing with what he had to deal with.”

Unlike a traditional municipal law enforcement agency that polices the community at large, Capitol Police officers are solely responsible for protecting Congress and the hallowed building, which makes the infighting in Congress about their future even more strained.

It’s also prompted a handful of officers to speak out publicly and directly lobby lawmakers, highly unusual moves that have involved going around their leadership. One officer has spoken out on television. Others have quietly talked to the media.

Last week, a letter released by a House Democrat was signed by “proud members of the United States Capitol Police” and lashed out at some lawmakers downplaying or lying about the dangers they faced during the insurrection. About 50 people signed onto the letter before it was released, a fraction of the department’s 2,000 officers.

The missive, on Capitol Police letterhead, was delivered to the office of Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, and was circulated to top staffers in the House by his office. Raskin said in an interview last week that the officers approached his office, and that they and their families have been traumatized about what happened on the 6th. Raskin said “they can’t believe there is dissension in the Congress” about the simple facts of the insurrection.

“It is inconceivable that some of the Members we protect would downplay the events of January 6th,” the letter reads. “It is a privileged assumption for Members to have the point of view that ‘it wasn’t that bad.’ That privilege exists because the brave men and women of the USCP protected you, the Members.”

The letter was quickly disavowed by Capitol Police leaders, who said the agency doesn’t take any position on legislative matters. They said in a statement that the letter was not an official statement from the department and that it had “no way of confirming it was even authored by USCP personnel.”

Federal prosecutors have charged more than 400 people in the wake of the riot, the largest undertaking in the Justice Department’s history. Trump was impeached again for his role in the insurrection but was acquitted of inciting the mob to violence.

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Nomaan Merchant, Michael Balsamo and Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.

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The Republican offer would increase spending by $91 billion on roads and bridges, $48 billion on water resources and $25 billion on airports, according to a one-page summary released by the GOP negotiators. I

WASHINGTON — Republican senators outlined a $928 billion infrastructure proposal Thursday that would tap unused coronavirus aid, a counteroffer to President Joe Biden’s more sweeping plan as the two sides struggle to negotiate a bipartisan compromise and remain far apart on how to pay for the massive spending.

The Republican offer would increase spending by $91 billion on roads and bridges, $48 billion on water resources and $25 billion on airports, according to a one-page summary released by the GOP negotiators. It also would provide for one-time increases in broadband investments, at $65 billion, and $22 billion on rail.

Republicans have rejected Biden’s proposed corporate tax increase to pay for new investments, and instead want to shift unspent COVID-19 relief dollars to help cover the costs.

“It’s a serious effort to try to reach a bipartisan agreement,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the lead GOP negotiator.

The Republican senators said their offer delivers on “core infrastructure investments” that Biden has focused on as areas of potential bipartisan agreement. But their overall approach, up from an initial $568 billion bid, received a cool response by Democrats and the White House.

With about $250 billion in new spending, the GOP plan falls short of the more ambitious proposal outlined in the president’s American Jobs Plan. In earlier negotiations. Biden reduced his $2.3 trillion opening bid to $1.7 trillion.

Biden, in an economic address later Thursday in Cleveland, planned to present “head-on” the choice before Congress and the country, according to a White House official, and will frame the argument as whether Americans want to keep giving breaks to corporations or invest in modernizing infrastructure. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss Biden’s remarks before the president’s speech and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Investing in infrastructure is a top legislative priority for Biden. Talks are at a crossroads before a Memorial Day deadline to make progress toward a bipartisan deal. The White House is assessing whether the president can strike the contours of an agreement with Republicans or whether he will try to go it alone with Democrats if no progress is made in the coming days.

Core differences remain over the definition of infrastructure: Republicans stick to traditional investments in roads, bridges, ports and water drinking systems, while Biden takes a more expansive view.

Under Biden’s initial proposal, there is more than $300 billion for substantial upgrades to public schools, Veterans Administration hospitals and affordable housing, along with $25 billion for new and renovated child care centers.

Biden’s proposal would spend heavily on efforts to confront climate change, with $174 billion to spur the electric vehicle market, in part by developing charging stations, and $50 billion so communities can better deal with floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.

One area of agreement is on boosting broadband, but the sides are apart on details. Republicans raised their initial offer to $65 billion in an earlier exchange; Biden is seeking $100 billion.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said the Republicans’ proposal reflects what “what people at home in Wyoming think of is infrastructure, roads with potholes.”

The White House, still expressing public hopes for bipartisanship, welcomed the GOP offer. But it was greeted with some initial coolness inside the West Wing.

Aides have for days signaled that using COVID-19 relief money was a nonstarter, noting that much of that money has been allocated and suggesting that the rest should be held in reserve for future virus-related costs.

There was also skepticism about how the Republicans claimed Biden has signaled agreement to a $1.2 trillion deal in a recent meeting — a claim the White House disputed.

At $928 billion over eight years, the new GOP offer features $257 billion in new money, more than the $225 billion the White House had said was in the initial Republican proposal. But still far less than the White House had hoped.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said there is $700 billion in unspent COVID-19 aid from the American Rescue Plan, which was the administration’s $1.9 trillion response to the coronavirus crisis earlier this year.

Toomey said some of that money could fill the gap between the amount of revenue normally collected from transportation taxes and fees, and the new spending the GOP senators are proposing.

But he said the Republican negotiators have made it “very, very clear on every single time we’ve had a discussion is that we’re not raising taxes.”

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As former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin waits to be sentenced for killing George Floyd, it’s worth remembering what happened in Chicago after a jury convicted a white police officer in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

CHICAGO — Throughout the murder trial, prosecutors showed jurors the video seen countless times around the world of the white police officer killing a Black male. And when it was over, the jurors found the officer guilty of murder.

That was in 2018. Now, as former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin waits to be sentenced for killing George Floyd, it’s worth remembering what happened in Chicago after a jury convicted a white police officer in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald: The judge didn’t follow prosecutors’ recommended 18-20 years behind bars. Former officer Jason Van Dyke got a more lenient sentence — and might be released from prison in about three years.

It’s possible things have changed. Floyd’s horrific death touched off mass protests and calls for police reform that have rippled across the U.S. and in Congress. Chauvin could end up the exception, with a sentence of 30 years behind bars, particularly after the judge who will sentence him agreed Chauvin had committed particular cruelty in Floyd’s death. But if history is any indication, a slam-dunk sentence is not guaranteed.

That was filmmaker Spike Lee’s point when, shortly after the verdict, he said on CNN that he started worrying as soon as “I heard the judge would be the one (who) would be the one that handed out the sentence.” The jury, he said, “got it right, but we don’t know what this judge (will decide).”

Much has been written about how rare it is for a police officer to be charged for an on-duty killing. Philip Stinson, a Bowling Green University criminal justice professor who tracks police prosecutions, has found that since 2005, just 142 non-federal police officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter for on-duty shootings.

Chauvin is part of an even smaller roster of officers who have actually been convicted in on-duty killings: According to Stinson’s count, Chauvin is just the eighth officer convicted of murder for an on-duty killing.

The officers convicted of murder for on-duty shootings were sentenced to an average of 16.4 years in prison, Stinson found. In comparison, the average sentence for a murder conviction in the United States was, just over 48.8 years as of 2018, according to a report released this year by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The average time they spend behind bars can be considerably less than that. Depending on the state, convicted felons can have as much as half their sentence lopped off if they behave themselves in prison. In Minnesota, the presumption is that defendants with good behavior will serve two-thirds of their sentences before they are released on parole.

What that means, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, is that the people who received decades-long sentences for murder or non-negligent manslaughter actually served an average of 17.8 years in state prison before they were released.

For police officers, it often translates to less than a decade behind bars. In Texas, for example, when a former Balch Springs police officer convicted of murder in the shooting death of an unarmed Black teenager was sentenced in 2018 to 15 years in prison, he knew he’d be eligible for parole after serving 7.5 years.

That helps explain why in Illinois, Van Dyke’s attorney sounded more like he’d won the case than lost it when the judge handed down what amounts to a three-year sentence.

“He truly felt great. I mean, he was not just relieved, he was happy …” attorney Dan Herbert told reporters.

Under Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines, Chauvin will only be sentenced for the most serious charge — second-degree murder — in Floyd’s 2020 death. That meant that at the time Chauvin was convicted he faced a presumptive sentence of 12 1/2 years in prison, with the judge limited to sentencing him between 10 years and eight months to 15 years.

But in May, Judge Peter Cahill ruled that there Chauvin abused his authority as a police officer when he restrained Floyd in 2020 and that he treated Floyd with particular cruelty — aggravating factors that add much more more prison time.

The reasons why police officers seem to catch such a break at sentencing begin with one of the first things a prosecutor typically points to when asking for a stiff prison sentence: the defendant’s criminal history.

That, however, runs up against the reality that police officers rarely have any criminal history, for the simple reason that felony convictions get officers fired or prevent them from getting hired in the first place.

“Sentences can go way up if someone has a felony record,” said Robert Weisberg, a law professor at Stanford University and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. “Chauvin doesn’t have that.”

And there’s another argument: “Officers who otherwise have lived a lawful life can make a really strong argument that a long prison sentence isn’t necessary to protect the public, that he … won’t be a threat to public safety,” said Joseph McMahon, the special prosecutor who successfully prosecuted Van Dyke.

Chauvin, his attorneys can argue, won’t commit a similar crime because he’s no longer a police officer.

That’s what a California judge said when he didn’t follow a prosecutor’s request to sentence a former police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a 2015 fatal shooting to four years in prison in favor of 180 days in jail and three years’ probation.

“He has absolutely no prior criminal record, the crime was committed because of very unusual, somewhat bizarre circumstances, which is very unlikely — in fact — will never occur again,” Butte County Judge James F. Reilley said of former Paradise Police officer Patrick Feaster.

That doesn’t mean prosecutors are defenseless, though.

During Van Dyke’s sentencing hearing, McMahon made sure the judge knew about his past, even if that past did not include any convictions.

“I went through all the prior complaints against Jason Van Dyke and even though every one of was (determined to be) unfounded by Chicago Police, I found those individuals all across the country and had them testify about their experiences.”

People like a Black man named Edward Nance. During Van Dyke’s sentencing hearing, Nance tearfully recounted the day Van Dyke pulled him from his car, handcuffed him behind his back and dragged him to his squad car violently enough to rip rotator cuffs. Nance spoke of his constant physical pain, multiple surgeries, and anxiety and depression that more than a decade later made it impossible to sleep through the night.

That is the “kind of witness” available to Minnesota prosecutors if they wish, said McMahon.

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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

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“Make no mistake: Ron Greene was murdered at the hands of Louisiana State Police,” civil rights attorney Ron Haley said.

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana State Police troopers involved in the violent arrest of a Black motorist who died in police custody in 2019 should be fired and arrested, leaders of the National Urban League and other civil rights groups said Thursday.

Marc Morial, the national president of the Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans, discussed the arrest and death of Ronald Greene at a morning news conference with other state and local civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP.

“Mr. Greene was killed by these state troopers,” Morial said after reviewing an Associated Press video report that included an interview with an expert on police use of force. “After seeing that video, no reasonable person could come to any other conclusion other than a crime has been committed by Louisiana state troopers.”

Civil rights attorney Ron Haley added, “Make no mistake: Ron Greene was murdered at the hands of Louisiana State Police.”

Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, appeared at the news conference with family attorney Lee Merritt, who said they had met with a state legislator as well as previously appealed to the governor’s office and district attorney to ask a judge to issue an arrest warrant for the troopers. Merritt said they were told to trust the process and await the results of a federal investigation.

“No one has delivered any specific action,” Merritt said. “We believe in equal protection under the law. And we know if a white citizen, a fellow police officer, the governor’s child, had met the same end that Ronald Greene met, there would be action by now. ”

Hardin thanked Morial and others attending the news conference.

“We need help,” she said. “We need someone’s attention to help, to move these mountains.”

Video obtained by the AP and later released by state police shows troopers stunning, beating and choking Greene, 49, following an automobile chase and crash in northeast Louisiana in May 2019.

Greene’s family was initially told that he died in the car crash. State police later issued a brief statement acknowledging there was a struggle with officers and that Greene died on the way to the hospital. Since then, Greene’s death has come under investigation by state and federal authorities. It also is the subject of a lawsuit.

The video shows troopers converging on Greene’s car outside Monroe, Louisiana, after a high-speed chase that followed an unspecified traffic violation. Troopers can be seen repeatedly jolting the 49-year-old unarmed man with stun devices, putting him in a chokehold, punching him in the head and dragging him by his ankle shackles.

He also was placed facedown on the ground for more than nine minutes while restrained — a tactic use-of-force experts criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing.

An autopsy cited the restraint and an “inflicted head injury” as factors in Greene’s death, along with cocaine-induced delirium and other injuries that might have been the result of the car crash.

The ACLU of Louisiana said the afternoon rally will include representatives of the NAACP of Louisiana and Greene’s family. After remarks on the Capitol steps, the group plans a march to the Governor’s Mansion.

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Scholarship athletes would be granted employee status and both public and private colleges would deemed their employers.

College athletes would have the right to organize and collectively bargain with schools and conferences under a bill introduced Thursday by Democrats in the House and Senate.

Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) announced the College Athletes Right to Organize Act.

A companion bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Andy Levin (Mich.) and Lori Trahan (Mass.). The bill would amend the National Labor Relations Act to define college athletes who receive direct grant-in-aid from their schools as employees.

A movement at Northwestern to unionize college football players was rejected by the National Labor Relations Board in 2015.

Murphy and Trahan are among several federal lawmakers from both parties who have previously introduced legislation related to college athletes being permitted to earn money for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).

The NCAA has turned to Congress for help as it tries to reform its rules to allow athletes to be paid for endorsements, personal appearances and autograph signings.

Several states, including Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, have laws scheduled to take effect July 1 that would open the NIL market to college athletes.

The NCAA hopes to have new rules in place by July 1 as well.

The NCAA’s proposals regarding NIL would allow athletes to enter financial arrangements with third parties. Schools would be banned from being involved in the transactions.

While the NCAA has loosened restrictions on how athletes can be compensated over the years, it has held firm to notion they are not employees.

The latest bill by Murphy, who has been one of the most vocal advocates for college athlete rights on Capitol Hill, would upend the college model.

Scholarship athletes would be granted employee status and both public and private colleges would deemed their employers under an amended NLRA.

The NLRB would consider colleges within a conference part of a “bargaining unit.”

The bill would also protect the tax status of athletic scholarships and other benefits, and prohibit schools from asking athletes to waive the right to collectively bargain.

“Big-time college sports haven’t been ‘amateur’ for a long time, and the NCAA has long denied its players economic and bargaining rights while treating them like commodities,” Murphy said in a statement. “Having the right to do so will help athletes get the pay and protections they deserve and forces the NCAA to treat them as equals rather than second-class citizens. It’s a civil rights issue, and a matter of basic fairness.”

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The Cuban Baseball Federation identified the player as 22-year-old César Prieto.

HAVANA — The Cuban Baseball Federation confirmed Wednesday night that one of the players on the national team defected a few hours after the squad arrived in Florida to participate in a qualifying tournament for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

The organization identified the player as César Prieto, 22.

“His decision, contrary to the commitment made to the people and the team, has generated disdain among his peers and other members of the delegation,” the federation said.

The team arrived in Florida after months of struggling to obtain U.S. visas, for which the players filed applications in three other countries due to U.S. sanctions that prevented the U.S. Consulate in Havana from issuing the documents.

The permits were finally delivered Tuesday under a special effort made by the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

Eight nations — Cuba, the United States, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Colombia and Canada — will be battling for one spot in the six-team Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament. The tournament runs from May 31 to June 5 in West Palm Beach and Port St. Lucie, but exhibition matches are scheduled before that.

With three gold and two silver medals, Cuba has dominated Olympic baseball.

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Starting this week, season ticket holders will be able to renew their tickets. In mid-July, the school’s ticket lottery will begin and single-game tickets will be made available in mid-August.

Notre Dame is preparing for full capacity at home football games this fall.

The Irish say they’ll make all 77,622 seats at Notre Dame Stadium available for purchase and continue to consult with local health officials.

Starting this week, season ticket holders will be able to renew their tickets. In mid-July, the school’s ticket lottery will begin and single-game tickets will be made available in mid-August.

Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick says based on information from health officials the university will decide what protocols and procedures will be needed to keep everybody safe.

Notre Dame is already requiring students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated before returning to campus for the upcoming school year.

Swarbrick says he’s optimistic that conditions will allow for the resumption of outdoor game-day traditions, such as tailgating and the football player walk.

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